Maryland 87
Duke 73

February 17, 2002.  Cole Field House.

   For all the talk of Duke being the nemesis of Maryland and the bane of Gary Williams' existence, it should be noted that the Terps are the only team to beat Duke in each of the last three seasons, and to do it by double digits.  Much like Coach K spurred Duke on to greatness with Dean Smith's UNC Tar Heels as his main target, Williams has altered his coaching style in order to match up against the Devils.  It galls him that while Maryland has been having some of its best seasons ever in the last three years, they don't receive the attention that Duke does because of their deathgrip on conference standings, championships and national achievements.  Seeing his  team throttled in Cameron earlier this year made him work twice as hard  to keep his team going, and much to their credit the Terps have not lost a single contest since that game.  More than anything, he was certain that he had the personnel to beat Duke but needed the right matchups and had to have his team believe in themselves.  For one of the very times I've  ever seen, Maryland had a clear mental edge over Duke, a certainty that  they would win that endured even until the very end of the game.  They played harder, they played smarter, and simply outperformed Duke at every position. 

   Williams is not what I would call a so-called "genius" coach.  He doesn't overwhelm you with junk defenses and abandoned the gimmicky presses that were the hallmark of his earlier teams.  He's worked hard to develop a simple offensive system  (the Flex) that takes advantage of the skills of his players.  Like Coach K, he emphasizes the performance of the players and their preparation over complex game plans.  This is actually the best way to attack Duke, if you have the personnel.  Fancy zone tricks, presses and other junk defenses simply don't work against Duke's intelligent read- and-react motion offense.  The one decision that Williams made was to  sag off of Duhon a bit and apply extra defensive pressure to Williams and Dunleavy.  That enabled them to cut off the drive and keep a man out to prevent wide-open shots.  Last time Williams tried to jam Duke's shooters, the Devils simply drove right by.  This time, that extra man prevented Duke exploiting them off the dribble while Duhon simply couldn't make up the difference. 

   While that was big, the real key to Maryland's win was the way they found to free up Dixon and Wilcox.  The Terps pounded Wilcox inside mercilessly as Mike Dunleavy simply couldn't stop him one-on-one, while Wilcox was agile enough to switch from double-teaming Boozer to jumping out on Dunleavy's shots.  With the post game getting some results, they tried to get the ball to Mouton early on.  When he started hitting some shots, Duke was forced to switch Dahntay Jones over to him, which allowed Dixon to go wild. 

   Maryland had a great game plan, several spectacular performances, and an unbelievably loud crowd to back them up.  Despite all this, Duke still had a shot at winning but a few things stopped them.  The first was foul  shooting.  The team was clearly rattled and lost focus, giving away some points that might have come in quite handy in the late going.  The second was transition defense.  Maryland was using Duke's playbook to go long every time if the opportunity was there, and the Devils looked leaden in trying to catch them.  The third factor was ballhandling.  Too many  bobbled passes, too many forced passes into traffic.  Lastly, the team  reverted to what we saw in the first five minutes of the State game: a group of talented individuals overwhelmed by a more cohesive opponent. Duke was able to recover quickly against State, but Maryland wouldn't let Duke recover here.  After this game, the thing for Duke to do is remember the passion that Maryland showed and know that all of their opponents are going to have this.  But Maryland's talent and team effort boosted that passion into a victory.

   Maryland rolled out to an early 6-0 lead as Duke missed their first 5 shots and turned the ball over once.  This set the tone for the rest   of the game, because the Devils looked frustrated early on when shots that normally fell didn't go in, and this affected them defensively.  Jason drove for 2 points, but a Dunleavy miss and Boozer turnover led to 4 more Maryland points.  Dunleavy drove for a jumper and started his own personal run, outscoring the Terps 7-2 with a tip-in and three as well.  Duke then missed 3 chances to score on one possession, with the last try being stolen by Steve Blake and leading to an assist.  Just like that, the Terps were up 16-9 with under thirteen minutes to go in the game.

   Duke's reserves came into provide a little energy, with Nick Horvath blocking a shot and Dan Ewing driving to hit a 10' jumper.  Now it was Maryland missing contested shots, and Duhon creating for Dunleavy led to  another three.  The lead was cut to 16-14 with eleven minutes left.  It looked like Duke was back in it.  But what actually happened was an ugly 15-0 run by Maryland during which time Duke missed 5 shots and turned the ball over 3 times.  Dunleavy missed 2 free throws to boot.  The Devils were getting whipped by a fired-up Maryland team that was scoring easily in transition and taking advantage of every Duke turnover.

   Ewing led a charge back, hitting a three that finally stopped the bleeding. After a couple of Terp foul shots, Duke went on a 7-0 run.  Horvath got a tip-in, Boozer put the ball on the floor and drove to the basket, and  Ewing drove and delivered a sweet wrap-around pass to Boozer for an easy basket.  A Williams steal and 2-on-1 cut the lead to 34-29 with less than a minute left, and once again it looked like Duke was now matching their opponent's energy level.  Blake hit a short jumper and Duke had the ball for the final possession of the half.  As Williams was standing near midcourt to receive an instruction from coach K, he looked away from Blake. Blake reacted by darting to the ball and grabbing it away from Jason, going downcourt for an easy layup with barely any time left.  It was a big momentum play that gave the Terps a 38-29 lead, a great cushion to work from.

   The two teams traded baskets in the early second half, with a nice give and go from Boozer to Duhon and Williams finding Boozer underneath for an "and 1"--though Carlos missed the foul shot.  A Williams 15' jumper brought Duke to within 44-35 with less than seventeen minutes left.  A Wilcox tip-in and a Dixon three suddenly gave the Terps a 14 point lead that they soon stretched to 17 after a Williams steal led to a Boozer basket.  After that, the wheels really fell off as the Terps broke off a dominating 15-2 run against Duke, pushing their lead to 64-39 with ten minutes left.  Duke missed 3 shots, turned the ball over twice and clanked 4 foul shots.  Meanwhile, the Terps were 6-7 and had 2 offensive rebounds, including a monstrous Wilcox follow-up dunk after a Blake miss.

   Duke finally found a bit of poise and went on the attack.  Dunleavy started it with 2 free throws, and Williams then flipped his "on" switch. He dished inside to Boozer and then hit back-to-back threes--the latter coming after Duhon grabbed an offensive board and dished it out to Jason. Jason's next play was a steal that he kicked back to a flying Ewing for a dunk and three point play.  Duke had gone on an 11-1 run and cut the lead to 69-54 with nearly eight minutes left.

   The Terps righted themselves and went on a 9-2 run, aided by a couple of missed Duke free throws.  With under five minutes left, they had  established a 78-56 lead.  Duke was now playing with passion and rolled off an 8-0 run with everyone contributing.  Duhon found Boozer inside, Jones hit 2 freebies and Duhon passed to Dunleavy for a long-awaited three. After a Maryland foul shot, Williams dished to Boozer inside and the Great Bear then hit a couple of free throws.  Duke started fouling Maryland to get the ball back, but the Terps made their free throws down the stretch. The closest Duke could come was 81-70 on a Boozer rebound.  The Devils made Maryland nervous, but coming back from a 78-56 deficit was just too great a task. 

   This is a significant loss, but not a crushing one.  Duke will find it hard to catch Maryland in the standings, especially with road games against Wake and Virginia still remaining.  Maryland has to play both of those teams at home.  Still, if Duke wins out and beats Maryland in an ACC tourney rematch, all of their goals will still be intact.

  ** Negatives:  

1. Focus.  Rather than talk about games specifics here, I instead will cover certain aspects of preparation and motivation.  Focus was the biggest one. A lack of focus led to missed free throws, easy transition opportunities for Maryland, wild forays into the lane that wound up as offensive fouls and panic on offense leading to too much individual play.  The team talked afterwards about "overlooking" Maryland, which seems a bit ridiculous when you consider that the Terps were neck-and-neck with Duke in the standings.  The Blake steal on Williams at the end of the first half is a perfect snapshot of focus in this game.  

2. Intensity.  Along those lines, it was clear that the Terps were pretty much doing the same thing that they usually do, just with a lot more intensity.  Blake, Dixon and Wilcox were running all over the court, powering their defense.  Maryland's fast break was superb.  Duke was making lazy passes that got picked off and didn't pick up their offense by stepping up their defense until very late in the game.  

3. Passion.  More than anything, the Terps simply wanted it more.  Their passion fed their focus here, while Duke's lack of passion hurt their  focus.  Without an experienced leader around, it was difficult to get the team going, which is a fault with both the team and the coaches.  The good news is that it won't be very hard to renew the team's passion after this loss.

  ** Positives:  

1. Offensive rebounding.  Duke had 19 on the game and overall were only outrebounded by 2.  Dunleavy was also solid here with 11, and 3 offensive boards.  If it wasn't for the o-boards, the final margin would have been far larger.  

2. Bench time.  Ewing and Horvath didn't necessarily play great throughout most of the game, but they did get 29 minutes of crucial game action.   Ewing had the better game, though Horvath had his moments.  Still, it was important that both players had a chance to make a difference.   

Player by Player:  

  ** Boozer: Carlos was heroic down the stretch, grabbing every rebound in the air, getting putbacks, and going to the foul line.  He scored Duke's last 9 points of the game and had 6 offensive rebounds, but his inability to hold on to the ball in the first half combined with a suffocating Terp defense made it too little, too late.  Maryland made it one of their missions to keep the ball out of Boozer's hands, because Carlos really hurt them in Durham; moreover, his performance loosened things up for the guards.  He was able to grab some rebounds in the first half and actually drove for a score, but was mostly shut out as Baxter did a great job on him.  Of course, Carlos helped contain him as well, but was helpless to do anything with Wilcox.  Carlos was involved in a lot of scoring plays in the second half, with a pretty give and go with Duhon, a rebound and pass to Williams for a three, and a dish to Duhon after another o-board. Combine that with going 6-6 from the field and 3-5 from the line and you have one of the main reasons why Duke was in the game.     

  ** Dunleavy: Mike kept Duke in the game with ten points in the first nine minutes of the game.  Then he only scored 5 points the rest of the way, utterly shut down by Wilcox, who also abused him on offense.  Mike was simply helpless to deal with the much stronger Wilcox, and didn't help his case by not moving his feet on defense.  His first half outburst resembled his second half outburst against the Terps in their first meeting,  but picking up a couple of first half fouls and tremendous defense took him completely out of the game.  He was only able to get 4 shots off in the second half after firing at will in the first.  This was the worst half of basketball Mike has played all year, but it was against a great team that was ready for him--he needs to step up at both ends of the court for the next game.  

  ** Jones: Dahntay was another player Maryland chose to mostly ignore, with Mouton flashing over to disrupt him every now and then whenever Jones tried to drive.  The Terps were content to watch him shoot from the perimeter, and it just didn't work in this game.  He managed to get to the line in the second half where he proved to be the only Devil who shot over 75% from the stripe.  His one made shot was a pull-up 15' jumper, after having missed a number of similar shots.  His defense on Dixon and Mouton was fine, but he couldn't be in two places at once--though he did manage to draw a couple of fouls.  Dahntay's performance reflected a theme: Maryland gave up  something to every Duke player, and it happened to be what they were worst at. Duke didn't step up when faced with this challenge in the face of Maryland  executing this game plan with a lot of intensity.    

  ** Williams: Cole Field House has never been the happiest of places for Jason, even though he won there twice.  The first time he played there, he had what remains one of the worst games of his career.  Last year, he endured a nightmarish performance that was relieved only when Blake fouled out, sparking the Miracle Minute.  This year, he was 2 of 8 in the first half and 4 of 14 in the second, turning the ball over 6 times.  He finally woke up with ten minutes to go, scoring 9 points and dishing out 2 assists in less than three minutes.  But the Terps did a great job denying him the ball after that and Jason wasn't a factor down the stretch.  Amazingly, Jason missed 8 shots in the last 4 minutes of the game, even blowing  stickbacks.  It's not like he wasn't playing hard, because he was really going after rebounds.  The shots just weren't falling.  The Terps couldn't keep him out of the lane the entire game, and he did hit three tough drives in addition to sinking a 15' jumper.  Maryland at times was successful at turning Jason's aggressiveness against him, allowing him to penetrate and then quickly trap him.  They also guessed well as to whether he was  going to shoot it or pass it inside or to the wings, getting in the passing lanes to stop this form of attack.  He was actually reasonably sharp on defense, getting 3 steals by swooping into the passing lanes.  I do think that Blake's late first half steal unnerved him a bit, and certainly bothered the team.  Simply put: time for the next play and next game, and this team become the aggressor.      

  ** Duhon: Chris really needed to step up here and it just didn't happen. He had a nice enough floor game, with 7 assists and 1 turnover.  But he was just 3-12 from the field, and worse, looked hesitant on almost every shot.  He was just 1-4 in the first half, though he did have 4 assists. In the second half, he took a lot more shots but couldn't get them to fall.  He was trying to penetrate more and had a couple of his shots swatted away, but at least he wasn't simply putting up threes.  Duhon's biggest problems came on defense, where he was unable to slow down Blake or Dixon.  Blake's 13 assists and 1 turnover were possible because he was beating Duhon or Williams, while Dixon's surge corresponded to when Duhon started guarding him.  It's not entirely his fault that he couldn't stop Dixon since he's such a slippery character, but he was simply outplayed by Blake.   

  ** Ewing: Another very strong effort from Dan, whose recent play is starting to earn him some serious trust points both with his coach and his teammates. Dan was great down the stretch in the first half, hitting a three and getting 2 big assists to cut Maryland's lead to 5.  In the second half, he had a three point play dunk in transition that capped off a 9-0 Duke run.   Maryland mostly ignored him, but Dan did a great job of making things happen without forcing the issue--his 0 turnovers show this quite clearly.  If Duke can start to depend on him at both ends of the floor, he could make a big splash in the postseason tournaments.     

  ** Horvath: Nick had an OK first half, getting a tip-in basket and blocking a couple of shots.  But he provided absolutely no help against Wilcox, who simply went around him.    

  ** Next Game: A crucial road game against a very confident Wake Forest team.  Wake took Virginia apart on Sunday as their young players have  really jelled with the rest of the team.  Taron Downey is a very good point guard who can really penetrate, while Vytas Danelius is another typically solid Lithuanian player.  Considering how close the game was last year, Duke will need a tremendous effort to pull this one out.          

      Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu

Rob's Archive