Duke basketball: Time to stop debating who would win NCAA Tournament

Projecting how far the Duke basketball team would have advanced this month or who would have ended the season under falling confetti is as pointless as an unsharpened new pencil.

Any longtime Duke basketball follower knows that no amount of success in the regular season can guarantee a glorious ending to the NCAA Tournament. Just take a trip back in time to 1999 or ask Trajan Langdon, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, William Avery, Chris Carrawell, Nate James, and Shane Battier to tell you what type of banner a 32-game win streak doesn't always buy.

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But as I feared, despite no lines to even fill in, fans, media, and apparently even coaches on…