“When you see them in person, you can actually see their belief in one another and their strength,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said of U.N.C.W. “It’s really beautiful to watch. It’s more beautiful if you don’t have to play against them.”
That Duke was struggling against a team with a much lower seeding was not unusual; the Blue Devils have endured some memorable upsets in recent years, including as a No. 2 seed to Lehigh in 2012 and as a No. 3, against unheralded Mercer, two years ago.
But while in those years an upset seemed almost unthinkable, there seemed to be little separation between the favorites and the underdogs this season.