2019-20

Season Overview

The 2019-20 Duke Blue Devils were built around the most important returning player in the program's recent history: Tre Jones, who came back for his sophomore year when every other member of the Zion-era core four departed for the NBA. Jones' decision to stay gave Duke something it hadn't had since Quinn Cook's senior year — a point guard who'd already played at the highest level of college basketball, who understood the system, and who wanted to lead.

The freshman class featured Vernon Carey Jr. (#5 nationally, a 6-10, 270-pound center from Fort Lauderdale who'd played at University School in nearby Plantation, Florida), Cassius Stanley (#24 nationally, an explosive 6-6 wing from Sierra Canyon — Marvin Bagley's alma mater — who had once been teammates with LeBron James' son Bronny), Matthew Hurt (#10 nationally, a 6-9 stretch-four from Rochester, Minnesota, and a McDonald's All-American), and Wendell Moore Jr. (#21 nationally, a 6-5 wing from Cox Mill High School in Concord, North Carolina). The returning core included juniors Jack White and Javin DeLaurier (both named captains), sophomore Alex O'Connell, and sophomore Joey Baker. Senior Justin Robinson, a walk-on who had spent his career as a practice player and locker-room glue guy, was also on the roster.

Duke opened the season ranked #4 and started 6-0, including a convincing 68-66 Champions Classic win over #3 Kansas on November 5 — a statement that this post-Zion team could still compete with the sport's elite. Jones was magnificent, Carey announced himself with 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the Blue Devils climbed to #1 in the AP poll for the second consecutive season.

Then came November 26, 2019 — the night the streaks ended.

Stephen F. Austin, from the Southland Conference, arrived at Cameron Indoor Stadium as 27.5-point underdogs. The Lumberjacks were 4-1 and had lost by 12 at Rutgers. Their coach, Kyle Keller, told his players before the game: 'Banners can't beat us tonight. The players have to beat us.' What followed was one of the most stunning upsets in the history of college basketball.

SFA's relentless full-court pressure generated 22 Duke turnovers. They scored 64 of their 85 points in the paint — more than Duke allowed to Kansas in the Champions Classic. Kevon Harris scored 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting. The game went to overtime — the first overtime in the 150-game nonconference home winning streak — and Duke scored just one basket in the extra period while committing six turnovers. With seconds left, Tre Jones missed a jumper, Wendell Moore rebounded, and Jones' bounce pass to Matthew Hurt was broken up. Nathan Bain — a fifth-year senior from the Bahamas whose family had lost nearly everything in Hurricane Dorian that summer — picked up the loose ball and raced the length of the floor for a buzzer-beating layup. SFA 85, Duke 83.

The 150-game nonconference home winning streak was over. It had lasted nearly 20 years — since a loss to St. John's on February 26, 2000, when LeBron James was a high school freshman, Tiger Woods had won only two majors, and Tom Brady was about to be drafted in the sixth round. Duke was favored by 27.5 points, making it the largest upset by point spread in Division I basketball in at least 15 years. 'If we would have won, we would not have been deserving of winning,' K said afterward.

The Blue Devils regrouped. They won their first eight ACC games, climbing back into the top 5. Jones was emerging as the best point guard in the conference — his shooting had improved dramatically, from 26.2% from three as a freshman to 36.1% as a sophomore, and his scoring jumped from 9.4 to 16.2 points per game. Vernon Carey Jr. dominated inside, averaging 17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds while shooting 57.7% from the field, racking up 15 double-doubles that ranked second nationally among freshmen.

But road losses continued to plague this team. They fell at Clemson 79-72 on January 14 — their first road loss since the previous season. A loss at NC State followed. Then Louisville beat them at the KFC Yum! Center. Then Wake Forest stunned them in Winston-Salem 113-101 in double overtime, with the Demon Deacons scoring an absurd number against a K team. The Blue Devils' defense, particularly in hostile road environments, was a consistent liability.

The rivalry with North Carolina produced one of the great chapters in the series' 100-year history — fitting, since the 2020 season marked the centennial of Duke-UNC basketball.

At Chapel Hill on February 8, UNC — struggling through a 10-12 season that would have been Roy Williams' worst — led by 13 points with four minutes left in regulation. Vernon Carey Jr. fouled out after scoring 18 first-half points and zero in the second half. Duke was dead. Then Tre Jones took over. He scored 15 consecutive Duke points — a run that stretched from the final minutes of regulation through the opening of overtime. With the game tied at 84 and seconds left in regulation, Jones intentionally missed a free throw, got his own rebound in the scramble, and hit a jumper at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

Overtime was equally chaotic. UNC led 96-91 with 21 seconds left. Jones hit a layup with 16 seconds remaining, was fouled, and made the first free throw to cut it to 96-94. He missed the second — this time unintentionally — but Moore tipped the rebound out to Jordan Goldwire, who gave it back to Jones. Jones drove, got fouled again, made the first to tie it at 96, then missed the second. Moore tipped the rebound again. Jones gathered and shot — an airball. But Moore was exactly where a smart player should be: at the basket. He grabbed the airball and laid it in as the buzzer sounded. Duke 98, North Carolina 96.

The dog pile at center court was almost as amazing as the play itself. At the end, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski embraced and smiled — two legends acknowledging they'd been part of something extraordinary. Exactly eight years earlier, #0 Austin Rivers had hit a buzzer-beater to beat UNC. Now #0 Wendell Moore had done the same. Jones finished with 28 points, six assists, and three steals — one of the defining performances in the history of the rivalry.

The rematch at Cameron on March 7 — Senior Night for DeLaurier, White, Robinson, and Goldwire — was less dramatic but still satisfying: Duke 89, UNC 76. Carey and Jones combined for 48 points. Justin Robinson hit a three-pointer in his final home game, sending Cameron into a roar for a player who embodied everything the brotherhood was supposed to mean.

Duke was 25-6 and the #3 seed in the ACC Tournament, scheduled to play NC State in the quarterfinals on March 12 at the Greensboro Coliseum. The NCAA Tournament was expected to award Duke a #3 or #4 seed. Both tournaments would never be played.

On March 11, 2020, the NBA suspended its season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Within hours, the ACC Tournament was cancelled. Within days, the NCAA Tournament — the entire event, all 67 games — was cancelled for the first time in its history. College basketball's 2019-20 season simply stopped. No conference tournament. No Selection Sunday. No March Madness. No One Shining Moment.

For seniors like Jack White, Javin DeLaurier, and Justin Robinson, there would be no final tournament run. For Tre Jones, who had come back specifically to lead a team through March, there would be no vindication. For Vernon Carey Jr., there would be no NCAA Tournament debut. The season just... ended.

Jones was named ACC Player of the Year and ACC Defensive Player of the Year — becoming the fourth Duke player in five years to win Player of the Year (following Williamson, Bagley, and Allen's conference). Carey was named ACC Rookie of the Year. Both earned first-team All-ACC honors.

Jones declared for the NBA Draft and was selected #41 overall by the San Antonio Spurs. Carey went #32 to the Charlotte Hornets. Cassius Stanley went #54 to the Indiana Pacers. The seniors graduated without ever playing a postseason game.

The 2019-20 Blue Devils will always carry an asterisk — not because their accomplishments were diminished, but because their season was amputated. This was a team that had just swept North Carolina, had won 11 of its last 14 games, and was playing its best basketball of the season when the world shut down. Whether they would have made a deep tournament run or been upset early remains college basketball's greatest unanswerable question of 2020.

What we do know is this: Tre Jones came back, led, and gave Duke a season that — for one February night in Chapel Hill — produced a moment as miraculous as anything in the rivalry's century of history. That alone justified the decision to stay.

The most stunning upset in Cameron Indoor Stadium history. Stephen F. Austin, 27.5-point underdogs from the Southland Conference, deployed relentless full-court pressure that generated 22 Duke turnovers and scored 64 of their 85 points in the paint. Kevon Harris had 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting. The game went to overtime — the first OT in the 150-game streak — and Duke scored just one basket in five extra minutes while committing six turnovers. With seconds left in OT and the score tied at 83, Tre Jones missed a jumper. Moore rebounded and kicked to Jones, who tried a bounce pass to Matthew Hurt. It was broken up. Nathan Bain — a fifth-year senior from Nassau who'd played his freshman year on the SFA team that upset #8 West Virginia in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, and whose family had lost nearly everything in Hurricane Dorian that past summer — picked up the loose ball and went the length of the floor for a buzzer-beating layup. The nonconference home winning streak, dating to February 26, 2000, was over at 150 games. 'Banners can't beat us tonight,' SFA coach Kyle Keller had told his team. He was right.