Everybody's Taking (Good) Shots at Goliath

Gallery

Verizon Center Games

2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

Fifteenth-seeded programs don't take solace in staying close to an ACC power anymore. Their kids weep in the locker room, knowing they could have been this year's Virginia Commonwealth or George Mason had they just finished off Duke the way VCU did a year ago in Buffalo.

The moment Maynor's jumper dropped in over Greg Paulus and sent Duke home for the season, at no point did I believe the Blue Devils had played an awful brand of basketball that contributed to their demise. VCU simply wanted the that game more that night, wanted to survive until the next round.

Byrd, whose program did not even go Division I until 1997, has a good 10 players with starter mentalities, Coach K noticed.

If Duke should be faulted for anything, it's getting caught up in an up-tempo game with essentially one of America's church-league teams. Belmont declared itself open once it left the state of Tennessee. The Bruins release three-pointers at any time and from anywhere on the court. They made 8 of 23 in the game, none bigger than Wicke's with 2 minutes 28 seconds remaining that drew Belmont within one.

When Paulus released his own three-point attempt with Duke ahead by three with less than three minutes left -- with 29 seconds still on the shot clock -- you wondered what he was thinking. It's one thing to keep attacking, it's another thing entirely to remember the clock is your friend and you should spend all the time needed in a key possession at the end of the game.

But that's what teams such as Belmont do. They threaten to knock out a team such as Duke with the way they play. Renfroe was the kid who threw the bad lob pass that DeMarcus Nelson intercepted to essentially end the game, and when he copped to it afterward -- and his coach covered for him by saying he should have called time and ran another play -- you felt bad for both of them. They had come so close.

In the end, college basketball royalty has its privileges. When your coach has been in almost 90 of these games, your team is less likely to throw the ball away in the clutch. Duke had more options. When some of the Blue Devils showed frustration, they found the one guy who kept his cool, and Henderson responded to save the season.

It's not like his team wasn't prepared to play a plucky No. 15 seed or was looking ahead to the second round. The Blue Devils were ready; but the Bruins were, too. Duke outlasted Belmont because its desire to stay alive barely trumped the resolve of a small school from Nashville. Belmont didn't go on, but the Bruins leave Washington unbowed.