The Battle of the Best was on display during the Elite Eight encounter. Alabama came in hot after a record-setting night from 3 in the Sweet 16 against Duke’s defense, which was ranked sixth nationally. It was the Blue Devils who prevailed and dominated the game from the get-go. As Nate Oats fell one win short of making the Final Four for the second consecutive season.

In the post-match press conference, the HC bluntly stated the reason for the loss. “It’s tough. Within 48 hours from playing as well as we did to playing as poorly as we did. That’s how the NCAA Tournament works…you play poorly, and you get sent home and that’s what happened.” With this, the No. 1 seed in the East Region Blue Devils, won 85-65 to advance to the Final Four. The rivalry has historic significance as well.

The Crimson Tide faced the Blue Devils for the first time in 11 years. Overall, it was their 10th showdown all-time. And did you know when was the last time Alabama won? It was 95 years ago, back in 1930. Back then, it was Hank Crisp’s Alabama team that won, which capped off a perfect 20-0 season by beating Duke and its All-American Werber at the Atlanta Auditorium (31-24).

For this year’s contest, Nate Oats’ plan to limit Duke star Cooper Flagg worked. He scored just 16 points on 6/16 shooting. But Duke’s size overwhelmed the Alabama squad defensively. They shot just 35.4% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc in the elimination game. Their FG% was their worst all season, and their 3-point shooting% matched their fourth-worst showing of 2024-25. The latter a surprising since in the previous game, they set a record.

Against the BYU, the Alabama program would score 25 different three-pointers in the 113-88 Sweet 16 rout. However, against the Blue Devils, that number was just 8-32. Let’s look at how the Duke coach prepared his team for the ultimate battle.

The back-and-forth chess game where Nate Oats lost

It was not just Cooper Flagg who had poor scoring; even Mark Sears failed to lead the Crimson Tide. The star point guard two nights ago scored 36 points, and the highlight was his 10-16 from beyond the arc. He fell short of by one shot of creating a tournament record. Against the Blue Devils, the 23-year-old could only muster 6 points, that too 2-12 from FG and 1-5 from 3 point zone. Nate Oats in the presser candidly gave the reason for Duke’s dominance.

“They’ve got length all over the place, just look at their starting lineup.” Duke coach Jon Scheyer also spoke and admired his team for their astute defense, which resulted in a 20-point win. “To hold them to 65 points is incredible,” the 37-year-old HC said. “We watched them play the other night. They scored 113 and made 25 3s. The biggest thing for us was not taking the bait of getting so spread out.”

Despite the loss, Nate Oats shouldn’t consider the season a failure. Because the Crimson Tide finished 28-9, which was good enough to earn a top-2 seed in March Madness. Last year, the program reached the Final Four for the first time in its history.

No doubt, fans wanted more of that from the team. Let’s not forget that it was only the second time this season that the team failed to breach the 70-point mark. The top two seeds balled out, and up next the 18th Final Four visit for the Duke program. Meanwhile, back to the drawing board for Nate Oats.