Duke’s loss to Lehigh last Friday night wasn’t such a shock to those who watched the Blue Devils’ season crumble into the disjointed mess the nation saw during one of the more notable upsets in NCAA Tournament history.
The Blue Devils had been trending to a bad place for a couple of weeks prior to the 75-70 defeat, and as Lehigh established itself as the aggressor, the Devils had no answers for guard C.J. McCollum or their own futility.
A lack of spirit and verve, as Mike Krzyzewski often looks for in his team, and a lack of on-court communication were as much a part of Duke’s season-ending problems as inconsistency shooting the ball or failing to grab enough rebounds.
Duke finished the season 27-7, which is a fine record and is indicative of a lot of quality work put forth by this team. But it couldn’t sustain it. Duke’s high point was beating Florida State in Tallahassee on Feb. 23, but from that point on, the Blue Devils were a poor team, culminating in last Friday’s humbling experience.
The following are five reasons why Duke was not your typical Duke team this season:
Point guard issues – Four different Blue Devils started games at the point. Seth Curry was given a shot for the second straight season and it didn’t work out again. So, by default, sophomore Tyler Thornton, who is limited offensively, became Duke’s main point guard.
Krzyzewski insisted all season his team was “good” offensively, and he would cite scoring numbers to support his claim. But it didn’t flow like most previous Duke teams, and if Austin Rivers couldn’t make a play, Duke struggled late in close games.
Compare Curry, Thornton, Quinn Cook and Rivers, who is more of an off guard than a lead guard, to the following names of Duke point guards for Krzyzewski teams that played for national titles: Tommy Amaker, Bobby Hurley, William Avery, Jason Williams and Jon Scheyer.
Reliance on the 3 – It isn’t so much that Duke attempted too many 3-pointers this season, but more that the Blue Devils relied too much on making 3s to win games. Duke attempted 21.7 3s per game this season, compared to 19.6 during 2010, which was a team that eventually won the national championship.
Big men Miles and Mason Plumlee haven’t developed enough fluid post moves at the rate former Duke star Shelden Williams did, as an example, and the lack of a true quality point guard made Duke more imbalanced.
Their issues regularly getting open and/or getting the ball when they were put too much pressure on the perimeter shooters to deliver. It’s no coincidence that during Duke’s final six games it did not shoot well from beyond the arc.
Defense – Though they improved some late in the campaign, the Blue Devils were one of the worst defensive teams in the ACC, and really struggled defending the perimeter. Duke was 10th in the ACC allowing opponents to convert 43.3 percent of their field-goal attempts, while in 2010 Devils’ opponents hit 40.1 percent of their shots. However, Duke foes connected on 37.1 percent of their 3s this season compared to 28.3 percent two seasons ago.
Not one Blue Devil made the ACC’s all-defensive team for the first time in 16 years, and Thornton, the team’s best on-ball defender was consistently foul prone. Thornton was sixth on the team in minutes, averaging 21 per contest, yet he led the Devils with 95 fouls, which is 19 more fouls than committed by forward Miles Plumlee, who played basically the same number of minutes.
No leader – Duke never had a leader rise up and take over, and Krzyzewski had a difficult time serving as the leader of a somewhat disjointed team. The Hall of Fame coach’s program has long been known for older players leading and teaching the younger players about the Duke culture and how to become Blue Devils. Some of the greatest leaders in college basketball history have played for Krzyzewski, such as Shane Battier and Scheyer.
And much to the contrary, Duke wasn’t as young as some with an interest in the Blue Devils advanced. Duke started a senior, two juniors, a sophomore and freshman in its NCAA Tournament loss to Lehigh. As power programs in power conferences go these days, that’s an experienced squad. It also played a key junior off the bench, and until the ACC Tournament had junior Ryan Kelly getting major minutes.
Kelly, the two Plumlees and Andre Dawkins played minutes on a national title team and Curry sat out that year as a transfer. In addition, five of the seven players that saw the most action this season were upper classmen. None of the veterans handled the role of leadership because it didn’t suit any of their personalities, though Kelly would have had a better chance at getting the job if he performed more consistently. Also, with Rivers, who wasn’t exactly loved in that locker room, being the dominant player, the challenge for someone to step up other than the freshman was too great.
No Slasher – Kelly, at 6-foot-10, was basically Duke’s only lateral player. When he went down prior to the ACC Tournament the offense went completely south. And what’s amazing is that Kelly reached double figures in just half of Duke’s conference games, and over the Blue Devils’ final seven games, Kelly converted just 18 of 53 field goals attempts, good for 33.9 percent.
Duke was too often a three out, two in offense with no slasher on the floor. The Devils were easier than usual to defend and Krzyzewski was limited in the variety of stuff the team could run. In addition, post defenders didn’t have to leave their men that much, keeping them in denial on Duke’s bigs, and with no true ACC-caliber point guard, that simply wasn’t a fluid combination.
