Duke 92
San Diego St. 79

December 29, 2001. 

Cameron Indoor Stadium.

  Steve Fisher was often regarded more as a babysitter of exceptional talent rather than a great coach in his days at Michigan, but his resurrection of the Aztec basketball program (dormant since the Michael Cage and Tony Gwynn days--yes, that Tony Gwynn) has been remarkable.  Unsurprisingly,  he's built the program with talented transfers like Tony Bland (Syracuse) Brandon Smith (Michigan), Randy Holcomb (Fresno State/JuCo), Al Faux (JuCo), and DeAndre Moore (Vanderbilt).  In fact, of the nine players Fisher used against Duke, only three were recruited directly out of high school by the Aztecs!  Beyond attracting talent, Fisher came in with an excellent game plan.  He knew that his post game simply had no chance against Duke's offensively, so he spread the floor and let his guards attack Duke off the dribble, dishing to the athletic Holcomb whenever possible.  Of course, to do that sort of thing against Duke, you have to have a point guard who won't turn it over, and that ultimately proved to be their downfall.

  The reason this plan can work against Duke is that they tend to overplay on defense, which means open lanes can be found if a player strikes before Duke rotates someone back.  By maintaining good spacing, a savvy point guard can also dish out for an open three.  While SDS is quick and athletic, they don't have many reliable long-range shooters.  To Fisher's credit, he stuck to what his team did well and didn't deviate from the game plan. 

  On Duke's side, they'd been off since beating Kentucky 11 days prior to this contest.  And they looked every bit as sluggish and rusty as you  might expect.  SDS proved to be the perfect opponent for this kind of scenario, because they had enough talent to challenge Duke and make them work for a win.  Fisher had carefully prepared his team, playing just a few days before this game and beating a good Hawai'i team on the road.  The game started well enough for Duke, with Carlos Boozer getting a hook and  Chris Duhon hitting a three for an early 5-0 lead.  The Aztecs immediately  fought back, with Bland attacking Duke with drives and short jumpers.  Five  minutes into the game, the score was tied at 10.  SDS had trouble dealing  with Boozer early on, as he scored on a drive and a 15' jumper on a Jones  pass on successive possessions.  But the Aztecs matched Duke shot-for-shot, and  tied the score at 14 with fourteen minutes left in the half.  Jason Williams  and Mike Dunleavy announced themselves with Duke's biggest weapon: the three point shot.  Dunleavy found Williams for a three and then Nick Horvath relocated a pass out to Dunleavy for another.  Still, SDS kept scratching and clawing away at the lead, and the margin was just 21-20 with nine  minutes left in the half.  The Aztecs weren't going away.

  Of course, it helped that Duke was starting to experience some severe foul trouble at this point.  Boozer had to sit down early with 2 fouls, and then almost immediately picked up his third when he came back into the game.  Dahntay Jones also picked up 3 fouls in the first half.  Duke had to hit some tough shots just to stay ahead, like a Dunleavy double-clutch jumper and a Williams 17' jumper.  After Boozer went out with his third foul, Coach K subbed in 7th-year senior Matt Christensen, he of the bad knees but big body.  When "Uncle Matty" came in, Good Things started to happen.  San Diego State suddenly was getting no offensive rebounds--Matt snagged 5 defensive boards in the first half alone.  He also had a huge block in the lane, finally stopping the Aztecs from driving and scoring at will.  All of this helped spark a 14-0 run over a three minute span that suddenly extended Duke's lead to 39-24. 

  The run began with back to back threes from Duhon and Dunleavy.  Then came 7 straight points at the foul line.  It ended with Duhon snagging a rebound and firing it immediately downcourt to Dan Ewing, who had leaked out for an easy layup.  It looked like Duke was going to put them away then and there, but the Aztecs recovered.  Then rattled off 5 points in a row and then traded hoops with Duke for the rest of the half.  Dunleavy scored on a three and a cut to keep Duke ahead, but the Aztecs cut the lead to 44-35 with Duke getting the final possession of the half.  Williams drove and passed to Reggie Love, who was fouled going up.  The football player hit both, and Duke took a double-digit lead into halftime.

  Dunleavy had been the hero of the first half with 15 points, including 3 of 6 from three.  Jason was only 1-4 from three with 8 points total.  Ewing, Christensen and Love all injected some energy off the bench.  Duke had been seriously outrebounded overall, but countered that by forcing 8 turnovers and only committing 4 of their own.

  The Aztecs felt pretty good about where they were, and started off the second half with confidence.  That meant a 6-1 run that brought them to within 47-41.  Boozer picked up his fourth foul on a charge and Christensen was brought back in again.  Duke picked up its defense after Duhon scored on a drive, putting more pressure on the SDS guards.  The Devils got a stop and pushed the lead back up to 10 when Williams inbounded to Dunleavy for an easy hoop as the Aztecs fell asleep.  A Dunleavy three was sandwiched by a couple of SDS baskets, making it 54-45 with over 16 minutes left.  Duke was ahead, but the margin was far from comfortable.

  Duhon started to exert his will on the game a bit here, dishing to Williams for a three and then attacking SDS with a drive for a layup.  The teams again traded baskets for a bit until Christensen was intentionally fouled on a breakaway play.  The big man's first attempt bounced on the rim and hung there for a few moments before he waved it in and it dropped in.  He  then swished the second shot.  Duke missed the ensuing shot but after SDS scored to make it 63-51, the Devils went on a 12-2 run.  Boozer had reentered the game and immediately stepped up his play.  He posted up and then relocated a pass out to Jones for a three.  Then he cut to the basket and received a great Dunleavy pass for a dunk and the foul.  Dunleavy then drove and hit Duhon for a three.  A few free throws later, and Duke was up 75-53 and very much in control.

  Duke kept up the pressure with a Williams three after a Love relocation pass and a Boozer layup on a nice Duhon feed.  Seven minutes remained, and Duke had an 80-55 lead.  It looked like Duke would simply cruise the rest of the way, but San Diego State had other ideas.  Over the next 4:30, SDS went on an 18-3 run aided by all sorts of things.  Duke started turning the ball over and SDS got some transition baskets out of that.  Boozer missed 2 free throws and the Aztecs attacked and scored.  Ewing turned the ball over twice under pressure and put up an ugly, awkward shot--and SDS took advantage.  When SDS cut it to 11 with over three minutes left, Coach K realized that play time was over and put Williams back in.  Duke then went to a delay game and ran it well.  Boozer got an offensive putback on one play, and Williams found Jones for a baseline jam after SDS overplayed too much.  Duke was in control the last couple of minutes, and SDS never got closer than 11.  Still, they put quite a scare into Duke, letting them know that lollygagging on the court wasn't going to cut it no matter who they were playing.  

 ** Negatives:  

1. Cutting off penetration.  Bland and Holcomb were reprising the act that Terrell McIntyre and Harold Jamison of Clemson played against Duke back in 1998.  Guard penetrates and either shoots or dishes to athletic forward for a jam or short jumper.  This is how SDS was able to shoot 53% from the floor.  

2. Offensive rebounding.  Duke too often was just one-and-done.  The Devils had only 6 offensive boards for the game, with Boozer and Christensen getting 2/3 of those.               

3. Valuing the ball.  Granted, SDS was pressuring Duke a little.  But Duke turned it over 13 times in the second half!  Duke simply wasn't concentrating, and SDS made them pay.   

 ** Positives:  

1. Ball pressure.  By the same token, SDS threw the ball away several times. But Duke was actively pressuring them and forcing them out of their rhythm.  

2. Defensive rebounding.  Christensen had 7 defensive boards and Duhon an impressive 5.  SDS wasn't sending a lot of guys to the boards in order to guard against Duke's break, but the Devils nonetheless did the job.  

3. Bench play.  Especially from Christensen, of course, but Love, Horvath and Ewing all had their moments.  They played an impressive 40 minutes.   

Player-by-Player:  

 ** Boozer: When he was in and not fouling, he was impossible for SDS to stop.  Their weak link is at big man, and not having Boozer in there to exploit that matchup hurt Duke.  Carlos scored 7 points in the game's first five minutes and looked like he was going to have a huge game, but San Diego State's aggressive driving to the basket caught Duke out of synch on defense.  Everyone was rotating back too slowly, and the result was some cheap fouls for Carlos.  Christensen's strong play meant that Duke could afford to keep Carlos on the bench for a bit, but picking up his fourth foul in the second half meant that he really had to suck it up and play smart when he came back in.  Being anchored to the bench has a way of focusing players sometimes, and Carlos had 7 points and 4 rebounds in the last twelve minutes of the game.  They included a big-time flush that was part of a big run and a huge putback that gave Duke a 12-point lead with two minutes left.  Boozer wound up with pretty good numbers despite just 21 minutes of playing time.  

 ** Dunleavy: A career-high 25 points, and it all seemed so effortless. It was especially impressive because he not only took over on offense when Boozer was out and Williams was misfiring, but he kept it going in the second half as well.  Mike has always tended to look dominant for small segments of games but then back off or starting missing shots, but he was steady the entire time here.  The only negatives were 3  turnovers (one of which wasn't really his fault) and his inability to shut down Randy Holcomb.  On the other hand, Holcomb wasn't able to do much about him, either.  Mike had a nice all-around game, with assists to Williams and Duhon for threes and a back-breaking dish to Boozer for a three point play.  He also picked off several passes, often as a "free safety" when SDS was trying to throw deep.  On offense, he had a diversified game.  He hit half of his 8 threes, 5 of 6 foul shots, and provided a good target on several cuts.    

 ** Jones:  A good but not great game for Dahntay.  He didn't shut down Brandon Smith, who scored 13 points on 5-6 shooting.  I think to a large degree he was hampered by his foul trouble, and that made him back off more than he should have.  On the other hand, he did a good job of getting to the foul  line.  Jones hit a three that gave Duke their biggest lead up to that point, and threw down a dunk towards the end that removed any suspense  from the final outcome.  He also came up with a pair of steals in the second half.  In general, he looked unhappy with how physical the game was being played.  There were a number of intense confrontations on the defensive end that seemed to anger him.  It's not unusual for Duke's opponents to challenge them with a physical style of play because of the Devils'  reputation as a finesse team, and they must simply respond by shrugging it off and staying tough.  

 ** Williams:  One had the feeling that Jason didn't have a great game, but then his 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists fly out.  Of course, his 5 turnovers were a bit ugly, and his defense wasn't always the greatest in this game.  In fact, SDS made a point of driving on him whenever possible. He made up for this when it counted on offense, simply blowing by everyone and getting fouled.  He missed a few foul shots in the first half (including three in a row at one point), but recovered to shoot 8-12 in the game.   Jason stepped it up a bit in the second half, scoring 13 of his 21 points. And most of those came off the dribble, as he was 7-8 from the line.  After his sparkling performance against Kentucky, anything else is a bit of a  letdown, but this was still a pretty good game overall.  I'll have another StatWatch after the Davidson game, since he's about to achieve a special statistical milestone.  

 ** Duhon: This was Chris' best overall game in a while.  While his 4 turnovers were a bit distressing, seeing him nail 3-6 from three and driving for layups was quite welcome.  He was still Duke's best distributor and forced two 5-second closely guarded turnovers.  Chris found Dunleavy three times and also hit Williams, Ewing and Boozer.  Overall, a very solid game with an overall 5-8 mark from the field and 7 assists, but Chris has not yet had a true breakout game where he dominates from beginning to end. He prefers not to take that role at this point, but I have a feeling that he'll need to at some time this season.              

 ** Horvath: Nick came in and played a few good minutes in the first half, but did not return.  I'm not sure if this has more to do with his recovering foot or the fact that Christensen was playing so well.  He had a great block, an assist to Dunleavy for a three, and a strong rebound.    

 ** Christensen: Well, the first amazing thing about Christensen in this game was that after going 4-6 from the foul line, he is the current free throw percentage leader of this team at 78.6%.  But what you had to love about his performance was his sheer intensity.  He went after rebounds like his life depended on it and let the chips (and bodies) fall where they may. And he was **grabbing** rebounds--not tapping them out or trying to snag them one-handed--but authoritatively snatching them out of the air.  Getting the big rebounds seemed to fuel Duke's offense as well, even if he wasn't really a big part of it.  That's because his finishing off strong defensive stands by sealing away the board just got the rest of the team in a positive state and a good rhythm.  When you throw in his solid defense (including his block and generating a steal) and his aggressively going to the basket (he narrowly missed getting a couple of three point plays), this has to be one of the best games of his career.  The other good thing about his performance was that he kept his foul total low.  Certainly, part of this was related to SDS not really using a big man on offense, but it still showed improved discipline.    

 ** Ewing: Probably the worst overall game of his career.  Missing shots is fine, but making bad decisions isn't.  And one of his missed shots looked much more like a turnover than a FG attempt.  The worst part is that it came on a one-on-one play.  Dan is a young player and subject to inconsistency, and he did play well on defense.  But it's time for him to become a  regular contributor off the bench, someone who can spell Duhon or Williams for long periods of time.     

 ** Sanders: Casey didn't play due to a particularly virulent form of flu he had.  Coach K expects him to be available for Davidson on Wednesday.   

 ** Cameron Craziness:  The students were away and the result was a very quiet Cameron, despite the fact that it was packed.  There was a high demand for tickets, most likely due to this being a holiday weekend.   Nonetheless, I heard a "Luke is better" cheer aimed at Chris Walton, and a "we use real chairs" aimed at Fisher's use of tiny little chairs that  his team uses during timeouts, so as to get away from heckling and loud fans.        

 ** Next Game: Wednesday, December 2nd against Davidson in the Charlotte Coliseum.  The Wildcats are ancient rivals of the Blue Devils and generally are a solid mid-major club.  The current edition has struggled but also notably defeated UNC.     

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu

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