Adam Smith / Times-News

GREENSBORO – The long rebound was bouncing off toward the sideline and into irretrievable territory, but Kyle Singler gave chase with reckless abandon anyway.

And what happened next became crystallized as a defining moment in the Duke forward’s Most Valuable Player performance throughout the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.

Singler launched his beat-up body out of bounds Sunday in an all-out-effort to retain possession, hurdling the first row of press seating and crashing into ESPN play-by-play man Dan Shulman.

The collateral damage included crunched monitors, chairs and headsets. Papers scattered everywhere. Curtains on the tables in that area were left shredded. Clusters of reporters were left shaken.

Singler’s elbow even crushed a Mountain Dew can on the second row of press seating.

“I know I broke some things,” he said, “but I had a soft landing.”

It was a wreck that never had to happen. All Singler had to do was stop and the dents and scratches would have been avoided.

But that notion never occurred to him.

“I wasn’t worried about jumping in the stands,” he said. “Just saving the ball was the main thing. I guess that was the only thing that was going through my mind.

“I’m not afraid of much. I just play hard.”

And well.

Singler elevated his first-team all-league skills to another level during Duke’s title run at the Greensboro Coliseum.

He finished off the tournament with 20 points and six rebounds against Georgia Tech by relying on a championship-game record 14 free throws to overcome the effects of 3-for-15 shooting from the field.

“It wasn’t necessarily that I was worried about I couldn’t shoot,” Singler said. “It was just being more aggressive and just trying to get a rhythm somehow. You really can’t be passive against their defense and their press.”

Singler delivered a tour de force of 27 points, five 3-pointers, eight rebounds and six assists in Saturday’s semifinal defeat of Miami.

That had teammate Lance Thomas wondering aloud if Singler had risen in status and perhaps claimed the mantle as Duke’s go-to player.

Singler started the tournament with 14 second-half points Friday that fueled an 18-point, 11-rebound outing against Virginia in the quarterfinals.

“He’s really making the biggest plays,” Duke center Brian Zoubek said. “He might not be the most vocal guy. But you look at him, you look in his eyes and you see the fire and the intensity that he has. And you can’t help but try to match it.”

For all of the numbers Singler produced during the Blue Devils’ three tournament victories here, an unquantifiable statistic might have been the most meaningful.

That would be scratches – from all of the painful situations he flung his 6-foot-8, 230-pound frame into.

“He’s a daredevil,” classmate and roommate Nolan Smith said. “Kyle’s going to jump over cars, trucks, anything.”

That brought back the searing memory of Singler’s hustle play in the first half of Sunday’s final.

It was a dive that left a grin plastered on Dick Vitale’s face and prompted mention of Pete Rose and Dennis Rodman inside the Duke locker room.

“Him giving up his body completely for the team just says everything about him,” Zoubek said. “He was our leading scorer, probably leading us in a lot of other categories. And to make a play like that, especially when you know you’re going to get just rocked by the tables and everything there, the chairs, that’s impressive to me.

“You could stop and be like, ‘OK, this play really isn’t that important. My health is kind of more important than this play.’ But he doesn’t have that mentality. He has a win-or-die mentality.”