How You Win Matters. How You Lose Matters Too.

Mike Young > Brad Brownell

Duke lost at Virginia Tech last year as you may remember and lost in 2021 as well. Imagine if the Blue Devils had lost Monday night and Jon Scheyer went to the media room and said this:

“I think we’ve had some history with that official,” Scheyer says. “There was a lot of emotion from our bench because we’re a passionate group that fought their tails off and feel like the game was maybe taken from us a little bit. It shouldn’t be decided like that.”

“I do think there were times when our guys were getting hit and it didn’t seem the same [with the foul calls],” Scheyer continues. “We lost by two the last time I was here and we had the lead with two minutes to go. I’ve been here, in this same situation, about four times, within a possession, and I haven’t won one yet. Tonight was as close as we got. We got to one second and had it taken from us.”

Now imagine that Duke goes to Virginia Tech next season and Scheyer has convinced his team that there is almost no way they can win in Cassell. What do you think would happen?

Well, a self-fulfilling prophecy is what would happen.

Now look at what Virginia Tech’s coach Mike Young said after the loss to Duke.

“We had our shots and squandered some opportunities, but I tip my cap on this particular evening to their team, to their players and Jon. They had a good plan. They did a nice job. Nothing more than that” (emphasis ours).

The faux Scheyer quote we started with was of course what Brad Brownell said after Saturday’s loss at Duke, and he’s laid the groundwork for a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And the reason we emphasized that part of Young’s quote is because it almost seems like he’s referring to Brownell’s - and, generally speaking Clemson’s - reaction to losing at Duke. We don’t know that he’s actually alluding to Brownell’s embarrassing comments after the loss in Cameron, but it’s not a huge stretch to think that’s what the “nothing more than that” meant.

And for what it’s worth, Duke got called for nearly twice as many fouls as did Virginia Tech, both primary big men had four fouls and Jeremy Roach got called for three between 16:22 and 14:37. Essentially, he had one foul per minute for three minutes.

You can imagine how Brownell might have reacted to that.

Mikę Krzyżewski had many remarkable traits as a coach, but one of his strongest points was that he refused to focus on the negative. When Virginia beat Duke by 43 and a dinner companion said here’s to forgetting tonight, Coach K said “here’s to never forgetting tonight.”

It wasn’t about being a victim. It was about understanding how badly Duke had been beaten and what the hell to do about it.

He was angry, but he also saw it as a learning experience and a chance to get better. By the same token, he never focused on revenge or payback because that meant you were focusing on failure and therefore setting yourself up for more of it. And in 1992, he explicitly refused to say Duke was defending its title. No defense: Duke was going to attack.

But if Clemson wants to focus on the negative and expects to lose every time they come to Cameron, well, that’s probably okay with Scheyer, his team and most Duke fans.