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In 2017, Duke had a season with a lot of injuries. We never saw the full talents of Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles and they weren’t alone.
Grayson Allen was well into the controversial part of his Duke career too, having been stripped of his captaincy in December after one of his tripping incidents.
Duke came into the ACC Tournament as the fifth seed which meant they had to play four straight games and it wasn’t an easy four games, either.
First up: Clemson. Brad Brownell’s defense is exhausting. After that it was Rick Pitino’s Louisville and a Pitino team is never easy to overcome. So that’s another tiring night.
Then in the semis it was UNC and all that that implies. It must have been an exhausting three days.
And then it was Notre Dame in the finals and that was a damn good team. Mike Brey started VJ Beachem, Rex Pflueger, Matt Farrell, Steve Vasturia and the amazing Bonzi Colson, who was a real thorn in Duke’s side.
In this game he finished with 29 points and nine rebounds but it wasn't enough. Tatum, Amile Jefferson and Luke Kennard led Duke to a tight 75-69 win.
Several Blue Devils would go on to play in the NBA: Tatum, Giles, Kennard, Allen and Frank Jackson.