Duke Blitzed By Arizona, Season Ends In Sweet 16
Four minutes and 28 seconds.
That’s all it took to end the season for Duke.
During those 268 seconds a six-point lead turned into an 11-point deficit as Arizona went on a 19-2 run and killed the will of Duke. After being punched in the face with a 17-point swing the Blue Devils looked lost and never really played hard enough to get back into the game.
“They just got on a real roll. When you get on a roll, you have more energy than the other guy,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We had no stop for them, and you kind of get overwhelmed there for a little bit. They knocked us back and got that double-digit lead.”
In that stretch Arizona shot 7-of-10, including three lay-ups and a dunk. They also pulled down every rebound on both ends of the floor. The Wildcats had eight (5 defensive, 3 offensive) and the Blue Devils had zero. Duke also lost the game battle of the boards, 40-27.
“After we lost the lead, I think everyone got a little rattled,” Kyrie Irving said. “We tried to settle down, but by then it was too late.”
It was too late, even though there was still 12 minutes left in the game when the Arizona run ended. Duke had no answer for the quickness of Arizona, who shot 54% from the floor, including 9-of-15 from 3-point land. The last 10 minutes of the game it looked like Arizona was running a practice, lay-up followed lay-up, with the occasional dunk thrown in to ignite the Wildcats fans.
The loss in the Sweet 16 was not the way seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith wanted to end their careers. Especially Smith, who was held to just 8 points (3-of-14) and turned the ball over six times.
“The way they played in the second half, they should win it all,” Smith said. “Williams is a monster. They hit us full force, and kept hitting. They did everything right, and we did a ton of things wrong.”
Without the ball in his hands Smith looked lost on the offensive end and went 16 minutes in the second half between field goals. During that scoreless stretch Smith went 0-for-6 with four turnovers.
Not all of Smith’s problems can be blamed on the fact that the offensive was running through Irving, some of it was the way Arizona played defense against him. Smith was harried all game and joins the list of Duke players who went out with a whimper, instead of a bang in their final game.
Singler, on the other hand, hit his season average of 18 in his final game and leaves Duke with a 125-23 record and a National Championship. The Blue Devils were led by Irving who scored 28 points in what might be his final game in a Duke uniform, but he did leave the door open.
“I could definitely see myself wearing a Duke uniform again,” he said. “I don’t want to take it off right now.”
Will Duke Be Able To ‘Flip The Switch?’
Entering the ACC Tournament Duke has dropped 2 of its last 3 games, both on the road. One to a team playing for its NCAA life, the other to the hottest team in the ACC. Dropping two of the last three is not the way anyone wants to head into their conference tournament.
The recent losses have worried some Duke fans. Like me.
Some people think that Duke has yet to play its best ball. I beg to differ. I think they are past playing their best ball. They haven’t really made any progress on the offensive end in the past few games. They’ve been static and don’t seem to have the same toughness they did last year.
Right now, teams need to be playing better than they did the game before, or at least show some signs or growth. Last year, that was true of the Duke Blue Devils. Not this year. Yes, they have senior leadership, but so did the 2005-06 team and look what happened to them.
There are similarities with this years team and that team, which was led by seniors JJ Redick & Shelden Williams. That team hit their peak too early, lost a couple of games late in the season. They were able to rebound and win the ACC Tournament, but then they were bounced by LSU in the Sweet Sixteen because they did not have enough scoring options.
Every game (save the Georgia Tech game) since the first UNC game has been pretty much the same. Let Nolan Smith drive the ball into the lane, maybe he’ll shoot, maybe he’ll look for someone on the perimeter. That’s about it. Sometimes Kyle SIngler will get the ball, run around a screen and take a shot.
There doesn’t seem to be an effort to get the big men involved in the offense. Unlike last year, Duke does not have three guys to take care of the scoring game-in and game-out. During last years’ run, Duke could afford to have Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas do nothing but rebound and play defense because Jon Scheyer was out on the perimeter with Smith & Singler.
This years team does not have that luxury. Smith and Singler will get their 40 points a game, but there is no consistent third scorer to help them out. Seth Curry has been the ‘third option’ most often, but he’s disappeared almost as frequently (Virginia Tech anyone?). Andre Dawkins has been more cold than hot recently. Ryan Kelly has all but vanished and the Plumlee’s can each play good games, but never at the same time.
All of these factors give me a sick feeling that, one, this team will not be able to win the ACC Tournament; and two, that getting knocked out in the Sweet 16 is more likely than a trip to Houston.
It would be nice if they come out and flip a switch in the ACC Tourney. They have a great opportunity to get off to a good start in their first game against either NC State or Maryland, they’ve beat both teams twice this season. After that they will most likely play either Florida State or Virginia Tech, two teams who have shown the ability to beat the Blue Devils this season.
I know that Coach K is a Hall-of-Fame coach and Duke has won 9 of the past 12 ACC Tournaments, but its not as easy as ‘flipping a switch’ once the post season starts. There needs to be growth, signs that something is happening and people are growing into their roles.
I am not seeing that right now and it has me worried. I hope I am wrong and that Duke will be able to turn in on, win the ACC Tournament. If that happens, I will gladly eat crow.
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Duke Looks To Repeat, But…
Weren’t we here last year?
The similarities between this years team and last years team run deep.
A Duke Blue Devil team trying to figure out exactly who they are.
A struggling Kyle Singler.
A Duke guard on the road to becoming ACC Player of the Year.
Big men who look to rebound first, get the ball back to the perimeter shooters second and score third.
The borderline 1-slash-2 seed.
The embarrassing loss to a Big East team.
The most recent victory over a non-ACC team.
26-2 this year, 24-4 last year.
So does that mean a loss at Virginia Tech is on the horizon, just like last when they lost at Maryland? Could senior Malcolm Delaney pull a Greivis Vasquez and will his team to victory over Duke? It’s a game that Virginia Tech needs to win to solidify their post season resume, so you know they will come out all guns blazing.
There is one glaring difference between this years team and last. And, no, its not Zoubek’s epic beard.
The big difference is last year Duke was led by ‘The Big Three’, this year its been ‘The Big Two’. Just like in math, three is better than two. Three is safer than two as well. How many two-legged stools have you ever sat on? Ones that you bought at IKEA don’t count, those Swedes know how to defy gravity.
This year, the ‘Big Two’ has morphed into the ‘Big One-and-Three-Quarters’. Nolan Smith has been even better than anyone could have hoped, but Singler has hardly played up to his preseason predictions and that ‘third scorer’ that every teams needs, has yet to fully emerge.
Right now, that third scorer role is being filled by Seth Curry, but at different times this year its been Andre Dawkins, Ryan Kelly and even Mason Plumlee. Curry has proven to be able to come up big in big games (UNC) and has the best overall game for being Duke’s ‘third scorer’, he can spot up or drive to the hoop. It was nice to see Curry come up big in a tough game because Duke is going to need a game like that from one of those guys to make it to Houston.
Without a true third scorer, this years team reminds me of the 2005-06 team. A team with two outstanding players (Redick & Williams) and a bunch of other guys who could score in double digits [Freshmen Josh McRoberts & Greg Paulus; Sophomore DeMarcus Nelson; Seniors Sean Dockery & Lee Melchionni], but didn’t do it often enough to be called a ‘third scorer.’
Those other guys combined for 35.3 points in 2005-06. This year, those other guys [Curry, Dawkins, Kelly & both Plumlees] combine for 36.5.
You remember that team, don’t you? Number one for the majority of the season, but you were never really comfortable with them, at least I wasn’t. I felt they were over rated for the entire season, but when you start 17-0 and 27-1, its tough not to stay in the top 3 all season. Then, in the Sweet 16 against LSU, when Redick shot 3-of-18 (11 points), Duke needed that third scorer to avoid losing to an inferior team. They didn’t get it, McRoberts had 9, Paulus has 7, Nelson had 4.
Last year Duke could absorb a bad game by one of the Big Three, even during the tournament run. Singler was 0-10 from the floor versus Baylor in the Elite 8 and Duke still able to win behind a career game from Smith and advance.
This year they would be hard pressed to win such a game, in fact, they were. In the UNC game, Singler was held in check and it took an all-world effort from Nolan Smith and a huge game from Curry. They scored over 70% of Duke’s points that game, that is not something they can count for any stretch of time.
The one thing that Duke hasn’t had to deal with since Kyrie Irving went out also happens to be every Duke fans worst nightmare.
Nolan Smith having a bad game.
Right now, I don’t think that Duke would be able to win a game where Smith has a bad game. Singler would step up, but who else would be there to carry the load for the Blue Devils?
And that is the big difference between this year and last. And why 3 is always better than 2.
Nolan Smith Sets Career High In Win
The Duke Blue Devils stepped out of conference against UAB and came away with a 85-64 victory extending their win streak to 24 games.
Duke played as well in the first seven minutes of the game as they have all season. They made 10 of their first 14 shots and turned a 3-0 deficit into a 26-4 lead before the second TV timeout and essentially ended the game against UAB long before the final score was decided.
During the 26-1 stretch, Duke couldn’t miss from the outside (4-of-4, 3-pointers), UAB couldn’t make any of their shots (0-for-9) and they were swarmed on defense turning the ball over four times.
Nolan Smith led the way with a career high 33 points and Mason Plumlee played his best game since the loss of Kyrie Irving, scoring 14 points. All the Duke big men were more involved in the offense because of their size advantage over UAB and they made the most of their opportunities. They also played havoc with the Blazers defense setting screen after screen to open the floor for everyone else.
Right now Smith is making the game look simple, its like he is playing a video game on a level too easy for him. When he had space, he drove to the hoop and made lay up after lay up, occasionally rocking Cameron to its rafters. In the second half, he split four Blazers on his way to a spectacular dunk, breaking his career high. Is it possible that every team is taking him for granted? Has anyone not watched his game take off since Irving went down?
“I think Nolan’s probably playing as well as anyone in the country right now,” Coach K said. Smith is averaging over 26 points per game over his last five and is looking like the best player in for the Blue Devils, if not in the entire country.
Smith is quickly cementing his name among the Top 3 guards in Duke history since 2000. Trailing only Jason Williams and JJ Redick, he is entering the Player of the Year conversation and is looking to add his jersey to the rafters at Cameron Indoor. Before the year started it was Kyle Singler, not Smith, who was the talk of POY conversations. Smith was thought of as the ‘other senior’ on the team, just like last year when he was the third of the ‘Big Three’.
Everyone is a fan of Smith, even Blazers coach Mike Davis. “The thing I like about him is his endurance,” Davis said. “You can watch a game and you see a guy make eight points in a row and he’s got to come out of the game, or he’ll make a couple of hard plays and he’s tired and got to come out. This guy is unbelievable from that standpoint. He plays the same way the whole night.
“When he’s making shots, he’s almost impossible to guard.”
Even Mason came out of his recent slumber, starting with his drive to the hoop from the top of the key. Where has that move been all season? Has he been saving it? Only two of his baskets were on plays called for him, but it was nice to see him so involved. The rest came on put backs, fast break flushes and an inbounds play.
Duke heads back into ACC play on Sunday when nemesis number two, the Maryland Terrapins come calling at Cameron. Kyle Singler had 15 points and became the 11th Duke player with 2000 or more points.
Life Without Irving? Not The End Of The Road
Did the injury to Kyrie Irving happen to the right Duke team at the right time?
When top ranked teams lose one of their top three players things usually go south from there. Duke has been lucky in the past years that they haven’t had an injury that crippled the team, leading to a 500 season or worse.
Can you imagine last years’ team losing Jon Scheyer? They most certainly don’t win the National Championship and probably don’t even get past the Sweet 16. Who becomes the third scoring option on that team? How slow do they have to play with just two guards?
What about the 2005-06 team losing Shelden Williams? Who plays inside next to freshman Josh McRoberts? Freshmen Jamal Boykin and Eric Boatang? How about an undersized and outweighed Lee Melchionni? No chance in hell that team starts 27-1 or wins the ACC Championship. JJ Redick would have needed to average 40+ points per game just to keep that team afloat. It would have been fun to watch Redick hoist 15 3-pointers a game, but they wouldn’t have got very far.
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This years team has been able to handle the loss of Irving because of the quality of their depth. Without question this is the deepest Duke team in recent memory. The 2008-09 team may have been deeper in players (nine people averaged 12 minutes a game), but this team has more talent.
The trio of healthy guards (Nolan Smith, Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins) may be the best at Duke in 10 years. The big men may be the most athletic ever in Durham. Having a pair of All-American candidates (Smith and Singler) definately helps save this team from free falling back into the pack of weak ACC teams.
They have looked good in the three games without Irving, but they haven’t played anyone that could scare them. Not only has losing one of their best three players happened during a season where they had plenty of talent, but his injury occurred at the right time of the season. Duke has played just three games in the past three weeks, all against cupcakes. This has allowed them to make the adjustment to an Irving-free offense at game speed without a real threat of losing.
While the injury to Irving removed the ‘over-whelming National Champion favorite’ tag from Duke, it hasn’t crippled them. Now the tag reads ‘another Championship contender’, which is fine by me because it means we still have a good chance to repeat. With or without Irving.
