Our friends over at Duke Blue Planet do a great job compiling the top five plays of every Duke game (except, it should be noted, for Clemson), but we only post the video when we have something more to add. Sometimes, that means advocating for another play to be No. 1, or bemoaning one play's absence from the collection.
But today, we're posting it because we completely agree with the No. 1 selection, Greg Paulus' 3-pointer to put Duke up two points late in the second half. After Duke had established its insurmountable six-point lead in overtime, I turned to a friend sitting next to me to start the post-game analysis early.
"Given Jack McClinton's three, you know what might have been the biggest play of the game?" I said.
"The Paulus 3-pointer, right?" he responded. And yes, he was right. It was a gutsy shot to take—the reserve essentially called his own number to drill a long 3-pointer with plenty of time left on the shot clock—and it proved even more critical than we initially thought it was. Plus, it epitomized Paulus' afternoon, his best in a long time. It wasn't the flashiest play, but it was, in our opinion, the most important. What do you think?
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