Duke did not need Cameron Boozer at his best to look every bit like a championship team Saturday night. That might be the biggest statement of all from the Blue Devils’ 74-70 win over Virginia in the ACC Tournament title game in Charlotte.
I’m Boozer, the ACC Player of the Year, endured one of his roughest offensive nights of the season, shooting just 3-for-17 from the floor.
And yet, even on a night when Virginia’s length and interior presence clearly bothered him, he still found a way to impact the game with 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. That is what great teams do, and that is what this Duke team has done time and time again.
Virginia made Duke earn every bit of this one. With Thijs De Ridder’s size and skill and Ugonna Onyenso swatting away nearly everything around the rim, the Cavaliers presented a real challenge.
Onyenso finished with nine blocked shots in the championship game and set an ACC Tournament record with 21 blocks over three games, a staggering number that helps explain why Boozer never found a real rhythm offensively. But Duke never broke. It adjusted, responded and kept leaning into the collective.
That collective started with Cayden Boozer, who stepped up again. He scored 16 points, matching his career high for the second straight night, and had 14 of those in the first half as Duke built a 38-36 lead. While Cameron struggled to score efficiently, Cayden’s pace, confidence and shot-making steadied Duke.
Isaiah Evans added 20 points, and key plays late from multiple Blue Devils helped Duke survive every Virginia push. It was not clean, and it was not comfortable. It was just winning basketball.
And that is why this team feels so dangerous. Duke has been tested repeatedly, whether by injuries, tight games, hostile moments or matchup problems, and more often than not the Blue Devils have answered.
Saturday was another example of a team with real togetherness, the kind that shows up when the star is off and the pressure rises.
Duke is now 32-2, has won back-to-back ACC Tournament titles for the first time since the program’s 2009-11 run, and has captured three ACC Tournament crowns in Jon Scheyer’s first four seasons. The Blue Devils also pushed their league-record total to 24 ACC Tournament championships.
At this point, Scheyer is no longer simply following a legend. He is building something that is unmistakably his. Duke’s latest title was not about one player carrying the night. It was about toughness, answers and trust.
Against Virginia’s size, against adversity, against a bad night from its biggest star, Duke still found a way. That says everything about the culture Scheyer has built and why he has firmly established himself as one of the best coaches in college basketball.