I can think of at least a dozen teams, with the pedigree to win a national championship, that bowed out far earlier than their talent and regular season record suggested. The NCAA tournament is mostly about matchups, but every once in awhile you run into a team that is just hot.
This was nearly the case for Duke in the semifinal of the 1992 Final Four.
Most everyone remembers the NCAA championship game between Duke and the Fab 5 (who were freshman at the time), and EVERYONE remembers the shot game in the East Regional finals against Kentucky...
But very few people remember the game between the games, the semifinal slug fest between the defending champion Duke Blue Devils and Bob Knight's hot Hoosiers. That Indiana team (with starters Damon Bailey, Matt Nover, and Calbert Cheaney) came into the tournament as a #2 seed and shot about 58% from the floor for the year.
With a "just take it to the hole" strategy, Indiana shot nearly 60% from the floor in the first half. Duke trailed by as many as 12 and basically tried to hang around. The second half, led by a tremendous effort from the Duke bench, Duke's defense, and Cherokee Parks under the basket, made for a semifinal for the ages.
