The Duke men’s basketball team had a truly solid first season under the command of new head coach Jon Scheyer. The Blue Devils finished in a three-way tie for second in the conference, earned the No. 4 seed and double-bye in the ACC tournament and swept rival North Carolina (the second win effectively keeping the Tar Heels out of the NCAA tournament).
Scheyer’s 23 wins — the team went 23-8 for the season — are the most for a first-year head coach in school history.
You’d think they’d be so happy, right?
Instead, they chose to be salty.
In a tweet shared Monday, the official Duke account included a curious bullet point.
S/O Coach Scheyer on a strong 1st regular season‼️
😈 23 wins – Duke record for 1st-year HC
🔒 Held 27 of 31 opponents below their scoring average
🏰 Undefeated at home
🧐 One “we consider this matter closed” away from ACC co-champs pic.twitter.com/njRadIfYe6
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 6, 2023
Yes, the “One ‘we consider this matter closed’ away from ACC co-champs,” complete with the quizzical monocle emoji. In case you missed it — or have just moved on like most people probably have — a controversial late call in regulation against Virginia kept freshman Kyle Filipowski off the free throw line.
The game went to overtime, which Virginia dominated. Later that night, the ACC released a statement (which honestly only confused the matter more) that said the refs got it wrong and that Filipowski should have been granted potential game-winning free throws.
Virginia and Duke are on opposite sides of the bracket in the ACC tournament, meaning we may get a very spicy rematch in the title game on Saturday if we are so lucky. Until then, I’m sure the entire college basketball world feels badly for Duke not getting a call to go their way for the first time.
