DUKE 80

MARYLAND 70

January 9, 2000

Quoth C'well:  "Shane, stop fouling out!"

  Duke defeated Maryland 80-70 in Cole Field House on January 9th.  It  was Duke's 6th straight win over the Terps, as well as another  double-digit victory.  Unlike the blow-outs of the last couple of years, this one was fairly closely-contested throughout, although Duke was in the lead for virtually the entire game.  Maryland only came within 4 points twice in the second half, and both times was blunted by immediate Duke scores.  This Duke team is starting to remind me a bit of the '94 squad, another young team built around a versatile guard-forward that was extremely efficient and made its free throws.  Now, I'm not saying that Carrawell is of Grant Hill's caliber as a player, but his leadership and understanding of the game certainly stand out.  Duke doesn't have the ability to throttle great opponents, but they're good at moving on from mistakes and outperforming their foes down the stretch.  It helps that their leaders are so cool under pressure.

  This Maryland team is also very different from Terp squads of recent vintage, as they're comfortable in the half-court but lack the sensational athletes of recent years.  For the latter fact, Duke must feel grateful, because Duke's 21 turnovers might have led to a feeding frenzy in the Francis/Profit administratons.  The Terps also shot very, very poorly, despite getting all sorts of second, third (and even 4th and 5th) chances of scoring.  Part of this was due to Duke's suffocating defense, but they simply blew a few layups here and there.  And given their deficit and the way Duke was clamping down, they couldn't afford to miss any of the easy ones. 

  With the memories of Duke's early leads in recent games firmly in place, Maryland came out with great intensity and staked out a 4-0 lead.  The Devils promptly went on a 14-0 run in the next three minutes that Maryland never really recovered from.  Boozer was the big man here, scoring 7.  Maryland battled back a bit but Duke answered every time, actually increasing their lead to 23-12 with ten minutes left.  Battier hit a couple of jumpers in this stretch, and James had a big steal + layup.  Maryland finally managed to mount a real threat, closing the gap to 28-25 with four minutes left.  They hit one of their very few threes and also took advantage of some Duke turnovers.  Not surprisingly, Carrawell answered with a drive and a dish to to Dunleavy for a three that pushed Duke's lead up to 6 at 33-27.  Duke went up 10 again but Maryland finished the half with a flurry, cutting the lead to 39-34 and pushing the momentum their way. 

  After a couple of scoreless minutes in the second half, the Terps broke through and pulled to within 3.  Duke once again responded to the threat, with Boozer hitting Williams on a beautiful outlet pass, and the veterans Battier & Carrawell both sticking tough jumpers.  Duke missed a couple of opportunities to really pull away and the tenacious Terps kept fighting back, this time pulling to within 45-41.  Mike Dunleavy is a player who tends to score in spurts, and attacked the Maryland D with a beautiful drive and hit a foul shot.  Nick Horvath then hit a huge three and it looked like Duke was in control again with an 8 point lead.  But Maryland's pressure D and offensive rebounding kept them in contention, cutting the score to 4 once again at 51-47 with eleven minutes left.  This time, however, Duke was ready to put them away for good.

  Carrawell hit two big threes and Battier scored 5 points as Duke went on a 13-1 run that put them up 64-48 with 7 minutes left.  The Terps went into all-out attack mode at this point and forced a number of Duke errors (including a painful over-and-back call) and Duke timeouts to inbound, but could only come within 7.  Carrawell directed the offense down the stretch, hitting foul shots (4-5) and finding Boozer open for some important baskets.  The Devils did a good job of making sure that Maryland had no good looks at three point baskets, forcing them further and further out. 

  Coach K was extremely happy that his team won so convincingly despite so many mistakes, because they played hard and showed poise when they really needed to.  The team was delighted to start off the year with two huge road wins, which will be at a premium in the ACC, in two arenas that will be very tough this year.  Maryland had won 14 in a row at home before Duke ended that today...with their previous loss also to Duke last January.  Duke was also delighted to put one of the big ACC contenders in an 0-2 hole.  While far from a perfect performance, Duke's effort in a brutal place to play pulled out a win and a 2-0 start.  For a team so young, this is a real confidence-builder. 

** Negatives:

 1. Ballhandling.  Didn't react well to Maryland's pressing and trapping.  Lots of flubbed attempts to penetrate.  Too many lazy passes around the perimeter.  To Duke's credit, they were able to get back and play good defense, a sign that they didn't let their mistakes get to them.

2. Three point shooting.  Maryland's zone forced too many quick shots and let Maryland run the ball up the floor.  Duke tried to penetrate a bit more in the second half, reducing their threes from 14 to 10 and increasing their twos from 17 to 20, which helped them win. 

3. Bench.  Other than Dunleavy, this is starting to become a major factor.  Battier has fouled out the last two games and it doesn't look like anyone's stepped up enough to play major minutes in the frontcourt.  Dunleavy's versatility is a blessing but if Duke wants to win the conference, they will need a 7th man.

 ** Positives:

 1. Aggressiveness.  The Devils have always done well against pressing teams, since they're given a chance to attack the basket.  Duke did that very well in the second half, and also tightened up on the boards.  The frontcourt in particular played hard the entire game.

 2. Foul shooting.  This is one of this team's signatures.  Boozer stepped it up early with his shooting, and C'well, Battier and Dunleavy performed well late.  Only minor flaws: C'well missing the front end of a one-and-one and Dunleavy missing 3 of 6.  But Duke will be very tough to beat when they have a decent lead in the second half.

 3. Overall defense.  Held Maryland to something like 32%.  The Terps missed a LOT of tip-ins, but that was partially because Duke kept battling on the boards.  Battier had an amazing 7 blocks, while Boozer, Dunleavy and Carrawell joined in that party.  The Devils also came up with a number of steals late in the game.

 Player-by-player Analysis:

 ** Boozer:  Wow.  A big offensive bounce-back for 'los after a lackluster effort against Virginia.  Also, another huge rebounding effort--15 boards, many of them offensive.  He scored 7 of Duke's first 10 points, on free throws and tip-ins (including a wacky bouncing tip-in of a Battier miss).  He didn't give up an inch to Maryland's wide-body Lonny Baxter as the two fought each other for rebounds and position all day long.  While he only scored 6 in the second half, the timing on each was extremely important.  Duke was trying to put the Terps away with four minutes left and wanted to make sure to keep scoring.  With the shot clock running down, Carrawell found Boozer in perfect position under the basket for a dunk.  He found him again with two minutes left, and Williams found him with one minute left.  Much like in the Michigan game, he did a nice job of making himself an open target, a tribute to his court awareness and mobility.  He also demonstrated his good court sense in his passing ability.  He had a steal and outletted it to Williams for an easy dunk.  He had a spectacular pass to Battier for the basket and the foul, a play that put Duke up 16 with seven minutes left and made the rest of the game an uphill climb for the Terps.  He also found Horvath open for a three.  Carlos had but 1 turnover and hit 6 of his 10 shots.  It'll be interesting to see how he plays against shotblocking machine Alvin Jones, considering that a couple of his own attempts were blocked.

 ** Battier:  I won't chastise Shane one bit for his off-shooting performance (4-13) because he needed to take those shots.  He missed a few baseline jumpers that he routinely makes.  Nor will I criticize his fouling out, because he gave up his body the whole game (most notably on a "full speed ahead" charge by mammoth Lonny Baxter).  Shane had his hands full trying to guard the best player in the league, Terence Morris, and did an outstanding job on him.  Morris did not have a single open look on the perimeter, and had to get a lot of his points on putbacks and on the free throw line.  Shane hit most of his shots on jumpers, hitting on the baseline from 17', hitting in the lane from 15', and hitting a long three.  One of his most important baskets came on a pass from Boozer that Shane converted, drawing Morris' fourth foul.  The Devils were never able to foul him out, but it made him a lot more tentative defensively.  Shane's 9 boards and 7 blocks (!) speak for themselves.  K noted that one reason why Duke had so much trouble inbounding the ball towards the end was because Shane wasn't there and it's one of his specialties.  Carrawell had to take up this duty and Duke players had trouble getting free.

 ** Carrawell:  The clear star of this game was Cap'n C'well.  Since for once he wasn't forced to guard an offensive superstar (Danny Miller is no Donald Hand), he was able to freelance a bit and do a lot of damage offensively.  In the first half, he hit 4-7 shots as he pulled up to take incredibly tough 13-17 footers.  These were shots with two guys on him, taken at a dead halt.  He also did a great job distributing the ball, finding Battier and Dunleavy open.  The second half proved what a clutch player he is.  When Maryland cut an 8 point lead to 4 in a minute's time, Chris hit a big three pointer.  Battier found him open for another three that put Duke up 61-48 and began Duke's stretch run.  In the last few minutes, he found Boozer twice for big baskets and dished to his pal Nate James for a coup de grace dunk at the very end of the game.  While never a pretty player, all Carrawell does is help you win ballgames.  After the game, Bob Harris asked him if the Cole crowd was as good as the Cameron Crazies.  His reply: an emphatic, "no, NOT EVEN CLOSE!"  He was amused by the Cole crowd's "airball" chant after he badly missed a three, but even more so by their pin-drop silence when Duke was putting the game away.

 ** James:  This contest was a microcosm of Nate's game in general.  He made a number of ballhandling and passing mistakes, definitely his two major weaknesses (although he did have 3 assists).  On the other hand, he hit a couple of threes and all of his shots were good ones (except for pulling the trigger too quickly down the stretch).  He also did a nice job on the boards, tipping in a shot after Maryland had crept to within 4 with six minutes left.  He helped Duke take a commanding lead early with plays like a steal and running fullcourt for the layup.  His defense was sterling as he was often asked to guard Blake, smothering his attempts to shoot and penetrate, as well as Dixon, who got very few good looks.  Nate gets another win in front of the home folks.

 ** Williams:  This was, frankly, not a great game for Jason.  I counted 8 turnovers (don't have the overall stats in front of me, unfortunately), and many were made on careless attempts to penetrate.  He also made some mistakes when Maryland was pressing heavily towards the end.  He had a lot of trouble figuring out Maryland's zone.  To his credit, he stopped putting up threes and tried to put the ball in the hands of those players who were hitting.  He did have perhaps the game's biggest assist: with Maryland pressing like crazy, he managed to penetrate and hit Boozer for the basket and the foul.  One big positive was his defense.  He forced 2 five second calls on Steve Blake, and in general did a good job on both Blake and Dixon.  Maryland did not get a ton of penetration.  When Jason did score, it was on drives and a transition dunk.  I think Jason will bounce back in the friendly confines of Cameron, but we must remember that he is a freshman and was playing in a very hostile arena.

 ** Dunleavy:  Had kind of an ugly first half, with two turnovers.  He did hit a huge three from Carrawell that kept Maryland at arm's length after they had closed to within 3.  In the second half, he did a very nice job handling the ball.  He slithered in for a nice drive that upped the lead to 6 after Maryland again crept closer, and then hit a foul shot on the next play to keep the momentum going Duke's way.  Mike was in down the stretch after Battier fouled out and did a decent overall job.  Not a brilliant performance, but solid.

 ** Christensen:  Came in and played physically, muscling in for a couple of rebounds.  Travelled trying to pick up his dribble on the way to the basket and also put up an ugly shot.

 ** Horvath:  Basically came in as a zone buster.  Had one really nice play where he helped move the ball around the perimeter, avoiding taking the quick shot.  He then passed it into Boozer, who passed it back out to Horvath for the wide-open three that put Duke up by 8.  Missed 2 other quick threes. 

 Next Game:  Duke returns to Cameron on Wednesday the 12th to face Georgia Tech.  The Jackets put up a good fight against Virginia but got clobbered in the second half.  Tech will present an interesting challenge because of their size.  Duke has never figured out a way to guard Jason Collier even with Elton Brand around.  Figure that Battier will try to contain him while Boozer battles Alvin Jones on the boards.  Jason Williams will have a chance to shake his slump against Tony Akins, a good but not great guard.  Carrawell must lock up x-factor Jason Floyd so that Duke can concentrate on Tech's big men.  James must make sure that sharpshooter Shaun Fein doesn't get any open looks; he's not quick enough to create his own shots but is great at getting open off screens.  This is a game where Duke may want to give a few extra minutes to Christensen and Sanders in an effort to draw fouls.  Tech has no frontcourt depth at all.

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu