ACC Tournament MVP Kon Knueppel tells fans the job isn’t finished for Duke basketball

Duke basketball capped off the program’s phenomenal regular season with an ACC Tournament championship victory yesterday over the Louisville Cardinals, with Duke winning 73-62. The Blue Devils now look ahead to the NCAA Tournament where they will surely earn a 1-seed and potentially earn the #1 overall seed in the tournament.

Blue Devil freshman star Kon Knueppel was awarded ACC Tournament MVP after his stellar three games through the ACC Tournament.

With the absence of fellow freshman Cooper Flagg, who went down with an ankle injury during Duke’s 78-70 ACC Tournament quarterfinals victory over Georgia Tech, Knueppel took charge and led Duke all the way to a conference championship.

Across Duke’s three ACC Tournament games, Knueppel averaged 21 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists a game on 48.6% shooting from the floor. The rookie also went 22-of-24 from the free throw line across the three contests.

And during Knueppel’s interview after earning ACC Tournament MVP honors, the star freshman got Duke fans fired up for the NCAA Tournament, letting the Blue Devil faithful know that the job isn’t quite finished for this Duke team even after all of the success the program has already had.

“Two down, one to go,” Knueppel said during the team’s celebration after yesterday’s victory.

The two Knueppel is probably referring to are Duke’s ACC regular season title and its ACC Tournament title. But, there’s still the big dance, the NCAA Tournament, to go and the Blue Devils are looking to cut down another net in a few weeks.

Duke showed elite depth still remaining dominant without the team’s leader in Flagg, who leads the squad in all five major statistical categories. And now that Duke will reportedly get Flagg back in the lineup for March Madness, it’s scary just how good this Blue Devil squad can be.

Other players besides Flagg have now proven they can step up in a big moment when needed. Aside from Knueppel, veteran guard Tyrese Proctor had a team-high 19 points in Duke’s win over Louisville yesterday and Sion James scored 15 of his own.

The Blue Devils absolutely deserve to earn the #1 overall seed during tonight’s Selection Show, but it’s unclear who the tournament’s top squad will be after projected #1 overall seed Auburn fell to Tennessee yesterday in the SEC Tournament semifinals, 70-65.

Catch the Selection Show at 6:00pm ET on CBS.