The Duke Blue Devils face the Oregon Ducks in the Sweet 16, but only one team will advance to the Sweet 16. While Oregon is the No. 1 seed, the No. 4 seeded Blue Devils will come out on top. Here are three reasons why it will happen:
3. Better 3-Point Shooting Team
The Ducks shoot a solid 34.5 percent from the line, but the Blue Devils are hitting 38.7 percent. Three players, Grayson Allen, Brandon Ingram and Matt Jones are hitting at least 40 percent, a number only one Duck matches. True freshman Luke Kennard is the worst of the five Blue Devils that shoot threes, hitting 32.3 percent. But he's hitting 40 percent in the tournament. With the Blue Devils hitting their 3-pointers, they'll find a way past Oregon.
2. A better two-headed attack
There are only a few teams in the country that have the talent to match Oregon's combo of Elgin Cook and Dillon Brooks. However, the Blue Devils are one of those teams. Allen is one of just five major conference players who averaged over 20 points per game in the regular season, while Ingram is projected to at least be the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft this summer. Both players are knockdown shooters from the three-point line and are excellent at attacking the rim, making both extremely tough to guard. Cook and Brooks are talented, but they aren't the deadly combo that Allen and Ingram are.
1. Better Coaching
Dana Altman is a solid coach in his own right, but he's not Coach K. No current coach mixes in-game adjustment, off-court motivational tactics and overall organizational efficiency in the way that Mike Krzyzewski does. If you want to get a group of talented recruits to come together, you can't do any better than Coach K. With him at the helm, the Blue Devils will get past the Ducks.
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