DUKE 106

VIRGINIA 86

February 5, 2000

  Duke avoided the distinct possibility of a physical or emotional letdown by thrashing a good Virginia team 106-86 in Cameron on February fifth.  Duke was up 10 four minutes into the game, up by 20 twelve minutes into the game, and up by 32 at the half.  Virginia Coach Pete Gillen threw on a game-long full court press that Duke shredded easily throughout.  While the Hoos played much better in the second half, at one point cutting the lead back to 18, they simply weren't able to stop Duke when it counted.  In addition to the usual heroics from Battier (21 points, 10 boards) and Carrawell (25 and 6), two Devils who played poorly up in Charlottesville dominated today: Boozer and Williams.  Jason had his most spectacular floor game as a Devil, shredding Virginia for 13 points and 13 assists.  Boozer was absolutely unstoppable down low, scoring on dunks and post-ups at will.  He was also extremely active both on defense and on the boards.  Duke eventually forced Virginia to go one-on-one, with Donald Hand torching Duke for 27 points but also a number of bad shots and a charge.  Duke clearly got a little tired in the second half but also looked a bit panicked.  The best sign is that Williams and Boozer both helped right the ship when Virginia made their run, reassuring since it meant that Carrawell and Battier didn't have to shoulder that responsibility.  My theory on this team is that when Boozer and Williams play well, Duke is very tough to beat.  We all know what Battier and Carrawell will bring every night, but those other two talented frosh are the team's true X-factor because they represent two crucial aspects of Duke's attack: the ball-handler/penetrator and post presence.  Shane and Chris can fill in on these roles when necessary but a peak performance from Williams and Boozer removes that need, particularly since both are better at their position.

  The game began with an 8-0 Duke run with 2 threes and a transition basket. It quickly swelled to 12-2 as Duke was cleaning up Virginia's short misses. Duke's defense continued to dominate and their mastery of the boards was complete as the Devils held a 25-9 lead with seven minutes gone by.  Boozer and Carrawell were doing most of the damage as the Devils continued their rampage, leading 41-21 with five minutes left in the half.  Jason was  flawlessly executing the offense, finding open players on the break time after time.  Even when Duke's big men got in foul trouble, Nick Horvath came in off the bench, scoring on a layup and playing good defense.  Back to back threes put Duke up by the absurd margin of 51-23 with four minutes left in the half.  Virginia finally woke up a bit and started scoring, but Duke still outscored them 14-10 in the first half's last few minutes.  Jason in particular had a scoring outburst towards the end.

  In the second half, Duke came out blazing once again, going up 75-38 thanks to Dunleavy scoring on a drive and getting fouled.  The Hoos had  finally had enough and went on a 20-2 run spearheaded by Hand, Williams and Mason.  Virginia was forcing quick shots from Duke and absolutely creaming Duke's D.   Eventually, Duke got its rhythm back and started to trade baskets with the Cavs.  Williams and Boozer led the initial effort, but Carrawell and Dunleavy also attacked the basket.  But it was Williams who directed the action, getting 6 assists in the last twelve minutes. With Battier getting 6 free throws in a row and Williams applying the coup de grace with some full-court drives, the Devils were able to score enough to keep their huge lead.  Virginia got as close as 18 but no more, even though they had a lot of momentum.  The bottom line is that Duke beat the second-place team in the league by a wide margin with only 36 hours of rest. The Devils are not a dominant team as of yet, mostly because of their depth problems and relative youth, but they are hard to beat because the will to win exhibited by the tri-captains is contagious.  They don't let mistakes get to them and aren't afraid to take big shots.  They've been tempered again and again by close games and have found ways to win.  The regular season is starting to wind down, with Wednesday-Saturday games coming up every week.  Duke must watch fatigue and make sure to start conserving energy for late in the season.   

 ** Negatives:

 1. Lapses in concentration.  Blame it on fatigue, blame it on the big lead, but Duke's normal steely resolved was greatly challenged at some points in the second half.  Virginia is a potent athletic squad, but Duke helped set them up a bit with lazy passes and poor shot selection.  The Devils eventually righted themselves, but not before Virginia got into a nice rhythm offensively.

 2. Cutting off penetration.  Virginia was getting easy shots in the first half, but they couldn't convert on a lot of their penetration.  In the second half, Hand blew by every Duke defender to take it to the basket.  The Cavs were aided by the sudden resurgence of their outside shooting abilities. By playing tighter on the perimeter, they gave Virginia a chance to drive, and they made the best of it, especially since Duke rotated over too slowly.

 3. Using depth.  It was a bit disappointing that in a 20-point win where Duke led by nearly 40 points at one juncture that we couldn't get more minutes for folks like Christensen, Horvath, Sanders and Buckner.  I realize that Virginia was starting to make a big comeback, but we're in a time of year when minutes will start to add up.

 ** Positives:

 1. Rebounding.  Nice to see this in the "positive" column.  Everyone took care of business today, with Duke hitting the offensive boards hard and keeping the Hoos off the boards, especially in the first half.  Boozer handily won his matchup with UVa's only significant post presence, Travis Watson.

 2. Transition offense.  Set up in part by Gillen's press, Duke was absolutely explosive.  Jason's court vision was excellent and everyone was looking to finish.  The press only caused 1 turnover by my count.

 3. Post offense.  The stat I was happiest with was that Duke only took 6 threes in the first half.  Part of that was because of Boozer's 8 attempts from the floor.  Duke knew they had a matchup advantage and they fully exploited it.   

 Player-By-Player Analysis:

 ** Boozer:  Carlos really came to play.  He knew that he was outplayed in  his earlier meeting with Virginia by Travis Watson, and played like he had something to prove.  He was completely unstoppable, getting the ball in good position and looking to score every time.  He was a menace on the breaks, finishing with a number of dunks.  But he also scored on a nice face-up 5' jumper, a beautiful turn-around, and lots of post-ups.  He started the second half with a bang: after making his first free throw, he missed his second, got his own rebound and drove in for a layup.  When Virginia was cutting into Duke's lead, he made himself available and got some easy dunks. Virginia simply couldn't cope with his presence.  He also rejected three shots, utterly demoralizing Virginia's post players.  Combine that with 9 boards and great defense on Watson and you have one of Carlos' finest games of the year.  

 ** Battier:  What an odd game for Shane.  He only had three field goals: a couple of nice spot-up threes and a drive that beat the press.  But Shane still had 21 points, thanks to his ability to get to the foul line over and over.  More importantly, he absolutely owned the boards, blocking out Chris Williams time and again.  While Williams had some late threes, Battier really dominated this matchup, which was particularly meaningful since Williams went off for 27 in their last meeting.  Hand may have gone wild for Virginia, but he was about the only player who really hurt Duke.  Shane had one crucial charge on Hand at a time when Battier already had three fouls and Hand was running wild.  But Shane correctly guessed that Hand was so into the one-on-one game that he would barrel straight at him, and he got the call. 

 ** Carrawell:  More than in any other game I've seen this year, Chris was really hunting his shot, and briefly visited that transcendant place of perfection that athletes call the Zone.  Chris was shockingly quiet for the first nine minutes of the game, but then absolutely went nuts on Virginia. It began with a drive for a layup that put Duke up 15.  He later got a  steal and went coast-to-coast for another layup.  Then he scored on a pull-up.  After Battier hit a demoralizing three, C'well added insult to  injury with a pull-up trey.  9 points in two minutes.  Chris also had 5 first-half rebounds and shut down both Adam Hall and Roger Mason.  He slowed down a bit in the second half, but still had a few key baskets, driving for a layup and a foul to help Duke get its offensive rhythm back.  While he did score 9 points in the second half, he looked a bit tired and had some very uncharacteristic lazy passes that went out of bounds or into the hands of Hoos.  Still, Virginia didn't really know how to react to his offensive barrage that turned the game into a romp.  Chris continues to build his  credentials for ACC player of the year and possible all-american.

 ** James:  A typical Nate handyman kind of day.  He nailed an early three and tipped in two misses, standard plays in the James repetoire.  He played excellent defense throughout and provided a boost on the boards.  His only real negative was making a couple of bad passes.  A Glue kind of game, one where he wasn't called on to do much but where he made some contributions anyway.  

 ** Williams:  Today, Jason proved that he can really run this team like a  point guard should.  He looked like the second coming of Bobby Hurley out there, attacking the Virginia defense and passing up his own shots when he saw something developing for others.  At the same time, he wasn't afraid to aggressively drive to the basket when he saw that was what the defense was going to give him.  He only had 2 turnovers and they were both early in the game.  He earned yet another 5 second call on Hand.  He had three assists in the first two minutes of the game, finding Shane for a three, Nate for another and Boozer on the break for a jam.  His first shot of the game came on a nice drive where he stopped from 5' and popped a jumper.  The hits kept coming as he hit Boozer on another break, found a wide-open Horvath for a  layup and Battier for another three that really broke Virginia's spirit. He had 6 points of his own in the half's final minute, where he canned another short jumper, hit 2 foul shots, and then tossed in a layup at the buzzer. He had missed moments earlier, but a Cav unwisely tried to save it inbounds under his own basket, and threw it right to Williams, who alertly laid it in.

  Jason was absolutely the biggest key in surviving Virginia's second half run.  After Virginia went on an 11-0 run, Jason got the ball to Carlos and he scored.  He hit Dunleavy twice on turnarounds to keep things going.  He found Carrawell on another nice inside feed when the Devils were still in  some danger.  Toward the end of the half, he got a rebound and drove hard down the court.  Seeing that no one was going to stop him, he gave a quick stutter and went coast-to-coast for a layup, Duke's 100th point.  He had another nice drive and found Boozer on an amazing pass.  One can see how well Jason is making decisions now.  There was one point where Jason was open for a three late in the game with about 25 seconds on the shot clock.  He passed it up, taking more time off the clock and leading Duke to another score.  Jason did get slapped by Hand in the second half, leading to C'well having to guard him, but Hand is simply a dominant scorer.  The punchline is that Jason has a badly sprained finger that's causing him a lot of pain, but he did a fine job playing through it.

   ** Dunleavy:  Good little game for Icy Mike.  He got a few key boards, found Boozer twice down low for baskets, and scored on a nice drive in the first half.  He also was called upon to handle the ball against the press, and did a nice job.  He was a bit more active on offense in the second half, scoring and getting fouled on one drive and being fed by Williams on two others.  I'm glad that he's not simply relying on his jumper for offense. Mike hasn't really had a dominant game in a while but he's been steady throughout.  His defense has really started to improve as well.

 ** Christensen:  Some OK minutes for Matt.  He got a couple of tough rebounds and tapped in a missed offensive rebound.  On a break, Jason gave him the  ball and he aggressively went to the hole.  He missed, but it was on a good move. 

 ** Horvath: Nick got some decent minutes when Christensen picked up his second foul and Boozer was already on the bench for the same reason.  He was aggressive on defense, getting a steal.  Jason found him so wide open under the basket for a layup that he almost missed the shot! 

 ** Sanders: Had a bit role at the end of the first half to ensure that  Boozer wouldn't pick up a silly third foul, and got a good rebound in the second half.

 ** Buckner, Borman and Simpson:  Only got in at the very end, and did nothing at all.  The exception was JD, who turned the ball over twice but also picked up a steal.

 Cameron Craziness:

  While the stadium was completely full, the volume was a little less than I had hoped for.  "Hand-job" was heard for Donald Hand on the line, along with the expected hand gesture.  Coach K didn't like that one and told the students so.  The students did sense when Duke really needed a lift, and gave it to them in the last ten minutes.  Nate's Dogg Pound was back and even bigger, and they played a big role in firing up the crowd.  An amusing moment came when the Blue Devil was in the upper deck and found Crazy Towel Guy and started waving his own towel.   

Next Game: 

  Wednesday, February 9th vs Maryland in Cameron at 9:00pm.  This is another big game for Duke, since the Terps could move into a tie for second place if they beat State tomorrow.  A victory over Maryland would mean another sweep and another tiebreaker, as well as moving Duke one step closer to clinching first place.  No team hates Duke more right now than the Terps, since the Devils have owned Maryland in the last few years.  Steve Blake outplayed Jason Williams in their first meeting; look for Jason to be much more aggressive on defense and in running the offense.  An x-factor is Tahj Holden, a 6-10 forward with both perimeter and post skills who has only recently come on.  Duke will have to account for his presence off the bench. Battier will have to contend once again with all-ACC talent Terence Morris; he must keep him off the boards and limit his shots.  Boozer will have to  fight against the similarly-sized Lonnie Baxter and use his height to score on him.  Carrawell will draw Juan Dixon, another of the league's leading scorers.   

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu