Watch This College Basketball Team Trick Its Opponent Into Defending The Wrong Basket

Louisville's Briahanna Jackson picked up an easy two points. (Image via YouTube)

Basketball is a pretty straightforward sport. You try to score more points than your opponent. Sure, there are pesky rules around dribbling; how long your team can hold the ball without shooting; how hard you have to foul someone for it to be considered flagrant; and under what circumstances one is allowed to enter the crowd and fight with fans (under no circumstances).

It basically boils down to this: You try to shoot the ball through one basket while preventing your opponents from doing so in the other basket. Pretty clear, yes?

Not if you’re the Duke Blue Devils.

At the start of the third quarter in this week’s game against Louisville, the Cardinals set up as though they were attacking the wrong basket, and the Blue Devils bought in and responded by defending said wrong basket. So when the half began, Louisville’s Mariya Moore was able to inbound the ball to teammate Briahanna Jackson, who dribbled the opposite direction down the court and scored an uncontested layup.

“They were laughing at us, and I was like, ‘Why are they laughing?’” Duke’s Lexie Brown said. “And then, layup.”

Despite falling for the trickeration—which resulted in Jackson’s only basket of the night—Duke went on to win the game, 58-55. (My friend and I pulled off an almost-identical rouse in the 1990-something E.O. Smith High School student-faculty game; unfortunately, the faculty came out on top.)