Clutch Freshmen Class Leads Duke to National Championship

— -- With the season on the line, Duke turned to its rookies.

A group of freshmen – Grayson Allen, Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow – helped the Blue Devils win the NCAA men’s basketball championship Monday against Wisconsin, 68-63.

Jones scored 19 of Duke’s 37 points in the second half as Duke erased a 9-point deficit to hold off the Badgers.

“It's indescribable,” Jones said after the victory. “It's just one of those feelings that you're going to remember for the rest of your life.”

The 18-year-old, named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, was coached since kindergarten by his mother, Debbie, who also played point guard in college.

“We set a goal at the beginning of the season and that was to win a national championship, and through adversity we stuck to it,” he said.

Allen, often overlooked amid the strong freshman class, sparked Duke’s rally with 10 second-half points, a contribution that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski acknowledged after the win.

“Grayson put us on his back, and we went to him kind of exclusively because of his ability to drive and penetrate, and he did,” Krzyzewski said.

Okafor played 22 minutes and scored 10 points, though he made his presence felt late as the Blue Devils were pulling away with a 12-5 surge to end the game.

Jones and Okafor came to Duke as a package deal of sorts. Jones, the slick 6-foot-1 guard from Minnesota and Okafor, the 6-11 stud from Chicago, have been friends since grade school and played together for USA Basketball.

"We just hugged each other," Okafor said. "This is what we wanted to do. I've known Tyus since third-grade. For us to be together is a special moment."

The night before the title game, the teammates said they watched video clips of “One Shining Moment,” the tournament’s yearly theme, on YouTube.

"You're just so invested emotionally and physically to just have it right in front of you, you just want to make sure you make the most of it,” Jones said after contributing to his team’s own shining moment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.