Duke 91
St. John's 59
February 18, 2001
Madison Square Garden, NY, NY 

  Duke and St. John's have played in two classic regular-season matchups the past two years.  For this game, the last thing I wanted to see was  another classic matchup.  I wanted a blowout, pure and simple, because the team needed to have some fun playing basketball again.  And doing it on a national stage in the world's most famous arena certainly didn't hurt, especially when the Red Storm was talking trash beforehand.  The subplot of this game could be entitled "How Jason Got His Groove Back", because he looked very much like the risk-taking guard that has dominated college basketball this year.  Not to say that he was perfect--his 8 turnovers were pretty ugly--but his shot was back, his verve was back, and even his free throw shooting form returned in the second half.

  And the second half is where Duke regained their terra-stomping form that had been lost since whipping Wake Forest in Cameron.  While they were in control of the game with an 11 point lead, there was the sense that it could have been much bigger.  In fact, having missed 8 of 10 foul shots  (including a couple of front ends of one-and-ones), it was a fact that Duke could have been up by 20 or more.  But Duke got into gear very early in the second half, and then turned it up another notch midway through the half with a 17-4 run that deflated the Garden.  Despite some very sloppy play from Duke (13 second half turnovers, some of which led to a St. John's mini-run), Duke's absolute dominance on the boards (42-29) and defensive throttling of the Red Storm (just 36% shooting for the game, including 2-16  from star frosh Omar Cook) made this an an easy win.

  Early in the game, things looked didn't seem that easy.  Jason started the party with a fantastic transition pass to Dunleavy, who gracefully rolled it in.  Boozer showed he was in the game early when he alertly found Battier for an easy dunk after he had snatched away an offensive rebound. But Duke had trouble limiting Omar Cook's penetration, and as a result he was able to find Anthony Glover for easy baskets time and again.  Duke's shooting was also a bit spotty, as Carlos missed a couple of free throws and no one could hit a three.  That was until Chris Duhon entered the game and sank a three on the break. 

  But overall, Duke was having problems with turnovers and only led 15-11 with ten minutes gone by.  SJU didn't have the guns to run with Duke, so this slower pace was certainly to their liking.  Battier used his dribble to get a layup, surprising his defender by going by him.  But the Red Storm went on a 9-3 run to tie things up at 20, and the Garden was rocking.  The last score came on a ridiculous 25' three by Omar Cook.

  Duke decided to get serious at that point.  Williams found Duhon, who unhesitatingly swished a three just seconds after Cook's shot.  Jason then found himself open on the next play and called his own number for a three that suddenly opened things up.  The teams traded baskets for a bit, with Dunleavy getting his second tip-in of the game and finishing after a touch pass from Duhon.  Duke turnovers helped keep things close, and then SJU went into a zone to try to push Duke out a bit.  With their starting center, Donald Emanuel, in serious foul trouble, Duke split the zone twice to get the ball to Boozer.  The first was a diagonal entry pass that went with an aggressive post-up, and the second was a gorgeous high-low pass from Battier.  Duke had built its lead to 34-25 as St. John's was finding it harder and harder to score.

  Duke would take its first double-digit lead a minute later as Duhon sank his third three of the game, putting Duke up 39-27.  The Red Storm wouldn't quite go away yet, as Cook hit another absurd long range three. They had narrowed the lead to 7 with just a couple of minutes left in the half, which left Duke in the position of fighting to regain control of the game.  And they did so, with some good old-fashioned hard work on the boards.  Dunleavy and Battier had consecutive putbacks, absolutely victimizing the smaller Red Storm.  After St. John's scored with just six seconds left in the half, Jason zipped down the length of the court for a nearly uncontested layup to put Duke up 45-34.  To say this demoralized St. John's is an understatement.  It was Jason's way of letting them know that no matter how hard they played, Duke was still going to be one step ahead of them. Still, there were adjustments to be made.  The Johnnies were scoring off of Cook's penetration and offensive rebounds.  Duke needed to get a body on Glover and impede Cook's path as much as possible--two missions that succeeded rather spectacularly.

  Duke showed they meant business by starting the second half on an 8-0 run, beginning with a couple of Boozer free throws.  Jason took a rebound and sprinted down the floor, getting the basket and the foul.  Then he attacked Cook at midcourt, dislodging the ball from his grasp and diving for it.  He came up with and tossed it to Battier, who drained a three. Duke suddenly had a 19 point lead and they looked very crisp on offense. Boozer had another heady play by dishing to Williams on a cut, and then Jason showed how in control he was by getting a tip-in.  After a St. John's three point play, Duke went on a decisive 14-3 run that throttled the life out of the Red Storm.  The run itself was a simple, methodical exhibition of dominant basketball.  It featured Nate with a tip in, Williams dishing to Duhon for three and to Boozer inside, Duhon finding Boozer down low on the very next play and a Battier three.  Duke mixed up its offense, attacking the zone by making smart passes into the post and taking wide open threes when available.  You have to neutralize at least one aspect of Duke's attack to beat them, and St. John's didn't.  By the end of the run, Duke led 71-43 with about ten minutes left.

  Duke did let a 33 point lead dwindle to 25 thanks to some extremely sloppy play, prompting a time-out and a few choice words from the coach.  But the Devils quickly righted themselves, holding St. John's to 4 points in the last four minutes of the game.  Duke continued to work on its inside game and Christensen had a few nice minutes in the post.  Duke held Cook scoreless in the second half while Glover had only 4, as he suddenly found that no one could get him the ball.  Duke cut off the head (Cook) and the body withered.  The Red Storm's other leading scorer, Willie Shaw, didn't get any good kick-out passes from Cook and was forced to try a lot of one-on- one stuff, resulting in an 0-8 afternoon.  SJU didn't score their 45th point (equalling Duke's first half output) until seven minutes remained  in the game.

  Of course, matchups are everything in basketball and the Red Storm matched up very poorly with Duke.  They lacked the size and depth to pound away and get Duke in foul trouble, and their problems with scoring meant that they probably wouldn't have had a chance anyway.  Still, this is a team that beat a solid Kentucky club, Boston College, Villanova and UConn.  If they get in a tight game, they can compete.  More than anything, it gave Duke a break from the ACC grind and a chance to break out of some bad habits and moods.

    ** Negatives:

1. Ball-handling.  Sloppy, though some of it was just overpassing in trying to make a good play.  Still, Duke lost its edge a bit late in the game when they had a 30 point lead, and Coach K gave 'em hell for it.

2. Foul shooting.  Things really reached their nadir in the first half, when even Battier and James were missing freebies.  But the second half was a dramatic turnaround as Duke went 15-19 from the line.  Even Christensen swished 2 of 3!

     ** Positives:

1. Post defense.  Duke destroyed St. John's in the post.  One might say that this isn't much of an accomplishment considering their lack of height, but Duke struggled against a similarly-small Virginia team.  Duke asserted themselves down low and Battier in particular stepped up his defense and rebounding.  11 blocks as a team is pretty impressive.

2. Rebounding.  As a team, everyone made a greater commitment to box out and get the ball without changing any defensive principles.  Williams and James combined for 12 boards, while Boozer had a double-double.  Dunleavy killed St. John's with his tip-ins. 

3. Shooting.  Things were a bit spotty at first, but Duke adjusted well and burned up the nets. 

 Player-by-Player:

** Boozer:  An improved game for Carlos.  He still didn't get as many touches as I'd like, but he had a double-double and had some key baskets. Oddly, Carlos had back-to-back baskets in the first and second half.  The first pair was much more important, as it stretched Duke's lead from 5 to 9 and showed that Duke was going to take advantage of SJU's foul problems.   While he didn't dominate, Carlos looked a lot more active than he had in recent games.  Any time he can get 5 free throw attempts is a good game, but it'd still be nice to see his attempt rate get a bit higher.  More important than his offense was his commitment to rebounding.  Not a perfect or dominating game (his 3 turnovers were ugly), but he made some solid contributions.

** Battier: A truly outstanding all-around game.  He scored on 2 dunks, a nice drive, a tip-in, two of his monster threes and assorted free throws. But his 7 blocked shots changed the course of the game, as St. John's got more and more timid as the game went on.  His 2 early charges taken changed the way SJU was attacking the basket.  The great thing about his blocks is that he kept every single one in the field of play, and was able to rebound a whole bunch of them.  Truly, this was the quintessential Shane Battier game--spectacular at the defensive end and efficient at the offensive end. There's never been another player quite like him at Duke, yet he truly personifies the Duke philosophy--intensity, integrity, intelligence.  He doesn't have a huge range of skills, yet he's honed the ones he has to a fine edge and keeps attacking with them.  With the win, Shane is just 1 victory away from tying Christian Laettner's record as winningest ACC player ever at 121.  Three more ACC wins will tie Chris Carrawell in conference games only.  Amazingly, the top 7 guys in the former category are Duke players.

** Dunleavy: A return to form for Mike D, as his rebounding skills were in full effect.  He had an amazing 4 first half tip-ins, each one a dagger to Mike Jarvis.  He wasn't even really looking to score much, but still wound up with 14.  Mike made it his mission to get Duke extra possessions and run the floor, and he did both rather well.  He's equally comfortable taking big shots or quietly filling a role on the boards, and with Jason breaking out to his big game, Mike just chose to sit back and pick up  misses.  He also took a charge early in the second half, using that Battier form.

** James: A very quiet game for Nate, as he only hit a jumper and got a tip-in.  He played solid defense on Willie Shaw, holding him to 0 points on 0-8 shooting.  Nate was also very solid on the boards with 5, but simply didn't get a lot of touches.  I suspect Duhon's hot hand had something to do with that, but I think this won't be a regular occurence down the stretch. 

** Williams: Jason had a great first half and an even better second half, as he completely dominated Cook at both ends.  Jason was quick to dismiss their one-on-one matchup, and it showed in the way he played.  He rarely tried to one-up the frosh star after Cook made a ridiculous play, but rather was careful to take shots when he was ready.  On the other hand, he did get a bit out of control when passing the ball, and threw a few passes away.  It's interesting to watch his game patterns, because he tends to stay within a theme for a period of time.  For about four minutes in the first half, he was taking a lot of shots, scoring 6 points.  Then, he suddenly switched into passing mode, getting 2 assists in 30 seconds before turning around and popping another three.  After staying quiet for a bit, he made that excellent end-of-half layup that was a turning point in so many ways. He then got down and dirty on defense, Wojo-style, as he went to the floor to challenge Cook.  By then, he had scored in so many different ways that new methods were opening up, like scoring off a cut on a Boozer pass.  This is the sort of play that Duke used to run for Johnny Dawkins, requiring a quick, athletic guard.  By the time he got a tip-in, things were getting absurd--he was everywhere.  The more Jason gets involved on every play, the better Duke will be. 

** Duhon: Chris proved the Virginia game was no fluke--he's looking for his shot and it's going to go down more often than not.  Chris hit an early three when no one else was hitting any jumpers for Duke, and then later broke the last tie of the game at 20-20 by swishing another.  Shortly thereafter, he found Dunleavy on a gorgeous touch pass.  Chris gave Duke its first double digit lead with another bomb at 39-27.  He hit another three to spark an 11-0 run in the second half.  About the only negative was his rare 1:1 assist:turnover ratio in the game, notching 3 apiece.  One  came on an overambitious pass to Casey Sanders that Grant Hill himself couldn't have reached.  Even though he didn't get a single steal, he really didn't need to against Cook.  Chris hemmed him in and let Cook strangle himself by taking horrible shots, cutting off his penetration.  The key was to pick up the pressure very early in the possession, so Cook would get itchy much quicker.  Even thought it was a loss, I'd like to draw a parallel to Duke's Virginia road game and another game that took place ten years ago.  It was against Arizona in Tucson, and while Duke lost under some rather dubious circumstances, the more important event was that a certain player had a breakout game.  This frosh came in heralded as one of the best players in the country, and showed flashes of his ability throughout his first season. But this ultimate team player preferred to stay in the background and defer to his elders, which hurt Duke's offense a bit when he was in.  But he had a big scoring game against Zona and was a different player the rest of the year.  Of course I'm talking about Grant Hill here, the ultimate team player who loves sacrificing for others.  Like Grant, Chris is too good to sacrifice all the time.  He needed to aggressively showcase his shooting and offensive ability, and he has finally started.  Let's see if he winds up on the same road that Grant walked...   

** Sanders: Casey has fought his way into the upper reaches of the rotation by learning to relax a little on the court.  He grabbed a rebound and blocked a shot, but more importantly learned to stand his ground, play help defense and not leave his feet.  He's not ready to contribute significantly yet, but he's getting there.  Casey isn't confident on the foul line right now, but his form is sound so I also expect this to improve.

** Christensen: Matt came in in the second half and played better than I've seen him perform in a while.  He went hard to the basket on a power move and got a three point play for his troubles.  He got an impressive 3 rebounds in just four minutes, and didn't pick up a single foul.  This bodes well for future performances.  Matt's only gaffe was losing control of a  pass.

** Love: Got an assist to Christensen and a block.    

** Buckner: Missed his only shot.

** Simpson: Snagged a rebound.

Williams-James Scoring Update:

Since both players have cracked 1000 points in their careers, I thought I'd watch their rise through the scoring ranks:

** Next Game: Wednesday, February 19th vs Georgia Tech in Cameron.  Tech is on the rise since Duke beat them, and Alvin Jones has been playing great basketball of late.  He'll surely want revenge for his meltdown in Atlanta; will Carlos be up to the challenge?  The possible retirement of Shane Battier's number may be another interesting subplot.  The real concern for Duke is shutting down Shaun Fein and Tony Akins; Duke will allow Jones to go wild if they can shut down Tech's potent perimeter game.

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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