Jeremy Roach is becoming point guard Duke has lacked, and Coach K title teams have had
In the frantic back-and-forth spectacle that unfolded here Thursday night, with neither Duke nor Texas Tech flinching under the glare of the stage or in the pressure of the moment, Jeremy Roach, the sophomore guard from Virginia, just may have become once and for all what the Blue Devils have often been missing throughout this long season.
March is a time for unlikely moments from unlikely protagonists, and who besides Roach or perhaps some of his teammates might have seen this sort of thing coming? It seems like a long time ago now since Roach drew Mike Krzyzewski’s ire with a costly foul late in an early-January defeat against Miami. It’d been much longer, still, since Roach became the first member of his freshman class to commit to Duke, way back in May 2019.
When he did, this was probably the sort of moment he dreamed of or imagined, the one he encountered here at the Chase Center — a trip to the NCAA tournament West Regional final hanging in the balance, Duke needing to make a play after play with Krzyzewski’s very career hanging by a thread. And here was Roach, the ball in his hands in the most critical of moments, a chance to shape destiny; to seize a moment or be swallowed by it.
Months ago Roach lost his starting position only to reclaim it by necessity, and now in the span of a few minutes he perhaps became the kind of gritty, iron-gutted point guard that all five of Krzyzewski’s national championship teams have had. This particular Duke team, the thought went, lacked that sort player — or at least maybe it used to, until the past week or so.
Here was the situation Thursday night, the minutes growing more precious: Texas Tech, the No. 3 seed in the West Regional, led by one with four minutes remaining, and there wasn’t a soul inside a sold-out building whose heart rate hadn’t been rising. Duke, a No. 2 seed but an underdog on this night, nonetheless, kept taking the lead and Texas Tech kept taking it back — tug-of-war or a prizefight or a pick-your-cliche descriptor.
Up for grabs was a place in the Elite Eight and, for Duke, the opportunity to give Krzyzewski’s farewell season at least two more days of life. And that was when Roach, once in his coach’s doghouse after some mid-season woes, made a layup to give the Blue Devils a one-point lead with about 3 1/2 minutes remaining. It did not last, because leads on this night were as fleeting and fickle as young love, here one moment and gone in an instant.
Texas Tech went ahead and then Duke went back ahead, on a Paolo Banchero 3-pointer that was as cold as any either team made. And then, after a stop that seemed unlikely just because it felt like neither team would ever earn one, it was Roach with a jumper in the paint to put Duke up by three, and Roach again who gave the Blue Devils a five-point lead with 90 seconds left. By then Duke could feel it and so could those sitting behind its bench, in the family section, and to Roach it all must have felt like something he’d worked toward for a long time.
“The resolve of Jeremy Roach was incredible,” Krzyzewski said in the moments after Duke’s 78-73 victory was secure, sending the Blue Devils onto the regional final against Arkansas on Saturday.
“His drives against that defense were so strong, so determined,” and it was the sort of thing that in another year Krzyzewski might have said about any number of memorable point guards he has coached.
Texas Tech’s vaunted defense was unlike most of what Duke had faced this season. It was not the sort of defense that Roach sometimes thrived against in the earlier part of the season, or even the kind that gave him fits during a mid-season lull. The Red Raiders’ defense, considered the nation’s best in recent weeks, was the reason why they were a slight favorite. It caused the Blue Devils problems throughout much of the first half, when Texas Tech held a four-point halftime lead after forcing Duke to work for just about every opportunity.
Roach’s second-half performance, though, came to more broadly represent that of his team. Duke shot better than 70 percent from the field during the final 20 minutes and the Blue Devils made their final eight shots from the field. Three of those belonged to Roach, who scored all 11 of his second-half points in the final 10 minutes, when the drama reached its peak and when Duke and Texas Tech traded leads like fatigue-proof tennis players trading volleys, back and forth and back again.
To hear Banchero tell it after the Blue Devils emerged victoriously, he and his teammates never lost faith in Roach. The praise might have been revisionist, though, given Roach’s January demotion from the starting lineup. Banchero bristled, somewhat, at the thought that Roach was becoming the sort of point guard Duke has needed, with what he did in clutch moments against Texas Tech and in similar situations late in the victory against Michigan State last Sunday in the tournament’s second round.
“First off,” Banchero said, “he has been (that) point guard all year. I wouldn’t say we were in need. He has always been able to step up in big moments, and so we trust him 100 percent. We’ve trusted him the whole year. Gonzaga, he made big plays down the stretch.
“Every game he has stepped up in the clutch, so we trust Jeremy 100 percent.”
After the late debacle in the loss against Miami, Roach came off the bench for three consecutive games and only reentered the starting lineup after Trevor Keels’ injury against Florida State mandated it. Roach started the next eight games before finding his way out of the starting five, again, following a 1-for-7 effort in a victory at Boston College.
He still played a significant role for the Blue Devils, albeit in a reserve role, throughout the rest of the regular season and the ACC tournament before reentering the starting five in the NCAA tournament. It has paid off, and almost reinforces the notion that Krzyzewski, who won his 1,201st game Thursday night, and advanced to a regional final for the 17th time, knows a thing or two about what buttons to press.
Krzyzewski’s five national championships have come in contrasting ways as college basketball has evolved over the years. Yet if there’s one commonality among them it’s that all five of those teams had point guards he trusted and believed in, from Tyus Jones in 2015 to Jon Scheyer in 2010 to Jason Williams in 2001 to Bobby Hurley in 1991 and ‘92. Entering the tournament, the lack of such a consistent, reliable point guard appeared to be Duke’s most significant weakness.
Now that worry is growing more distant, Roach making Duke’s point guard concerns a memory.
“Like Paolo just said, these guys trust me, and the coaching staff trusts me,” Roach said Thursday, after some of the most important basketball moments of his life. “Trust in your work and being instinctive was the biggest key out there.”
Moments later he was back in the locker room with his teammates and emerged after a while in gray warm-ups and Duke blue and white headphones halfway over his ears. He was among the first of his teammates leading the way through the bowels of the Chase Center, down a long tunnel and onto the bus.
Long gone were those moments of uncertainty a couple of months ago, the times when Roach’s role was in question. He’d earned his place now, and had helped lead the Blue Devils out of one cauldron and into another, where Saturday they’ll play for the chance to advance to the Final Four.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 2:40 AM with the headline "Jeremy Roach is becoming point guard Duke has lacked, and Coach K title teams have had."
