DURHAM, N.C. — The exact time of death?
There wasn’t one. There never is.
Not with this Duke team, at least, whose merciless steamroll through the ACC continued Monday night. The latest sacrificial lamb? Wake Forest, which was unfortunate enough to draw the Blue Devils in their — and star freshman Cooper Flagg’s — final home game at Cameron Indoor.
Like they weren’t going to put on one last show at home.
And, voila: A 93-60 win — Duke’s fourth straight by 30 points or more — certainly qualifies. But like so many of this team’s games this season, there was never a singular decisive run or play that catapulted the Blue Devils to victory. It just … happens, kind of like an avalanche. One second, you’re playing a hard-fought basketball game. Then you go six minutes without a made shot, like Wake Forest did in the first half, and Mason Gillis cans two 3s in the span of 26 seconds, and would you look at that? Another blowout.
Always.
“It’s not normal,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, “what these guys are doing.”
BEST PLAYER IN AMERICA 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/BMupiTWhCR
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 4, 2025
It isn’t — which is why moments like Monday are prime for introspection. Because while the box on Duke’s season-long to-do list can’t be checked until the first Monday in April, the Blue Devils still ticked off a few others against Wake Forest. For example: Scheyer’s second undefeated season at home in three years as head coach. Also, Duke’s 18th ACC win, a new league record. (Virginia in 2017-18 and North Carolina last season were tied for the previous high-water mark of 17.) Most importantly? Monday night confirmed these Blue Devils will hang at least one banner; their 18th conference victory clinched at least a share of the ACC regular-season title — and with a win versus rival UNC in Saturday’s regular-season finale, it’s theirs outright for the first time since 2022.
But milestones are one thing. Living through history is another. And to take a page out of the Andy Bernard playbook, as far as Duke basketball is concerned, this year’s team will absolutely be looked back on as “the good old days.”
Four straight wins by 30-plus is one thing. Smothering. Suffocating. Whatever other synonym for “dominant” you please. But seven straight by 15 or more, a new program record? Or how about the 10 ACC wins this season by 25 or more, a league record?
“No way!” Oh, yes way. The stats prove it.
The modern era counts anything dating back to 1984-85 when the NCAA Tournament was expanded to 64 teams. Since then, 34 ACC teams have earned No. 1 seeds in the Big Dance, with Duke all but guaranteed to be the 35th come Selection Sunday. Of those 34, though, only 15 finished the league’s regular season with two conference losses or fewer. And if you filter down even more thoroughly? Only six ACC teams in the modern era have finished with one or no conference defeats — aka, the same company Duke can join by beating UNC in its final regular-season contest.
TEAMOVERALL RECORDACC RECORDPPG (NATIONAL RANK)PPG ALLOWED (NATIONAL RANK)NBA PLAYERSSEASON OUTCOME
Of course, the context across those eras matters. That 1987 UNC team, for example, played in an ACC half the size as the one today — and yet six ACC squads still made the NCAA Tournament, even if nobody besides the Tar Heels were better than a No. 4 seed. The three Duke teams had plenty of player carryover, and the ’99 version remains arguably the best team ever to not win the national title — but are those teams better than who came after them: 2000-01 Duke, which did win it all? Plus, neither 1987 UNC nor 1998 Duke won the ACC Tournament, something this year’s Blue Devils can still accomplish to differentiate themselves. (Both 1999 and 2000 Duke won the league tournament.)
Maryland in 2001-02 is maybe the most fascinating comparison from a league perspective. Only four of the ACC’s nine members made the Big Dance that season, the fewest of any high-major league — which may still be more than the three the league is tracking toward this season — but the Terps still won it all. (Strangely, Maryland also did not win the ACC Tournament.) And then there’s pre-UMBC Virginia, the closest defensive comparison to this Duke team, but an offense that pales in comparison. At least those Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament before their all-time crash out of March Madness.
Which leaves this Duke team … where, exactly? It is undeniable that, at least in some part, Duke’s utter dominance is a result of arguably the worst ACC in memory. The other four high-major leagues — the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East — have five combined sub-100 KenPom teams, while the ACC alone has seven. Only three teams in the league — Duke, Louisville, and Clemson — have won at least 13 conference games and are on pace to make the NCAA Tournament. One team’s coach retired less than a month before the season, another retired around Christmas, and a third announced he’s stepping down not long after. This ain’t your grandpa’s ACC, to put it lightly. Put this Duke team in the SEC, which is set to break the all-time bids record from one league, and we could be telling a different story.
But hypotheticals and the ACC’s decline should not inherently discredit what Duke is doing. Entering Monday, the Blue Devils’ scoring margin of 22.1 points per game was tops in the country, ahead of UC San Diego, Gonzaga, Houston and Auburn — and that was before a 33-point shellacking that will only grow that total. Since 1951, no Duke team has allowed fewer than 61 points per game, a mark set during Scheyer’s senior season in 2009-10; this team’s right on that threshold. For the analytics crowd, Duke has the second-highest net rating of any team in the KenPom era (behind only 1999 Duke), which dates back to 1996-97. And with one ACC game remaining, Duke is on pace to become the first team in league history to lead the conference in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
So, about that “most dominant” argument.
“Not getting complacent, that’s the big thing,” junior guard Tyrese Proctor said. “Understanding we still have to grow and we still have to get better every day.”
There’s obviously not much time left for that, with the calendar having officially flipped to March. Getting Maliq Brown back from his shoulder injury would be one such way, but beyond that? It’s about keeping this train on the tracks. And this team is, indeed, a train.
How much of one? We’re about to find out. No ACC team in the modern era has ever checked every box: One or zero league losses; win the ACC Tournament; have the Player of the Year — only Duke in ’99 (Elton Brand) and Maryland in ’02 (Juan Dixon) did — and, most importantly, cut down the nets in April.
Saturday’s finale versus UNC will determine the first. Next week in Charlotte will determine the second. Flagg — who had 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists versus Wake Forest — has the third on lock. And then there’s No. 4, the only one that truly matters.
That, more than anything else, could be what separates this Duke team in the pantheon of all-time ACC — and college basketball — greats.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Gillis said, “if we don’t win a national championship.”
(Photo of Cooper Flagg and Mason Gillis: Rob Kinnan / Imagn Images)
