CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With nine seconds left on the clock, the top-seeded Blue Devils were in a familiar position.

They were up by two. But their opponent had the ball.

Michigan’s Zack Novak grabbed Nolan Smith’s missed free throw and kicked it ahead to Darius Morris, the Wolverines’ leading scorer. Morris dribbled down the court toward his team’s basket, and he made it all the way into the paint before Ryan Kelly jumped in front of him.

Morris pulled up and released his shot cleanly. Kyrie Irving thought it was going in. Ryan Kelly said he thought, well, “at least we aren’t going to lose right here,” and was prepared for overtime. Michigan head coach John Beilein also liked what he saw.

But the shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out. And when that oh-so-close attempt fell to the floor, Smith picked the ball up and dribbled it safely back to Duke’s side of the floor. The buzzer sounded to officially seal the Blue Devils’ 73-71 victory over the Wolverines in the Time Warner Cable Arena and a trip to the Sweet 16.

“We told our kids it would be like playing Butler in the National Championship, going into this game,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I’m proud of our effort and obviously ecstatic that we’re moving on.”

The last-second drama was sparked by Tim Hardaway, Jr.’s personal 7-0 run for No. 8 seed Michigan (21-14). The freshman had struggled to find his shot for most of the game, but it arrived just in time for the Wolverines. After five misses, Hardaway hit his first 3-pointer at the top of the arc to cut the Blue Devils’ lead to one with 1:28 remaining in the game.

“When you hit a 3 when you’re down by four in this type of game, the game pressure on your team is immense,” Krzyzewski said, referring to the pressure on Duke. “I don’t know if there’s any word for it. You can’t practice it. But it’s immense in this Tournament when it happens.”

“Oh yeah, I thought mine was going in,” Irving said of his shot after the game. “So I stopped, just stopped and popped it and hit it off the glass. It was a good shot.”

Krzyzewski said afterward that Irving’s presence on the court was the difference between winning and losing.

“For him to be put in that position and make that floater as soft as it can be, that’s a heck of a thing for that kid,” Krzyzewski said. “We wouldn’t be going forward if he didn’t play today.”

Despite shooting 59 percent from the field in the first half, the Blue Devils were only ahead 37-33 heading into the locker room. When they came out and shot 1-for-5 to start the second half, Krzyzewski called a timeout. As his team walked to the sideline, he took off his suit coat and was as emotional as he’s been all year.

“He was extremely animated,” sophomore Andre Dawkins said. “He was slapping the floor, yelling at us, imploring us to pick up the energy and play harder because if not, we were going to lose the game, and that would have been the end of our season.”

Duke responded by going on a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to push the score to 52-39. Nolan Smith was the Blue Devils’ catalyst throughout that stretch as he scored Duke’s first 11 points after the timeout, including a crossover so effective it left Hardaway on the floor.

“The switch that I flipped today was ‘I don’t want to take this Duke jersey off,’” Smith said. “It’s as simple as that.”

For Krzyzewski, the win brought him to 900 for his career, only two shy of his former coach and mentor, Bob Knight. Knight, who coached Krzyzewski at the United States Military Academy at West Point, holds the all-time record for wins in Division I basketball.

“I feel it’s amazing that a coach and his point guard can be the first two coaches in the history of our game to win 900,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m glad I can share a moment, that moment with him.”