The bell of the Blue Zone stock exchange has just rung again, meaning it’s time to take another look at who is rising and falling with their performances for Blue Devil sports teams. Each week the Blue Zone will look at whose stock is on the rise and whose stock has taken a hit from the week in the world of Duke athletics.
Bull Market—Trending Up
March madness: Duke's latest comeback at North Carolina was hardly the only exciting college basketball action Saturday, as four games gave fans plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks. First, then-No. 16 Louisville downed then-No. 2 Virginia on an improbable jumper from Mangok Mathiang, who had made just one of his previous 16 shots since Feb. 1, after a thrilling battle at the KFC Yum! Center.
Mathiang's shot was hardly the only clutch moment of the day, as Belmont's Taylor Barnette drilled a fade-away 3-pointer in the closing seconds to lift the Bruins past then-No. 25 Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference title game and steal an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Another exciting finish with major implications came in the Ivy League, when Dartmouth stunned conference leader Yale with a beautiful in-bounds play to allow Harvard to tie the Bulldogs atop the league standings and force a playoff game this week since there is no conference tournament.
Returning to major conference action, the game had no major implications on conference standings like the Louisville-Virginia contest, but then-No. 15 Oklahoma and then-No. 9 Kansas played a thriller in Norman, Okla., Saturday afternoon, with the Sooners prevailing on a buzzer-beating tip-in by Big 12 Player of the Year Buddy Hield.
Throw in Washington's upset of then-No. 13 Utah, Illinois State's upset of then-No. 8 Wichita State in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and more buzzer-beaters by Louisiana State and Brigham Young, and Saturday showed why the next month is the best time of year for basketball fans.
North Carolina basketball: Duke honored Dean Smith before the teams' first tilt Feb. 18 at Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Tar Heels returned the favor, honoring Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski with a plaque before the teams' Saturday clash at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill. Head coach Roy Williams and Marcus Paige and Jackson Simmons were at midcourt to present the plaque recognizing Krzyzewski's 1,000 wins in another classy gesture between the Tobacco Road rivals.
Bear Market—Trending Down
North Carolina basketball PA announcer and ESPN microphones: The game lived up to the hype once again, with the Blue Devils pulling out a 84-77 victory led by their guards, and the Tar Heels held the classy pre-game ceremony for Krzyzewski, but two of the poorer moments of the night happened before the game even started. First, North Carolina's PA announcer mispronounced Jahlil Okafor's name, inexplicably calling the ACC Player of the Year "Jahkil" during player introductions. Then, ESPN failed to get pre-game comments from sideline reporter Shannon Spake, awkwardly showing Spake talking twice with no audio coming out for viewers. Luckily, the game started soon after, but the miscues definitely did not get the broadcast started the way ESPN was hoping.
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