The Blue Devils started the second half with a seven-point lead and all the momentum in the world, scoring 41 of their final 64 points before halftime. However, instead of putting more distance between themselves and Auburn, the Tigers closed within two minutes with 7:04 on the clock, leading to another coin toss situation.

Part of that comes with the opportunity to compete against another championship caliber team. Miniature runs always happen in these games, and putting away a team like Auburn is a lot harder than it sounds. However, it feels fair to bet a non-zero portion of this on the Blue Devils almost hitting the reset button despite the early success.

After scoring 18 points in 11 minutes in the first game, Evans took one shot and played five minutes in the second game. Caleb Foster, the only other Blue Devil to make at least three field goals in the first half, played just six minutes. Flagg took 10 of the team’s 27 shots in the second half, and if you include the second half against Kansas, he took 10 more shots than any other Blue Devil. While he’s clearly the team’s best player and that strategy worked well enough to win on Wednesday, it felt like a strategic question mark when he fell back on it in a game where he started two-for-eight.