March Rewind: Two Final Four Teams Start Their Runs

What's March without Duke Tournament basketball? With this year's ACC and NCAA Tournaments cancelled, we'll go back in time to look at the top Blue Devils postseason games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to SportsReference.com for boxscores and the Duke Library for the newspaper archive.

The Blue Devils opened the 1989 tournament in Greensboro with a 90-69 win over South Carolina State. Phil Henderson hit 8-of-1 from the field for a game-high 22 points. Danny Ferry added 18 and eight rebounds. Freshman Christian Laettner scored 12. The 2-seed Blue Devils would go on to play West Virginia in the next round.

Duke opened the tournament on March 16 for the second straight year in 1990, playing Richmond in Atlanta. The Blue Devils beat the Spiders 81-46. Alaa Abdelnady had a double-double off the bench with game highs in points (22) and rebounds (12). Phil Henderson had 19 and six steals.

The following year, Duke earned a spot in the 1991 Sweet 16 with a win over Iowa in Minneapolis, 85-70. Christian Laettner led the way with 19 points. Thomas Hill added 17 and Grant Hill 14, with six steals.

The 2-seeded Blue Devils saw their 1997 NCAA run end in the second round with a 98-87 loss to Providence in Charlotte. Duke had no answer for Providence’s Derrick Brown, who hit 12-of-16 from the field for 33 points. Austin Croshere added 21 and God Shammgod 12. Jeff Capel scored 26 for Duke in his final career game.

In 2002, Duke earned a spot in the Sweet 16 with an 84-77 win over Notre Dame in Greensville, SC. Jason Williams scored 18 with six assists. Daniel Ewing had 18 and six rebounds off the bench.

The 2006 Blue Devils opened their tournament as a top seed, beating Southern in Greensboro, 70-54. Shelden Williams had a huge game with 29 points on 12-of-17 shooting, along with 18 rebounds. JJ Redick hit 5-of-10 from three to match Williams with 29 points. Greg Paulus had eight assists.

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