Put yourself in Nolan Smith’s large shoes. What if you miss the shot that would bring home a championship?

A long-anticipated bonfire would be cancelled. Fans will go to sleep feeling empty. Countless bloggers will criticize your downfall. This sure seems like a lot of pressure.

In public, though, Duke players are careful to play down any notion of such a mental burden.

“Yes, there is pressure [to succeed],” senior Kyle Singler said.

A second later, though, he was quick to clarify what he felt pressure meant.

“Well, it’s not really pressure, it’s just wanting to do well.”

Greg Dale, Duke Director of the Sport Psychology and Leadership Programs, would disagree. He said that while pressure does exist, basketball players can work to alleviate its negative aspects.

“Some people just say, ‘It’s no big deal’ or, ‘Just ignore [pressure], it’s no different from a regular season game.’ Pressure is real. Expectations are real,” Dale said. “You have to let go of what people’s expectations are—the media’s, the crowd’s.”

Dale explained that standard psychology tells us that allowing yourself to feel the burden of these pressures will only negatively affect your performance, leaving you more likely to disappoint the very fans that levy them. In order to perform optimally, an athlete needs to adopt a “winner’s personality.” He shouldn’t be concerned over meeting the expectations of fans, the psychologist said. Doing so will allow the athlete to focus on the basics and the task at hand. Athletes aren’t playing for an audience—they are playing for themselves and their team.

Similarly, in such a mindset, basketball players in high-pressure situations like the NCAA Tournament simply cannot afford to be tormented by prior poor performance, Dale said. Rather, they need to exude confidence in their abilities throughout the good and bad.

We often hear examples of shooting slumps, such as Singler’s ongoing 8-of-41 performance from 3-point range. Dale explained, though, that Singler should not think about the shooting slump tonight against Arizona. If he did, Duke’s championship prospects would certainly be dampened.

“[Duke basketball players] have a winner’s mentality. They look at the game as an opportunity to do something great,” Dale said. “These guys want to be great. J.J. Redick was a great athlete. He would miss his first eight shots, but continue to take them, thinking, ‘The next one’s going in.’”

For a Duke basketball player, there is more to worry about than the pressure that society levies on you—or “external pressure,” Dale said. Even worse are internal pressures—those that players levy on themselves. Duke basketball players hold themselves to extraordinarly high standards. As much as students want them to succeed, they want themselves to succeed even more. And, as everybody can attest, disappointment in yourself takes a much heavier mental toll than a stranger’s disappointment in you.

“There are external expectations and internal expectations,” Dale said. “The internal expectations can be even more difficult to overcome.”

Whether it is external or internal, athletes cannot allow themselves to be burdened by pressure. Basketball is just as much of a mental game as it is physical.

“You absolutely have to be mentally tough to be a Duke Basketball player,” Dale said. “They are under the limelight all the time. Mental toughness is a key part of their success.”

Still, some will remain skeptical of whether the Blue Devils can ever truly ignore the encumbrance of high expectations. Before the season even began, experts almost unanimously picked Duke to win the title. At one point in the season, four members of the starting lineup were considered first-round draft picks. Students even began to plan a trip to Houston in December. To Duke fans, anything less than a fifth banner would be a disappointment.

But they can only hope that the members of the basketball team don’t care.