Best Scouted Team in America

By Ray Depta
March 13, 2006

Duke was outplayed by both Florida State and North Carolina in both of the Blue Devils recent losses.  Additionally, they have been played very closely by a number of teams this season and this last week during the ACC tournament.  I would contend that this is due to the great scouting that can be done of Duke before each game,  Duke is the best scouted team in the nation.  What do I mean?

Not that any fan would complain about getting to watch almost every single Duke game on television, but the fact is that fans are not the only ones who get to watch Coach K’s team twice a week.  Opposing coaching staffs and players get ample opportunities to study the tendencies of the Men in Blue.    I live in the Dallas & Fort Worth area of Texas, far from ACC country, and I have the privilege of watching all but one or two of the Blue Devils games this season.  So, teams in the NCAA tournament not only get to watch the games in order to study the tendencies of the Duke players, but they also get replays from many different angles. 

As the year has progressed, we have seen the evolution of defending J.J. Redick.  Each week, Duke’s adversaries get to see how previous Duke opponents have contested the man who is one of two candidates for national Player of the Year.  They replay his successes, but they also replay a lot of his misses.  Teams can watch in slow motion how Temple ran their box and one.  Assistant coaches can watch as ESPN zooms in to show how Carolina has a defender shadow Redick all over the court and how teams help contest him on the perimeter so that he cannot get an open look. 

While game tapes are available for nearly every team an ACC opponent plays, because of the importance each of the networks place on the Duke games, they have more cameras at Duke games and they often assign their top production personnel to the Duke games.  The many camera angles are often used to show, for example, how Shelden Williams is successfully double teamed.  Coach K’s substitution patterns, inbound plays, offensive sets, and defensive tactics are all provided twice a week by ESPN and Fox.  So, in the first few rounds of the tournament, as Duke is trying to learn a little bit about its opponents, teams they will play with little prior knowledge, most of the opponents players will already be extremely familiar with the various nuances of the 2006 Duke Blue Devils, especially its stars,  Redick and Williams. 

In addition, ACC players and coaches are aided by the coaching talents of announcers and commentators who are constantly remarking on the strengths and weaknesses of the Duke players.  As part of their job, Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, Billy Packer and other commentators all make remarks about the Duke stars and their tendencies.  They do that with al the teams, but there is an obvious familiarity with Duke when Vitale is doing a game,  

It would be unsportsmanlike to complain about this striking advantage that Duke’s opponents get.  Duke opponents could just as easily contend that all of these televised games help Duke in recruiting and rightly so.  The point to make is that these Blue Devils are already going to get everyone’s best shot each night because of who they are and, this direct satellite scouting only makes matters worse.   All the more reason to commend Coach K and the team for there excellent season and for winning the ACC championship.

Questions or comments? e-mail Ray at rjdepta@yahoo.com