Duke failed to deliver a send-off victory for Coach K for the second night in a row.
Virginia Tech was playing party pooper.
Hunter Cattoor scored a career-high 31 points and the seventh-seeded Hokies won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time.
Virginia Tech came to Brooklyn in need of a run to make the NCAA tournament, and then was on the verge of elimination after a last-second 3-pointer by the other team.
Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said the Hokies were lucky after the game.
How did you feel after beating Duke?
Young said, "Gratifying."
The lowest-seeded team to win the most-storied conference tournament in college basketball was the Hokies.
They are the fourth champion to win the title by beating the top three seeds.
The Hokies will get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 43 years, tying for the fourth-longest span between automatic bids in Division I history. The last conference tournament title for Virginia Tech was in 1979.
A celebration of the winningest coach in Division I men's college basketball was derailed a week ago when Duke lost to North Carolina.
The top-seeded and seventh-ranked Blue Devil got another chance to win and add to the case for the retiring Hall of Famer. Again, it was not to be.
I tell them all the time that I want to be with them. How do we use it? How do we get better?
The whole word was about my retirement last weekend. It was a difficult weekend. We tried to eliminate everything. These are young men. I have enjoyed coaching them. I think we can do well in the tournament. I was very positive with them afterwards.
The outnumbered Hokies fans rose with a roar when Justyn Mutts made a two-hand slam over Duke's star freshman Paolo Banchero in the second half.
We went to the huddle after the next dead ball and were able to taste it. Point guard Storm Murphy said that they can taste it now.
Virginia Tech won the conference title for the first time.
The Virginia Tech fans sang along to the unofficial fight song, "Enter Sandman", which blared throughout the arena. The biggest victory in the series was by the Hokies, who beat Duke by 15 points.
Duke shot 4 for 20 from 3-point range and allowed the Hokies to make 50% of their shots.
Young led his teams to five Southern Conference tournament titles. It took him three seasons to get his first at Virginia Tech, but he did it with a roster full of guys he recruited to play at his old school.
Murphy and Keve Aluma are both transfers from Wofford and Cattoor was set to go there out of high school before Young took the Virginia Tech job.
Krzyzewski was denied his 16th title in his 42nd season.
The Duke fans did their best to make the game feel like a Blue Devil home game, even though it is a long way away.
Duke had a hard time this week in Brooklyn.
Duke didn't have a halftime lead in any of the games.
Duke started the second half with a sloppy turnover on offense and then gave up a layup, as they fell behind by three at the half.
Krzyzewski called a timeout 35 seconds into the game and then got out of his chair to demonstrate the movement he wanted to see from his players.
The desired result was not achieved by the scolding. Cattoor made a steal on the other end and then converted a three-point play with a layup.
Less than five minutes into the half, the Hokies were up 55-45.
Every time Duke applied pressure, the Hokies responded.
Young said that he knew when it came together that the Hokies would come together to play their way off the bubble.
The report was contributed to by the Associated Press.