Ten years ago, CJMcCollum and LehighMBB stunned Duke in one of the all-time March Madness upsets Now, they reflect to mshap2, who revisits a special night in Greensboro:
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It took 24 months for Lehigh to return to March’s biggest stage. The interim period between Big Dances provided a well of opportunity for growth, with an enhanced schedule including matchups against St. John’s, Iowa State and Michigan State, a No. 1 seed in 2012. Reed didn’t need to inspire confidence in the hours before tip-off in Greensboro. His team erupted with applause days before learning its matchup on Selection Sunday. Knutson expressed relief about avoiding Syracuse’s zone defense and Baylor’s potent front line with Quincy Acy and Perry Jones. A Duke team that produced eight NBA players—including Seth Curry and Austin Rivers—wasn’t a juggernaut to be feared. Not with McCollum on the other side.
The Mountain Hawks star generated many of his 18 second-half points the same way he earned his way into the national spotlight: sheer determination. He burrowed his way to the rim ad nauseum, earning 13 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes. His teammates once again followed his lead. Duke’s five-point lead with 17 minutes left was erased by buckets from Knutson and McCollum.
Video of the game matches Knutson’s memory. Each Lehigh basket down the stretch elicited a roar from the suddenly partisan crowd, one that reached a fever pitch as a dunk from Adams put Lehigh up 59–54 with two minutes remaining. A pair of McCollum free throws iced a 75–70 win two minutes later, completing one of the greatest upsets in tournament history.
It’s not hard to see why McCollum’s teammates speak of him with such reverence, and it’s more than the scoring outbursts and all-conference honors. He carries himself with a rare self-assurance, a confidence borne from the work ethic of a player outside the traditional preps-to-lottery pipeline. “I had been under the radar my whole life,” McCollum says. “I said, ‘Let people watch me; let them critique me.