The West Regional Semifinal in San Francisco between two-seed Duke and three-seed Texas Tech featured an incredibly intriguing coaching matchup that dominated the leadup to the game.
The Duke Blue Devils’ head coach is 75-year old Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, who has led the team to five national titles over 42 seasons. He announced that he would be retiring in the offseason after this season.
The Texas Tech Red Raiders’ head coach is 65-year old Mark Adams, a defensive guru. Adams is in his first year as a head coach of a Division I basketball program, after 41 years of coaching experience at various levels.
Despite the different paths they took, both coaches had the same goal on Thursday night: to survive and advance to the Elite Eight.
Duke (31-6) ensured their legendary coach’s career would extend for at least one more game with a thrilling 78-73 win. The game featured 11 ties and 13 lead changes, but the Blue Devils prevailed to give Coach Krzyzewski his record 100th career tournament win.
“What a game,” Krzyzewski said at the postgame press conference as he laughed. “What a tremendous game.”
Texas Tech (27-10) had one of the nation’s highest-rated defenses and led for over 26 minutes of the game compared to Duke’s 8:31.
However, the Blue Devils led when the clock hit zero, so they will advance to play fourth-seeded Arkansas in an Elite Eight game on Saturday night. If Duke beats Arkansas, coach Krzyzewski would be making a record 13th appearance in the Final Four.
The Red Raiders led 68-66 with 3:19 remaining before the Blue Devils went on a 7-0 run. The run started with a three-pointer from their freshman star forward, Paolo Banchero. It was capped by two clutch jump shots from sophomore guard Jeremy Roach.
Duke added two pairs of free throws and made some key defensive stops in the final minute to end the Red Raiders season.
Banchero led Duke with 22 points, sophomore Mark Williams added 16, and Roach scored 15 as the Blue Devils scored on 12 of their final 15 possessions and made their last eight shot attempts.
“I would say all year in the biggest moments, we’ve always stepped up, and there’s no bigger moment than this,” Banchero said. “I don’t know about these guys, but I’ve never played in a basketball game like that.”
Three seniors led Texas Tech. Kevin Obanor had his sixth double-double in six career tournament games with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Bryson Williams scored a team-high 21 points, and Kevin McCullar added 17 for the Red Raiders.
Texas Tech’s lineup featured a combined 20 seasons of college basketball experience and five players that have played in at least 120 games.
“I think there’s a Bible verse that says you mourn with those who mourn and celebrate those who celebrate,” Tech’s coach Adams said after the loss. “And we’re going to have a lot of time to celebrate. This has been an unbelievable year, but I have a lot of guys tearing up in that locker room. So this is a time that we’ll mourn a little bit.”
The Red Raiders’ experience gave them an edge early as they raced to a 10-2 lead. However, the young but talented Blue Devils responded with their own 10-2 run to tie the game at 12.
Texas Tech still led for most of the first half and went into the halftime break with a 33-29 lead. The game flipped in the second half as Duke switched their defensive strategy and caused Texas Tech to go two minutes without scoring a point.
That was the opening Duke needed, as they scored nine points during the Red Raiders drought to take a 49-47 lead with 11:37 remaining. The two teams traded shots back and forth the remainder of the game, but the Blue Devils had too much firepower down the stretch.
After Banchero made the three to give Duke the two-point lead with just over three minutes remaining, the Blue Devils had made nearly 70% of their second-half shot attempts.
“When you’re playing a team like Duke that has so much firepower on their offensive end and a lot of guys that can do a lot of great things on the floor one-on-one, it’s always going to be hard to stop,” Tech’s Williams said about Duke’s hot shooting late in the game. “Those guys had momentum going into it the end of the game, and they took fully advantage of it, so just hats off to them.”
Duke has now reached the Elite Eight in each of its last three NCAA tournament appearances (2018, 2019, 2022).
When the game was out of reach for the Red Raiders, Krzyzewski gave an emphatic fist pump to celebrate his 17th career trip to the Elite Eight.
For the Red Raiders, the season still exceeded expectations after the departure of their former coach Chris Beard to the Texas Longhorns. Adams brought in four senior transfers after taking over and led Texas Tech to its third Sweet 16 appearance in the past four tournaments.
“I thought it was an unbelievable year,” Adams said. “It’s just a team that just reached all kinds of heights no one ever thought was possible.”