There's been a lot of angst over Duke's early loss in the tournament, but in light of Brian Zoubek's surgery, here's another thing to consider: out of 11 scholarship players, one was lost for the season (Marty Pocius), two were still recovering from previous injuries during the season (Dave McClure and Brian Zoubek), and two played with hand or wrist injuries. and Zoubek of course reinjured his foot and missed several games.
So one player was lost, four others were less than 100%, they had one healthy senior, one healthy junior, four sophomores, and three freshmen had to be incorporated (well really two in retrospect), and Duke played without a traditional post game. And they still won 28 games.
It would have been great if the season had gone on longer, but what we saw was brilliant. This was not a good coaching job. Given the circumstances, it was remarkable.