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Overall:
Duke defeated Army 100-42 on
11/20/99 in Cameron. The tiny Army squad managed to keep the
margin under 10 points in the first five minutes thanks to some
timely offensive rebounding, but an extremely efficient Duke offense
that shot 70% in the first half doubled their lead in the next five
minutes and took a commanding 52-15 lead into the half. This
was a school and ACC record 37th consecutive home win for Duke;
their last loss occurred at the hands of Tim Duncan's Wake Forest
team in January of 1997.
It was clear from the
outset that Duke was going to work on their inside game a bit, and
the results were very positive. Carlos Boozer made his first
start and showed that he isn't likely to relinquish it any time
soon. He only played fifteen minutes total, but they were
jam-packed with activity. While he still isn't leaping the way I'd
like, he looked very smooth going to
the basket; and Jason Williams did an excellent job in finding him
and delivering soft passes to him. Duke led 13-2 after four
minutes, but an Army timeout and some crisp ball movement cut the
lead to 7. Army was very scrappy and fought hard for rebounds,
and outhustled Duke a few times early in the game.
Coach K started
experimenting with the lineup early, bringing Andre Buckner, Casey
Sanders and Mike Dunleavy in after just four minutes. After
the Cadets trimmed the lead to 19-8, Duke went on a 22-0 run led by
Nate James (6 points, 2 steals) and Shane Battier (5 points and a
steal). K called off the dogs a bit at this point and brought
in JD Simpson for a few minutes. Towards the end of the first
half, K was doing something interesting on defense. Duke had
missed a shot with 7 seconds left and Army rebounded. Rather
than just play straight defense, he chose to work with the fact that
Duke had only 4 team fouls. He used up two of them to help set
up his defense, but Army got a wide-open look that rimmed out when
Buckner was screened off. I've said it before, I'll say it
again: one of the toughest things a young player must learn is how
to fight through screens.
The second half
started with a 15-0 run, interrupted by an Army 3, and then another
15-0 run. Duke was up 82-18 at this point and turned off the
pressure with about 8 minutes left. Simpson, Christensen,
Horvath, Buckner, and Caldbeck finished up down the stretch, with
the only real suspense being whether Duke would get to 100.
Second half standouts included Sanders with 6 points, 6 rebounds and
2 blocks; James with 9 points and 4 boards; Battier, with 7 points,
1 steal and 1 board; and Carrawell, with 8 points and 5 boards.
In terms of game
action, there really wasn't a whole lot to analyze here. Duke
whipped a smaller and less athletic team that was fairly disciplined
(no surprise there). The veterans looked solid and the frosh
have clearly made progress, for the most part.
** Negatives:
1. Offensive rebounding. Duke only won this battle 19-12, and
it was much closer in the first half.
2. Three point shooting. Actually, most of the shots looked
OK, it's just that very few went in. The rotation around the
perimeter could have been crisper.
3. Fighting through screens. This gave Army some of their very
few open shots.
** Positives:
1. Valuing the ball. For such a young team that looks to run
most of the time, there have been very few careless turnovers.
Having a number of players who can handle the ball is a definite
plus.
2. Shotblocking. Simply fierce tonight, with Sanders leading
the parade.
3. Attitude. Almost everyone was fired up and ready to play,
and played hard the whole time. It was important after the two
opening losses that the squad keep their confidence level up.
Player-by-Player breakdown:
** Boozer: An excellent game in his first start. Looked
smoother and more confident, as though he were ready to step up
inside. Duke went to him early and he converted with two nice
post moves ending up in short turnaround J's. He
also was solid from the line, hitting 5 of 6. Having a big man
who can hit his foul shots will be very important down the line.
He also showed that he has a fighting attitude. When an Army
player put about 4 fakes on Carlos to get him out of position for a
basket, Carlos responded by demanding the ball and powering his way
over the same player. Boozer has learned how to shoot quickly
once he's in position: Williams nailed him with a pass from
halfcourt and Carlos quickly turned around and scored. He also
had 8 boards, but I sense
that he could average 10 very shortly. Rebounding just comes
easily to him. He's starting to understand how to use his
strength as well as his quickness in the post, as in one play where
he was outpositioned for the board but literally ripped the ball out of the Army player's
hands!
** Battier: Shane shockingly did not take a charge in this game, but
that's about the only thing he didn't do. He showed off his
full complement of offensive weapons tonight, with good shots and
drives galore. Early on, he drove in for a nice 10' jumper
facing the basket. During Duke's big run late in the first
half, he had a steal and big dunk and then froze his defender with a
fake, drove baseline for a layup and the foul. He also had a
big block in a series
where Duke drew a line in the sand defensively and forced Army's
permanent retreat from forays into the post by blocking three shots.
Throw in the usual rebounds and an assist or two and Battier has
shown once again that he's ready to help lead the team.
** Carrawell: Chris picked his spots tonight offensively and was
very solid defensively. He mostly worked on slashing to the
basket, although he did hit a 19' two early in the game. In
the second half, there was a period where he went hard to the hoop
on every possession, scoring 6 out of 8 Duke points on a run.
This included one possession where he missed, grabbed his own
rebound, and layed it in. He tied for team high in rebounding
with 8 and picked
up half at the offensive end. He also played quite a bit of
point and didn't turn the ball over once. One other thing to
note: his foul shooting is much, much better this year. His
form just looks smoother and it's clear that he's worked on it quite
a bit.
** James: Another perfect night for Nasty Nate: 6-6 from the floor
and 2-2 from the line. Early in the game, he had a play that
really pumped up the team. He drove baseline and was
double-teamed but spotted Casey Sanders cutting to the hoop.
He delivered a perfect pass for a jam, which helped Casey get going
and showed what a heady player Nate is. Nate was one of the
most important players in Duke's game-breaking first half run, with
steals and drives. He was also big in the second half, hitting
a three that looked very smooth as well as rebounding a missed shot,
getting the basket and the foul. James, Battier and Carrawell
all had very similar numbers and did a lot of the same thing:
defense, driving to the basket, steals, blocks, rebounds and tough
defense. All three are high-energy, high-effort players.
None of the three necessarily has superstar talent or any one
attribute that overwhelms the opposition, but they get the job done
with a combination of skill, muscle, hustle and quickness.
** Williams: Has slowed down a little bit and isn't quite as
crazy out there, which I think is probably for the best in terms of
letting his teammates catch up with him. His passes were
superb as he hit Nate for a three, Christensen on the block for a
layup + foul, and nailed Boozer 3 times down low. He went to
another strength, his ability to drive, on several occasions.
He was easily able to penetrate for scores and also had a fast-break
dunk. Jason was only 1-4 from three, but wisely backed off
from shooting too much from outside. A good game with flashes
of brilliance and very few mistakes, with only 2 turnovers.
** Sanders: For the first time, Casey finally looked comfortable out
on the court. He's made some amazing strides in the last 8
days in a number of areas. Yes, it was against a smaller
opponent, but Casey didn't look this good against bad post teams
like the Five Star Hawks or Down Under Bandits. First of all, he's
learned how to position himself better offensively. His one
field goal came on a very alert cut to the basket on a great James
pass. Second, he has completely changed his foul shooting form and
it's made a world of
difference. Previously, he had a very high arcing shot that
had a lot of wasted motion. His shot is now much more compact
and smooth, and the results can't be argued with: 6 of 6. That
included a couple of shots after an intentional foul, which can be
disorienting for a young player since
there are not other players on the line. Casey swished them
like the rest; it was clear that he's learned some nice mental
techniques on blocking out the crowd and other distractions.
Third, Casey really went to town on the boards, picking up 7.
He looked a lot more comfortable with contact than he had been.
Last, his shotblocking was frightening. He had two on one
possession, the latter of which was picked up by Duke. On
another, he blocked it and plucked it out of the air. His
timing is very good and he definitely adds a different dimension to
the defense. All in all, some very promising developments for
a player who has been brought along slowly but whose potential for
improvement is enormous.
** Dunleavy: A very up and down night for Mike D. While he
rebounded very well (6), he made a number of bad decisions and
didn't have much confidence in his shot. On one of his
rebounds, he found C'well wide open and got the assist. His big
highlight came on a steal that he took coast to coast, getting
fouled in the process. Yet he missed the free throw, which I
found odd because he's such a good shooter. All frosh have
their good and bad moments; what's important is that he doesn't
abandon his offense because of a few misses. Duke needs his
outside shooting badly this year.
** Buckner: Got some pretty extensive playing time and didn't do a
bad job. Canned a three and got to the line, where he was only 1-4.
Let one player drive by him, which got him yanked immediately.
Still, like the other frosh, he's slowly becoming more comfortable
on the court.
** Horvath: Hard workin' Horvath proved to be solid on the boards,
threw a beautiful pass to James for an assist, blocked a shot, and
made two tough jumpers in the lane. But I liked his ability to
rebound the most, because he just manages to get to the ball quickly
and has learned to tighten his grip. Made a good adjustment when he
stopped taking threes and started trying to drive. Hard to
tell where he is in the rotation; Sanders has made great strides but
they both played about the same number of minutes.
** Christensen: Minutes cut back a bit with the emergence of other
post players. Good job on the boards and did some nice posting up
for his 6 points. Missed a foul shot that would have capped a
three point play. Had some trouble converting inside once
again, and while I saw him practicing a hook in warm-ups
I never saw him use it. He's still the team's biggest body but
ideally he would work
best playing about 15 minutes a game.
** Simpson: Made a rare first half appearance as it was clear that
the rout was on and got an assist when he passed to Buckner.
Missed a couple of tough
jumpers.
** Caldbeck: Hit the foul shot that pushed Duke over 100 and also
managed a rebound.
Cameron Craziness: The student section was almost
completely full, a very nice rebound from some disappointing
showings of late. The upper deck was very spotty, however.
The students were in good voice and had some solid cheers.
Pre-game, a chant of
"Let's go Navy!" could be heard. When Carlos Boozer
was personally outscoring the Cadets 8-6, cheers of "Boozer's
winning!" could be heard, as well as when Shane Battier had a
personal 10-8 lead. The crowd reminded Army of the score with
an "up by 60" notice. Then the Crazies went on a
series of chants proclaiming the superiority of assorted other
branches of the armed services: "Navy's better!",
"Coast Guard's better!" (ouch) and "Boy Scouts'
better!" (double ouch). Towards the very end, cries of
"Start the tank" and "March home safely" could
be heard, marking it as an above average night for the students.
Next Game:
Tuesday, November 23 vs
Columbia in Cameron. You've heard all about those great Ivy
League teams that frighten much better competition with their
precision and tenacity. Columbia is not one of them.
They went 10-16 last year and their tallest player is a 6-9 frosh.
They did only lose by 7 to Lafayette, the best team in the Patriot
league with the ability to challenge
top-25 foes, but this will most likely be another 30+ point win for
Duke.
Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu
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