Loser: Duke Blue Devils (No. 10 down to No. 17)
When describing Duke’s season, I like to use the phrase ‘one step forward, two steps back.’ It’s been one of those years for the Blue Devils. One week they’ll look like a No. 1 or No. 2 seed and then there’s times, like in Week 16, when the Blue Devils look like nothing more than a No. 5 seed, at best.
Mike Krzyzewski has one of his youngest teams in recent memory and outside of Grayson Allen and Amile Jefferson, there really is no veteran leadership. Is the youth beginning to show signs of fatigue at this point in the season or are the Blue Devils just going through a minor rough patch?
Before Week 16, Duke was on a roll, winning seven straight games, including victories over North Carolina, Virginia and Notre Dame. They went from the teens all the way up to No. 10 in the AP Poll and it looked as if the Blue Devils were playing themselves into a top-two or three seed in the NCAA Tournament with the finish to their season.
However, Syracuse and Miami had their number in Week 16. The Orange took the Blue Devils down to the wire, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer with no time remaining. Miami held Duke to just 50 points, winning by five.
It’s time for this team to wake up and not show signs of weakness at this point in the season. The Blue Devils are supremely talented and should be a Final Four favorite, but not if they played like they did in Week 16, dropping them to No. 17 in the polls.