Duke
102
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Taking a look at the numbers, Duke managed to
improve their halftime shooting percentage of 35% to 40% by game's end. This was their worst night shooting in quite some
time. Duke had 85 shot attempts to Davidson's
63, a stat caused by Duke's 24 offensive rebounds and Davidson's 33 steals. Jason
Williams showed that he wasn't affected by the bad shooting bug, going 9-12 and 4-7 from
three for 25 points. He also had 4 rebounds,
4 assists, 2 steals and 4 turnovers. No Duke
player had more than 27 minutes of playing time, and 10 players played at least ten
minutes. Duke got busy at the foul line,
going 27-38. Duke had five players in double
figures, with Nate James, Mike Dunleavy, Chris Duhon and Casey Sanders joining Williams. The presence of the latter two on the list shows
how involved the bench was in this game. Davidson shot 33% for the game, but helped
themselve with 16 offensive rebounds and 17-20 shooting from the foul line. They used a tight man-to- man defense that didn't
really pressure the ball, but played everyone very close.
They tried to funnel players near the basket, where they would try to block or
alter shots, a strategy that worked well a few times.
In the first minute or so, it looked like Duke was
going to score a TKO. Jase made a nifty move in the lane to deliver a pass to
Boozer, who was naturally in position to score. Nate
stole the next pass and brought it back for a dunk. And
after a Boozer free throw, Jason found Dunleavy for a 15' baseline jumper. An offensive rebound helped Davidson close the gap
to 7-4, but a Dunleavy block led to him posting up a bit and getting a nice turnaround
jumper thanks to a Williams feed. After that
basket, however, Duke went almost two minutes without scoring, and Davidson seized this
opportunity to build a 13-9 lead. Duke was
simply missing shot after shot and the Wildcats were taking advantage by going right up
the gut against the Duke defense. Coach K
brought out Horvath, Sanders and Duhon at around this time, and while they didn't do much
at first, they wound up helping quite a bit. Horvath
rebounded his own miss to feed Jason for a three that brought Duke within 1, and then The
Hardest Working Man In Hoop Business, Nate James, went very high to pick off a steal. He dished to Duhon, who dished to Williams, who
scored and got fouled. Duke would never again
trail. This doesn't mean that Davidson would go away,
however. The Wildcats would tie it up after a
period where neither team could score, but Duhon came right down and buried a long three. Duke started to slowly build a lead based on
hustle and defense. Christensen dunked a
Battier miss, Williams picked off a pass and layed it in, and James hit a couple of free
throws. Davidson was starting to
struggle as Duke victimized them repeatedly with steals; Duhon got into the act with a
steal and layup of his own. Finally, the run
that everyone was waiting for happened: a 10-0 run that gave Duke a 37-21 lead with about
4.5 minutes left in the half. It was nothing pretty, just a lot of effort. It began with Duhon's steal, and featured Williams
and Dunleavy swishing some foul shots, with Mike's coming after he got fouled getting a
rebound. James scored on a putback and Boozer
found Duhon after getting an offensive rebound of his own.
But Duke couldn't increase their lead any down the stretch, despite more
heroics from Jason. Wanting to break down the
defense, he drove right at them and found that they were willing to let him shoot, so he
made an amazing bank shot off a finger roll, and then blew everyone's minds with a quick
drive that was impossible to describe, but left a lot of people shaking their heads. He did make a crucial error down the stretch when
Duke was holding the ball for a final shot. Trying
to drive he tossed the ball backward, right into the waiting arms of Davidson. They not only had time to get off a last shot (on
a 2-on-1 break, no less), but even had 2 tries to tap it in. Nothing would fall, which one might suspect hurt
their momentum. Duke stayed in the locker room for quite a long
time during the half, after being lectured on the finer points of intensity. But Davidson was really fired up after missing
their last shot of the half, and quickly went on a 6-2 run to cut the lead to 12. And they did it with hustle, getting two of their
baskets from offensive rebounds. At this
point, Jason stepped up his game, burying a three off the dribble and one on an inbounds
play from Dunleavy. Duke was suddenly up 18
and starting to warm up. After a first half
where he was 0-8 from the field, Shane hit a 15' baseline jumper that seemed to loosen him
up, and then Christensen fought for an offensive rebound, passed it out to James, who
passed it to Williams for a three. After a
Davidson basket, Shane then found Nate for the basket and one. Duke led 63-39 at this point, with about fifteen
minutes left in the game, but Davidson had one last hurrah, scoring 4 in a row. Duke brought down the hammer here, going on a 13-0
run led by Duhon, Dunleavy and Williams. Duhon
had a drive and free throw, Dunleavy had a spectacular drive, a tip-in and 2 foul shots,
and Jase pulled up for a very long two. After
exchanging baskets (including a nice drive by Shane), Duke went on a highlight-filled 10-0
run. First, Duhon drove and dished to James
in the corner for a three, and then Chris himself hit a very long three of his own. Then Duhon stole the ball, ran downcourt and
dished behind him to a trailing Battier, who
threw down a dunk one handed and drew the foul. The
crowd went nuts over that one. While Casey,
Nick and Matt had all gotten extensive playing time by that point, it was time to bring in
some of the other reserves. Sweet proved that
he has an offensive game to go with his hard-nosed defense by sinking a 15' jumper, while
Duhon dished way ahead to Casey, who threw down a monster slam in traffic. Horvath continued his solid boardwork by
rebounding in one a Sweet miss, and strongly built football player Reggie Love showed off
his smoothness by gliding in for a slick layup. As the deeper reserves came in, the team
worked on getting the ball to Sanders, who
set up on the baseline and canned two jumpers, including the one that got the team to 100. All-in-all, Duke learned very quickly that a quick start doesn't mean an easy game, nor that every team will lay down and quit once Duke starts doing their thing. It was also a very important night for the bench, who got to play against some big, if not especially skilled, players in some key situations. This was their best showing all year, as hopefully practice is now finally starting to pay off in game situations. Coach K mentioned but set aside the excuses of fatigue and academic stress, saying that all of that needs to be set aside on the court. The team quickly realized that they simply couldn't rely on their shooting to get the win, but had to grind it out and manufacture some baskets. The commitment to hustle in the second half showed that they learned their lesson, as folks like James, Duhon and Williams led the way. ** Negatives: 1. Blocking out. Allowing an outrageous 16 offensive rebounds to a large but not especially athletic Davidson club was outrageous. Duke was flatfooted at times. 2. Starting frontcourt play. While the shooting was atrocious, the frontcourt did a poor job of taking the ball up strong. On defense, they were able to block a lot of shots, but also didn't rotate well on a few occasions. 3. First-half
focus. After going up 7-0, the team
went into auto-pilot for a bit, seemingly unconcerned that Davidson was not only catching
but in fact had pulled ahead. ** Positives: 1. Defensive pressure. Kept Davidson off-balance all evening. Helped fuel the offense. Eleven different players had steals, and six had multiple steals. 2. Bench energy. The bench was excited to play such important minutes, and they responded by hustling and working hard. Christensen in particular provided some valuable minutes despite his foul line woes. 3. Getting to the foul line. Duke's guards did a fantastic job of attacking the basket, and reserves Sanders and Christensen were also aggressive around the basket. Player-by-Player: ** Boozer: Not really a good game for Carlos. His best move was a tough offensive rebound that
he shovelled off to Duhon for a layup. His
only basket of the game was Duke's first, a typical Williams-to-Boozer connection for an
easy layup in the halfcourt. Boozer somehow
missed an easy dunk and also put up a flat, short shot.
Carlos did get to the foul line a few times and did pretty well on the
boards, but he didn't seem to have the same kind of energy he's had in past games. Carlos didn't see much time in the second half, as
Coach K was looking to give his frontcourt reserves a long look. ** Battier: One of the worst shooting
games of Shane's career, yet he still played his usual great defense and continued firing
away in the second half. He led the team in attempts and I was very happy to
see that, because he needs to be a big offensive weapon, no matter the result of his shot. The worst moment of the night had to be blowing a
dunk that came on a powerful drive--it just popped out.
One good byproduct of his struggles from the floor is that he made it a
point to move in closer, by either backing his man in or driving past him. But you knew it wasn't Shane's night when he even
bricked the front end of a one-and-one! Shane
was very solid on the boards and played fine post defense, swiping away a pass and
blocking a couple of shots. His assist came
on a heads-up play after he got an offensive
rebound. He saw James cutting toward the
basket unimpeded, and simply dished off, stepping through the double-team in the post. ** Dunleavy: Very
active on defense but a bit flaky on offense. Missed
some chippies and had trouble in general connecting with jumpers, but thrived getting
offensive rebounds and taking his man off the dribble.
Used his
long arms effectively to block shots inside, as he becomes a more effective post defender. Picked off 4 steals as well, going from post to
perimeter in the same possession at times. Scored
on a baseline jumper, a wicked turnaround jumper, a drive, and a rebound basket. While he doesn't always make the best decisions,
he is easily the most versatile player on the team and can make any number of
contributions. Mike took a charge in an
interesting fashion: his man had his back to him on the baseline, trying to get some room
to drive around Mike. Dunleavy was very close
to his man, but maintained just a little space, so that when his man turned quickly to use
his elbow against a man he thought would be moving, Mike just remained perfectly still,
took the elbow, and got the charge. ** James: A lunch-bucket, in the trenches kind
of game from Nate Dogg. He did very little
that was pretty, but used a variety of means to tally 20 points. His 6 first half rebounds gave him a tip-in and
pass to Williams for three. He lived at the
foul line, going 9-9. He picked off a couple
of passes and scored 4 points from them. More
than anything, he simply attacked, over and over. He
was always going right at the basket, usually forcing a foul or getting a dunk. His aggressiveness off the dribble hurt Davidson,
who weren't ready for Nate's strength. And
despite his ballhandling issues, he only turned the ball over once. He was the example for the team to follow. ** Williams: To
say Jase is on a tear is a bit of an understatement.
Other than a few untimely turnovers, Jason is playing at an unbelievably
high level. His shooting is sizzling, his penetration and ability to finish are
jaw-dropping, and his defense has become excellent.
This is a player who is starting to put together all of the lessons he's learned. The Wildcats had absolutely no answers for him,
hoping that he would miss (he instead hit threes off the dribble and at a dead stop) and
didn't double-team or pressure him, fearing he would exploit them even further. It didn't matter, as he nailed every shot and
still found time to break the defense down. Davidson
made him make a mistake a couple of times, but more often than not they simply had to
watch him accelerate and blow by them. Jason
is finishing not only with short jumpers, but with finger rolls and shots carefully angled
to use the window. Not having to worry all
game about on-ball defense is allowing him to gamble a bit more, knowing that Duhon will
be there to back him up. Jason also took a charge, waiting in the lane for
a man to come right at him. ** Horvath: Nick made Shane look like a
sharpshooter, coming up empty on all of his jumpers and only scoring on one putback. But he made up for this by being very aggressive
on the boards and on defense. After his first
miss, he hunted down the carom and promptly dished off to Williams for a three. I loved
the way he looked very calm out there, simply working harder when a shot didn't go down. And I really love the way he's playing post
defense, getting a number of blocks and hurries. He's
still too thin, but he's playing much harder and smarter down low. ** Sanders: After a nondescrepit first half
that saw him turn the ball over on an overpass and pick up a foul, Casey really raised his
level of play in the second half. While he
couldn't get a tip to fall, he frequently found himself under the basket, getting fouled. Some of those were his fault in that he didn't
react quickly enough nor did he catch the ball quickly, but others were because of bad
passes. In any event, Casey capitalized by
sinking all 4 of his foul shots in very confidence fashion. He then sank 2 very nice
fade-away jumpers on the baseline. His
splashiest highlight was the big dunk he threw down, something that seemed to energize his
game. He was a terror on defense, and while
he was only credited with 1 block, he bothered a lot of other shots. He overpassed on one possession in the first half,
where he had the ball on the left block, backed his man in, and then tried to pass it to a
covered Nick Horvath instead of taking the shot himself. ** Duhon:
Chris did it all: Scoring (10 points, including a couple of threes); rebounding (6,
including 3 offensive) dishing (4 assists, 0 turnovers), defense (5 steals!) and
leadership. He gets better with each passing
game and is especially adept at running the break. His
pass to Shane on the break for a dunk was simply brilliant, as was the dish to Williams. And the dish to Sanders on the break wasn't
chopped liver either...you get the idea. Chris is exciting and smart, with unique court
vision. He hasn't completely gelled with
Williams yet offensively, but they're definitely getting there. I expect to see them run
more plays for the other as the year progresses. It was nice to see him take 10 shots and
squeeze off 6 attempts from three. He really is a supreme chemistry player, wanting to
please his teammates and get assists more than score, and has an advanced understanding of
how to play Duke defense. A perfect fit for
the program. ** Christensen:
After being pretty much glued to the bench for the last few games, Matt basically played
the way we're used to seeing him: extremely aggressive on defense and on the boards, but
with almost no touch at all. His new foul shot routine did not work very well, as he
airballed a couple and bricked 2 more. But he
had a huge rebound dunk on a Battier miss that put Duke up 21-17 at a time when the game
was very much in doubt. The crowd really got
behind him and appreciated his effort. In the
second half, he ignited one break with a strong board and was getting great position under
the basket on virtually every play, but had trouble finishing. His rebounding was excellent, especially on the
offensive boards (where he got 4). This game
had to be a bit of a confidence builder, because all he was asked to do was play good
defense and rebound--and that's what he did. ** Sweet:
Andre S again displayed a nice touch on his jumper but missed a couple of free throws. He also had a block and a great rebound. He had trouble finishing some other shots, but
played very aggressively and intelligently. ** Love: Wow!
Nice debut for the gridiron frosh, who is built very big for a receiver. When I first saw #42 check into the game, I was
hoping that I had slipped into the alternate reality where Elton Brand was still playing
for Duke, but Reggie did pretty well on his own. He
got fouled when a Wildcat pushed him going for a rebound, and calmly sank both shots. In the second half, he snaked his way to the
basket for a spectacular basket. He also had
a tough rebound, a block and a steal, showing that he was ready to play defense. ** Buckner: Missed a shot and then skied in for
the rebound. Had a very impressive steal but
a couple of turnovers, including overshooting Casey for a potential dunk. ** Simpson: JD dished off nicely to Casey for a
basket, but also had a shot blocked, a couple of turnovers and a silly foul. ** Caldbeck: Picked up a rebound. Cameron Craziness: Kind of a lethargic crowd that got louder as the game went along. I think they were as stunned as anyone when Duke couldn't put Davidson away early and went through long periods of near-silence. An obnoxious and portly Davidson fan aroused the Sixth Man's ire, as chants of "Sit down, fatass", "Please don't eat us" and "Try some Slim-Fast" were heard. Lots of positive cheers could be heard as well, the best being when Andre Sweet and Reggie Love were in the game at the same time: "We want Sweet Love". Next Game: Saturday, December 9th against the Michigan Wolverines in Cameron at 9:00pm. Michigan has struggled against the top programs this year, but Lavell Blanchard is a very dangerous player. They have a good bit of young talent that hasn't quite come together yet, so they must be respected and forced to make decisions on the court. They turn the ball over a good bit, so this is where Duke could capitalize. Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu
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| Rob is a thirty one year old Duke grad who's been an ACC fan since he was nine years old, when a young Duke team was beaten in the finals by Kentucky. Since that time, he has been fascinated by the entire league and started writing volumes on it in rec.sport.basketball.college and other electronic forums in 1991. Recently, he has been writing ACC analyses for Jazzy J's colbasketball.miningco.com site and regularly contributes features on women's basketball for the Duke Basketball Report. |