<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get all of Pete Thamel\u2019s columns as soon as they\u2019re published. Download the new Sports Illustrated app (iOS&amp;nbsp;or Android) and personalize your experience by following your favorite teams and SI writers.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2014 With less than three minutes remaining in the first half on Saturday, Grayson Allen drained a jumper to give No. 4 Duke a 27-point lead over No. 12 Yale. He\u2019d scored 22 points in the game\u2019s first 17 minutes and appeared to be in such a zone that Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski later joked his sophomore guard was in \u201CLa La Land.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With less than a minute remaining in the game, that 27-point lead seemed like it happened during Jay Bilas\u2019s playing career. After Duke senior center Marshall Plumlee accidentally tipped in a Yale free throw miss, the Bulldogs found themselves down by just three points with 39 seconds remaining. They\u2019d gone from being blown off the floor to threatening the biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Duke settled down to restore order and topple Yale 71\u201364. But amid the frenetic extremes of a first-half blowout and a second-half meltdown, Duke showcased its potential and flaws. These Blue Devils are viable and vulnerable, with enough talent to defend their national title but enough holes to get outclassed in the West Regional in Anaheim, Calif. (They\u2019ll face the winner of Sunday\u2019s game between No. 1 Oregon and No. 8 St. Joseph\u2019s).\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Duke is equal parts ability and fragility. It has two of the country\u2019s best players in potential No. 1 NBA draft pick, freshman forward Brandon Ingram, and first-team All-ACC guard Allen. But there\u2019s a precipitous drop off after that duo\u2014especially at point guard and in the post. Krzyzewski concedes that the Blue Devils are essentially a six-man team. Last year\u2019s motto was \u201CEight is Enough,\u201D a nod to the thin rotation on Duke\u2019s title team. This year, Duke is attempting not to get Deep Sixed. \u201COur house is on a cliff, and we hope it doesn\u2019t rain,\u201D he said. \u201CThat\u2019s who we\u2019ve been.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;MORE: All the latest news &amp;amp; results from the Round of 32&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Duke\u2019s performance offered a microcosm of its season. The Blue Devils that torched Yale in the first half were the same team that ran off consecutive wins over Louisville, Virginia and at North Carolina in mid-February. That Duke team is crisp on offense, assertive in man-to-man defense and is illuminated by superstars. Then there are the second-half Blue Devils. They struggled with the Yale press, got outmuscled in the post and resembled the team that sputtered through a three-game stretch where they lost at Clemson and then at home to Syracuse and Notre Dame in mid-January. \u201CThat\u2019s who we\u2019ve been all year,\u201D Duke associate head coach Jeff Capel said. \u201CThere\u2019s times we\u2019ve put it all together. But can we sustain that? The first 17 minutes of the game, we were awesome. In the second half, it was everything.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Duke stayed composed when it mattered, a good sign for a young team that lost three one-and-done players to the NBA draft last year. Krzyzewski pulled the right strings down the stretch, including switching to a 1-3-1 zone that stalled Yale\u2019s momentum. He also pounded the ball to Ingram in the waning minutes. Krzyzewski left the game impressed by Ingram\u2019s work at the top of the 1-3-1 zone to rattle Yale point guard Makai Mason, as the zone changed the game just enough to allow Duke to hold on.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After Duke lost senior forward&amp;nbsp;Amile Jefferson to a foot injury nine games into the year, Krzyzewski worried about the Blue Devils even making the NCAAs, he said Saturday. That may be an exaggeration, but Duke clearly needed to overhaul its identity. The 6'9\" Ingram has arrived as a transcendent NBA prospect whose production is beginning to mirror his potential. He scored 25 points on Saturday, including both ends of a one-and-one after Yale cut the lead to three points. (He did miss the front end of a one-and-one with 16 seconds left, but by then it was a five-point game).\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ingram is an embryotic version of Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant who\u2019ll be the most talented player on the floor in every game he plays the rest of the tournament. \u201CHe\u2019s not a plant that should be put in a jar,\u201D Krzyzewski said. \u201CHe\u2019s a plant that should be allowed to grow, and he\u2019s growing immensely.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Allen has also blossomed after rocketing from relative obscurity at the Final Four last year. He scored 16 points in the national title game victory over Wisconsin and outshined, on that night, Duke\u2019s starry freshman class. \u201CWe feel like we have two of the best players in the country,\u201D Capel said. This season, Allen (21.6 ppg) has evolved into a star and a lightning rod. Few players have overhauled their image in a year like Allen has, as his 29-point performance on just 15 shots didn\u2019t register as anything other than the expected excellence. \u201CHe\u2019s had to work for everything,\u201D Capel said. \u201CHis journey to get to Duke was a story in itself. He basically recruited us. And thank God he did that.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But those two stars can\u2019t obscure Duke\u2019s obvious weaknesses. Plumlee is a serviceable presence in the post, but he scored just one field goal in 31 minutes versus Yale. Freshman guard Luke Kennard helped Duke launch out to its big lead, then disappeared in the second half, scoring just two points. Junior guard Matt Jones is supposed to be a calming influence, but he managed to foul out without scoring in 20 minutes. Freshman point guard Derryck Thornton is serviceable but unspectacular. It\u2019s not often that one leaves a game wondering why an underdog team didn\u2019t press Duke more, but that was exactly the impression left after Yale rattled Duke in the second half. Nor is it often that such a player with a straight face will say of Duke\u2019s thin frontcourt: \u201CWe thought we could take advantage of them on the inside and beat them up in there.\u201D Yet that\u2019s what Yale junior Anthony Dallier said in the postgame after Yale outscored Duke 32\u201318 in the paint.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a flawed Duke team that will remain a flawed Duke team. In a year without a clear-cut favorite, Duke shows just enough potential to make you believe and just enough flaws to keep you skeptical. \u201CWe feel like we have a shot,\u201D Capel said, summing up Duke\u2019s future with simple wisdom. \u201CThings just have to go right.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2016/03/19/duke-blue-devils-ncaa-tournament-coach-k-grayson-allen-brandon-ingram>