COLUMBIA, S.C. — Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski huddled his Blue Devils together with 2:08 left in their second-round tilt against UCF as officials huddled to determine whether B.J. Taylor’s jumper as the shot clock expired had actually grazed the rim.
UCF was up 74–70 at the time, but Krzyzewski felt comfortable with the time on the clock, feeling there’d still be between eight and 10 possessions for both teams. So he looked at his team—the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament—and told them, You guys live for these moments.
Duke would escape Columbia with a 77–76 victory over ninth-seeded UCF after Aubrey Dawkins’s tip-in somehow didn’t go down.