Duke 87
Princeton 50

(November 14, 2000)

  Duke eviscerated the Princeton Tigers 87-50 on November 14th in Cameron. Although this Tiger squad was greatly depleted of talent and its coach was in his first game, they still played the traditional, ultra-disciplined brand of Princeton ball that is a challenge to defend.  And after Duke got off to a quick 18-6 lead and later 22-12, the Tigers climbed back into it using a patient offense and perimeter sharpshooting.  But a total clampdown on Princeton's back-door cuts and high screens by Duke made the Tigers completely ineffective, and Duke's far superior talent and firepower took over, making the game a laugher at halftime.  Princeton's incessant double-teaming of the big men meant that lots of folks were open on the perimeter, and the Devils took advantage by shooting 15-29 from three.  Shane Battier set a  Duke record by hitting 9 three pointers, including all 6 in the second half. Duke will now play Villanova, winners over Fairfield by a 101-85 margin, on Friday in Cameron.

   Essentially, Princeton runs two offensive plays.  The first involves the famous back door play, where the center is at the top of the key waiting for players to cut.  This is especially effective against teams that overplay on the wing, like Duke, because there's often a lane available for cutters.  Their second play involves the use of high screens to open things up for three point shooters.  This involves a drive followed by a diagonal pass to a shooter who has been screened off, creating an open shot.  The reason they are so effective is that they almost never take a shot unless they get one of these two, and often use the entire shot clock to get the attempt they want.  This makes the defense work hard for the entire 35 seconds, and the Tigers will often simply wait for the defense to lose their concentration for a moment and then strike.  There is very little improvisation or one-on-one play in their offense, which means that if you can stymie their two basic plays, you can shut them down.  The story of this game was that Princeton stayed in it until Duke made the correct countermoves to hinder their offense, and blew them out.

   The first half can be broken down into three segments.  The first came with an opening 18-6 run by Duke that bewildered the Tigers.  Nate James scored Duke's first 5 points, which I don't think will be an unusual sight this year.  Much like a Greg Koubek, James will be able to steady the team early in the game.  Princeton fought back with three consecutive back-door plays, but Duke figured them out and ripped off 13 points in a row.  The key to defending the back-door is for your forwards to rotate quickly after getting screened and anticipating the diagonal pass.  Shane and Nate both did a fine job of this, as did Dunleavy.  Duke's run consisted of Shane's first 2 threes and a sensational Duhon pass in transition to Battier.  Battier found Williams on a reversal for another three, and Cameron was rocking.

   The second segment came when Princeton patiently whittled away at the lead with a 14-4 run.  The Tigers were playing a collapsing zone where Boozer was constantly being double-teamed, making it impossible to get him the ball.  Duke's early success from three caused them to start jacking up shots without passing it much.  Duhon and James took a few ill-advised long-range threes, shots that were taken from way beyond even the NBA three-point line. Meanwhile, Princeton abandoned the back-door, which Duke had neutralized, and were using lots of high screens to get open threes.  They hit 3 threes in the run while Duke was getting more and more impatient.  Williams prevented them from taking the lead with a tough 17' jumper and a bullet pass to  Dunleavy under the hoop for a reverse layup.  Still, that last basket was the only one Duke scored for over three minutes.

   The third segment involved Duke changing their offensive philosophy a bit. They started to run everything through Boozer, at least getting him a touch. This forced Princeton's defense to work harder by drawing more men away from the perimeter.  As a result, Williams got open for a three.  On the other end, Duhon and Williams, who were on the court together a number of times, started to do a much better job at fighting through screens.  The key to  preventing the open shots those screens get is to switch quicker and harder when screened, so that no shooter is ever left alone.  With neither of their plays working, Princeton had no answers left.  None of their players had the one-on-one skills to break Duke down alone, and the Tigers started to turn the ball over repeatedly.  During this period, Duke got tough on the offensive boards, with James putting back a couple of misses.  Duke's steals were also generating points, with a highlight reel sequence where four different players passed the ball on the break before Dunleavy slammed it home, and a James steal and runout dunk.  Suddenly, Duke's lead jumped from 22-20 to 35-22 and they were just getting warmed up. 

   With Princeton's zone starting to crack, Duke concentrated on penetrating it.  Battier drove and threaded a pass to Boozer, who nearly tore the rim down with a powerful slam.  That made up for a half's worth of frustration. Duhon bound Boozer on an acrobatic pass on the next play..  Princeton  completely fell apart at this point, losing the ball to Williams who ran it all the way back, and failing to block out Dunleavy, who soared in for a rebound  dunk.  Dunleavy and Battier kept the pressure up by dropping in threes towards the end of the half, putting Duke up by 24.  The Tigers actually shot 56% but  only had 16 field goal attempts, about half as many as Duke and only 2 more than their number of turnovers.  

   To open the second half, Williams hit Battier for a three as a trailer on  the break, and the rest of the half was pretty much all downhill for Duke at  that point.  Duke opened the half on a 15-5 run as Battier and Williams combined for 5 three-pointers, all of them taken after great passes.  Princeton wanted to force Duke to make shots, and the red-hot Devils did.  After a 5-2 mini-run by the Tigers, Duhon found Battier for his sixth three.  The Tigers kept running their same plays, and actually got into a nice offensive rhythm with their back-doors.  Duke countered with a spectacular Boozer dunk on an inbounds pass from Duhon plus the foul, a three-point play from James, and Battier's last 2 threes.  Coach K cleared the bench with about six minutes left, which may have been the only thing saving the Tigers from having a hundred points scored on them.  Still, the deep reserves played hard and played smart, and Andre Buckner had a couple of moves for the highlight reel.  

   While Duke's offense was as overwhelming as expected, it was Duke's defense that really won the game for them.  If they hadn't figured out a way to stop the back-door and screens for three pointers, the game could have been a lot closer.  Duke would have won regardless because of sheer talent, but it was good to see Duke win with their brains as much as their bodies. 

   Nick Horvath didn't play because of a "bruised foot", which is apparently quite painful.  He won't return this Friday.       

 ** Positives:  

1. Shooting.  56% for the game is simply sizzling.  And Duke frequently scored with one of their 12 offensive rebounds.  Princeton simply didn't have the size to deal with Duke and it showed.    

2. Passing.  Duhon and Williams did a superb job in moving the ball around and finding the open shooter.  They also improved as the game went on at looking for the big man, using dribble penetration against the zone to draw defenders.  

3. Ballhandling.  Duke only had 10 turnovers.  While Princeton isn't a team that puts a lot of pressure on the ball, they can still be pretty pesky. Duke rarely forced the issue, almost always getting an open shot.     

** Negatives:  

1. Defensive lulls.  It can be difficult to stay focused against a team as relentlessly disciplined as Princeton, but Duke eased up too much when they thought they were in control, especially in the first half.   

2. Overreliance on the jumper.  When Duke went up big early, they started to get cute and shoot 22 footers.  They got out of synch and started rushing their shots, allowing a patient Princeton team back in the game.

      Player-by-Player:  

** Boozer: Thanks to Princeton's matchup zone, Carlos didn't get his first field goal attempt until there were three minutes left in the first half.  But when they did start to get him touches, Princeton came unravelled, as he did a fine job in relocating the ball when double-teamed.  He also didn't bring the ball down or try to unnecessarily dribble.  When he got in scoring position, he really took advantage, with three monstrous dunks.  While he only got 4 rebounds, there really weren't many to be had with the sizzling shooting percentages, and he did do a good job at muscling the ball away when surrounded.  He made the most of a frustrating situation, but must be ready for a real battle against Michael Bradley of Villanova, who can score, rebound and block shots.    

** Battier: Shane set a school record with 9 threes.  He took them as a  trailer, he took them off skip passes, he took them from the post...but he took them.  It's his job to score and he didn't shirk this responsibility. Those 9 threes weren't a fluke, folks.  He's been sinking them like that the entire preseason and will continue to do so unless he's well-guarded. In addition to grabbing some very tough rebounds, including one where he literally outwrestled two Princeton players for the ball, he also helped force a 5 second out-of-bounds call.  He also passed to Williams for a couple of threes and drove into the lane to find Boozer.  For those fans concerned as to why he didn't try to drive or post up more: the Tigers gave him too much room.  He could drive on them if the guarded him closely, but that was a fool's option for Princeton because with Battier's height advantage, he could simply post them up all day long.  Their best option was to give him room on the perimeter and hope that he didn't set a school record for threes or something.  Whoops.     

** Dunleavy: A stealth game of sorts for Mike, who didn't take a single shot in the second half after he had two of the first half's most exciting plays.  Perhaps the most pleasing aspect of his performance was the athleticism he displayed.  After blowing an alley-oop dunk, he was in perfect position for his transition dunk, but was even more heads up on his dunk follow.  Mike's expression on the court never wavers, always a Keatonesque Great Stone Face.  Even after his incredible follow-up dunk, he looked like he had just hit a free throw or walked the dog or something.  Mike also hit a three and swooped in for 4 defensive rebounds.  In the second half, he swung the ball around for a couple of assists.  Not a dominant performance by any means, but still a good one.

** James: Nate has a knack for scoring when the team needs him most.  He's able to defuse a lot of crises even though he's the team's last weapon, a human failsafe if you will.  And he gets it done with tenacious defense and spirited rebounding, as well as the ability to knock down the jumper. He tends to break down a bit when he attempts to freelance or make certain kinds of passes, but no one is playing better defense right now than Nate, and that includes Battier.  Nate's best qualities are his maturity as a player and understanding of his role.  At one point, he pulled up on the wing and fired a bad-looking 22' jumper--way out of his range.  Coach K promptly pulled him from the game, and before the coach could even pull him aside, Nate went up to him and apologized for taking the shot.  The coach didn't even have to say a word, and knew it wouldn't happen again.  After scoring the first 5 points on one of his usual corner threes and a couple of  foul shots, he pushed Duke to its biggest lead by rebounding a couple of misses for baskets, pulling up for a perfect 15' jumper, and getting a steal and breakaway dunk.  His 13 points at the half led all scorers, and he was getting it done on defense with 2 steals.  In the second half, he had yet  another offensive rebound and putback, this time a three point play.  Not surprisingly, he seemed much less interested in hunting his shot with Duke up by 30.  Nate is all about winning and discipline.      

** Williams: An excellent all-around game for Jason, who did a great job of breaking down the Tigers, hitting tough jumpers and playing excellent defense.  Jason was under control but still daring, taking what the defense gave him but forcing them to work.  He didn't try to dribble into the zone or force passes into the post, but instead reversed the ball well and looked for shooters spotting up.  5 of his assists were for threes, with another to a cutting Dunleavy and the last to Boozer posting up.  In the first half, he took a crucial, extremely difficult 17' that went in.  It was a difficult shot, but he was set perfectly for it.  And his long-range touch was excellent, going 4-7.      

** Duhon: That was the best zero-point game I've ever seen.  Having both Williams and Duhon on the court at the same time ought to be illegal,  because both are so incredibly creative with the ball.  Chris continues to get bolder and bolder as a ballhandler, frequently creating something out of nothing.  The best was a Globetrotteresque sequence where Jason ran the ball up, dished it to James, who passed it to Duhon on the wing, cutting to the basket.  Duhon dumped it behind his head to a trailing Dunleavy, who dunked it.  Another mindboggling play came when Duhon drove to the basket and sidearmed a pass Rich Gannon-style while suspended in mid-air to Boozer, who laid it in.  Chris only shot three times, all of them exceedingly long three point attempts that rimmed out.  But he seemed more than content to dish the ball, and players like Williams definitely benefitted.  Chris also found Shane and Mike for threes, and hit Shane in stride as he was going to the basket.  His third-best pass of the night was an inbounds right to Boozer, who slammed it home.  Duhon also played excellent defense, not getting beaten off the dribble once and patrolling the lanes well.  I expect his shot to catch up with him shortly.  

** Sanders: Casey didn't play much, probably because of Princeton's zone. It's a bit frustrating for a player who has done so well of late, although he still came up with a few big plays here and there.  He blocked a layup attempt and was fouled three times in the game, thanks to his quickness. The most troublesome aspect of his game was that he had a couple of rebounds wrested away from him.  I worry about his confidence level, and I think a single spectacular offensive play would have pumped him up.  Hopefully, he'll be able to make a big impact against 'nova.   

** Christensen:  Matt ate up some space and got into a bit of a rhythm on the boards, though he badly missed a layup in transition.  He also played very disciplined defense, moving well from the perimeter to the post on one possession.  This was definitely his most promising showing of the year.    

** Buckner: Andre is always good for at least one spectacular play a game, and this one had two.  The first was an incredible drive that he finished with a floater, and the second was a block (!) of a Princeton player driving to the basket.  Andre also picked a Princeton ballhandler clean for a steal and found Battier for a three.  Buckner is for real, a player who can come in and play meaningful minutes when needed.  I can sense that Coach K is desperately trying to find a way to get him more minutes, but it's difficult to break up the Duhon-Williams highwire act.    

** Sweet: Andre S. played some extensive minutes in the second half, and acquitted himself well on the defensive end, and was extremely aggressive on the boards.  He got himself a couple of trips to the foul line, where he twice went 1-2--both attempts came after offensive rebounds.  Andre had trouble getting the ball in the hole, but ended an evening of frustration by filching a steal and getting a breakaway dunk.     

** Simpson:  JD turned the ball over a couple of times, but he really hustled after a couple of rebounds and played manic defense.  His experience really showed.  

** Caldbeck: Had a couple of nice hustle plays, including an incredible rebound.  The deep reserves in general played with poise and intensity.   

Cameron Craziness: Not much in the way of creative cheers, other than a "back to Jersey".  But the student section was jam-packed and incredibly loud the entire game.  They were very supportive of Sanders (after his block), Duhon, Battier (doing the "who's your daddy?" routine before the game began!), Williams and Boozer ("we want more booze!").  The upper deck, on the other hand had many empty seats, due no doubt to the late start of the game, but this was still a disappointment since I know plenty of folks who would have loved to have been there.  Nate's Dogg Pound was out in full force.  They were at the front of the line at four in the afternoon, and were rabid by game time.  Basically, if the Sixth Man can't be witty, they can at least be loud, and loud they were.  

Best sign of the night:   Elect Shane Battier President, No recount!  

Next Game: Friday the 14th against the Villanova Wildcats.  They crushed Fairfield thanks to Kentucky transfer Michael Bradley.  Duke must also stay on top of guard duo Jermaine Medley and Gary Buchanan.  

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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