Duke tasted humble pie, then it made the Blue Devils better

The Duke Blue Devils weren't necessarily on a hot streak heading into the 2024 NCAA Tournament. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

No. 9 Duke lost to No. 7 North Carolina, 84-79 in the regular-season finale at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils then followed that up with a 74-69 loss to NC State in their first game of the ACC Tournament.

To put it bluntly, Jon Scheyer's team was out of sorts and looking like an easy bounce-out in March Madness.

So how do the Blue Devils now find themselves in the Sweet 16 once again after beating No. 13 Vermont and No. 12 James Madison, respectively?

Two words. Humble pie.

“You know, our guys talk about it all the time. They talk about having humility. This game can humble you. I don’t care if you’re a coach, if you’re a player," Scheyer recently said, per On3. "Our last regular-season game, the ACC Tournament game? You have to have great humility to understand what you have to do better.”

Scheyer said his team got back into the gym and used the extra time off to refine itself. Whatever his players did, it clearly worked. Duke beat Vermont and James Madison by an average of 27.5 points while shooting 47.3 percent from the field.

“I think it started with a lot of individual conversations. Honest team conversations. Because you know, obviously there’s the work you need to put in on the court,” Scheyer said. “That work doesn’t matter if you don’t know where your players' heads are at. What they are feeling, what they see, and what they are getting. So there was a lot of talks started there.”

Duke will have to keep talking because rough waters may once again be on the horizon. That's not to say the Blue Devils can't continue advancing, but up next on the bracket is a date with top-seeded Houston in the Sweet 16.