Coach K noted that the real problem with Duke's win
over Southern was not fatigue, rust or players taking a step back. Rather, he thought the younger members of his team
were not playing in the present, instead still caught up in their ACC tournament victory. That was especially evident in the play of Greg
Paulus, who went from having laser-beam focus against Wake and BC to playing like Duke was
spotted 50 points going into their match-up with a proud Southern club. If there was a lesson to be learned in general from
the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, it was that higher seeds had to respect the
talent, cohesiveness and intensity of the lower seeds.
Lower seeds controlled the tempo of most of the games, and greater talent
certainly didn't win out over the weekend. It
was unusual for Duke not to respect the tournament and their opponent, but it was clear
that some of the youngsters expected the first round game to consist of lots of running
and alley-oop dunks. They got away from the
sort of smart, tough play that has characterized Duke this season and reverted to
one-on-one play.
 The warning signs were certainly there in the first
half, but Duke was able to play just well enough to keep the Jags at bay. Duke was doing just enough at both ends of the
floor, with the focus on Redick and Williams. The
Devils shot a solid 53% in the first half and held Southern to 44%. Of course, it was disturbing that JJ Redick and
Shelden Williams accounted for 33 of 39 first half points.
Also disturbing was Duke turning the ball over 8 times, including several
late in the half when Duke should have been pulling away.
Southern actually kept the game quite close in the early
going, even holding a 10-8 lead and tying it
up at 12-12 with fourteen minutes left in the half. Williams
had 8 of those 12 points. The Devils went on a
10-2 run to get a little separation, with Redick hitting 2 threes and another short
jumper, and Josh McRoberts getting a dunk thanks to Lee Melchionni. With ten minutes to go in the half, Duke led 22-14. Now, great Duke teams take mini-runs like that and
build on them. This team responded by floating
through the next several minutes. Redick and
Williams kept the team going with 7 more points, but Southern pulled within 31-28 with
four minutes left.
To his credit, Paulus delivered a pass inside to
Williams for a three point play, and then got him the ball again for some foul shots. Redick hit another jumper with a minute left to cap
off an 8-2 run to restore order, and Duke led 39-30 at the half. Instead of coming out and putting their opponent
away in the second half, the Devils didn't match Southern's intensity and wound up falling
prey to a 7-1 run. Coach K was understandably
furious and called a timeout to pound some urgency into his team. Wisely, the team went to Williams on the next play
and he converted with his left hand.
That triggered a 13-1 run that featured smothering
defense, a couple of treys from JJ and another bucket from Redick. Southern was no longer getting easy baskets from
turnovers or stickbacks. They still had a bit
of fight left in them as they hit 3 straight threes to come as close as 58-47, but Duke
was now operating smoothly on offense. Redick
finished them off with a three and a three point play, and Duke extended its defense and
shut down the Jags completely.
Redick and Williams had 29 points apiece and 58 of
the team's 70 points. McRoberts had a decent
game with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks. Dockery,
Paulus and Melchionni didn't score at all, and Nelson just had 2 free throws. Duke was fortunate not to have any significant foul
trouble or else someone would have been forced to do a lot more heavy lifting. There have been other years when seniors were
forced to take on a lot more of the scoring in the early rounds while the younger players
found their footing. JJ and Shelden were both
up to the task here. A look at the first round
games for the 1 and 2 seeds in the tournament revealed that Duke was far from the only
team that had trouble. UConn was down 10 in
the second half in their game, for example. Duke
didn't have a lot going for it in this game, but they rode what was working (its top two
scorers) all the way to a win.
Against an ultra-athletic George Washington team
that continued to feel disrespected by their 8 seed, Duke would need a lot more. And they'd need it especially from their two frosh
stars. Both have unique skills that can punish
opponents, but only if Josh and Greg have the confidence and aggressiveness to use them,
and the decision-making to know when to take risks. GW
played a draining overtime game against UNC-Wilmington in the first round, one where they
barely pulled out a win against an inspired opponent.
They had to be a bit fatigued after that experience, though elated as well. Of course, though Duke was never in any real danger
against Southern, it was not an easy game. The
team's energy was low, and the fact that the game didn't end until after midnight certainly didn't help. A number of the players didn't get to bed til quite
late, so both teams were probably about even in terms of exhaustion. GW was a bit higher emotionally, and Duke a bit
lower--the perfect opportunity for Coach K to motivate his team.
The Colonials were not a huge team, but had just
the kind of personnel that had given Duke fits all season.
With three forwards and two guards, they had players who could penetrate and
either attack the rim, dish off to cutters or kick out to shooters. All season, Shelden has been forced to come out to
meet players driving into the lane, often because someone blew a defensive rotation. Few fans understand how much his shotblocking
saved Duke's collective posterior this season, because he was the last line of defense for
a spread-out defense that tried to force turnovers. And
of course, because he often had to come out to meet defenders, it put him in poor
rebounding position, and no one was moving quickly enough to help him out. The GW game would be a perfect testing ground to
see how far Duke had come.
The good news came early for the Blue Devils. Greg Paulus was involved in 4 of Duke's first 5
scoring plays. That included a three in
transition by Redick on a pass from Greg, a fast break connection from Greg to Shelden,
and 2 Paulus drives for scores. GWU was in a
make-or-break defense. Duke turned the ball
over plenty against Southern, and a full-court press wasn't a bad strategy. Of course, this put Duke in a position where they
either had to attack or get humiliated--there was no middle ground. Put in that position, Paulus and McRoberts
responded with aggressive plays that had immediate rewards.
Without a lot of size, GW double and even triple-teamed Shelden, but he had
a nice early pass to McRoberts for a dunk. Early
on, Duke had a 13-7 lead.
The only way GW was staying in the game early was
with their offensive rebounding, getting 4 early stickback points. GW turned a couple of Duke turnovers into points
and came within 15-14. Melchionni pulled up
for a 15' jumper to break up a 7-2 run, and then knocked down a three. Those were big plays, especially because they came
from a player who had been struggling in so many games.
More impressive than those 5 points were 2 crucial defensive plays. The first came when a GW player got the ball quickly
and posted him up. Lee somehow stood his
ground and stripped the ball away. Later in
the half, GW's Carl Elliott had a perfect driving shot that Lee swatted out of bounds. Duke would get a stop on the next possession to go
into the half with a double-digit lead.
 Lee's points helped spark a 19-4 run that put Duke
firmly in control. GW missed 9 shots and had 3
turnovers during that streak, as Williams and McRoberts took control of the boards. Williams had 9 points and Redick 5 during the run. Duke took control of the game through sheer hard
work and defense. At one point, McRoberts
missed a free throw. He knew it was off and
went after his rebound, and then dished inside to Williams.
Shelden was unstoppable one-on-one inside against GW, especially when Pops
Mensah-Bonsu was out of the game with foul trouble. The
Colonials went on a 6-1 in the last five minutes of the half as Duke turned the ball over
a bit. The defense was able prevent the damage
from being too serious. Indeed, Duke held GW
to just 27% shooting in the half while the Devils shot 52%.
Duke came out in the first three minutes of the
second half and took over once again. Redick
drove and hit Sean Dockery for a three. Once
again, a role player stepped up and made a big play. Redick
then sank a three of his own to push Duke's lead up to 15.
The Colonials then threw on all sorts of presses on Duke (1-3-1 and 2-1-2), but Paulus confidently asked for the ball
and used McRoberts as a safety valve. Josh
punished GW with his ballhandling. During one
sequence, he drove the lane and faked a behind-the-back pass (!) and then brought the ball
back up for a runner. Later, Dockery broke the
press by not picking up his dribble and going straight to the basket.
The Devils went up 51-33 four minutes into the
half, but melted down for a few minutes. The
Devils turned the ball over 5 times in four minutes. Melchionni
also missed an easy dunk attempt and airballed a three.
Duke responded with an 11-3 run started by a Dockery free throw. Paulus then found Redick for a three. After that, Duke attacked the basket and made a
living at the foul line. With a 17 point lead
with under eight minutes to go, Duke started to slow down the game a bit.
GW couldn't cut significantly into the lead. Redick found McRoberts for a dunk and hit foul
shots the rest of the way. Duke kept the score
in double-digits at all times. Williams was
awesome with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 7 blocks. McRoberts
had 14 points, 13 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 assists. Redick had 20, shooting 50% (though he
had the unspeakable weird 2-7 line from the foul line).
After being outrebounded 10-2 in the early going, Duke was even on the
boards by the end of the game. The major
negative for the game was 18 Duke turnovers (6 by Paulus), but the Devils weren't hurt by
them because of their incredible defense. Duke
shut down penetration and used McRoberts as a fearsome defensive presence to go along with
Shelden. At times, it reminded me of last year
when Shav Randolph played really tough defense next to Shelden. When those two were
together and not in foul trouble, it was impossible to score inside on Duke. They knew where to stand in relation to each other
on the floor, and Shav was so good at coming over from the weak side to take a charge or
block a shot. Josh is not nearly the defender
that Shav was, but he is playing to his strengths by relying on his quickness to make
plays. He's also learning to pick his spots
with regard to challenging players physically. McRoberts
is at times a bit reckless, but he's learning to use his daring as a positive. While it's important that both Paulus and McRoberts
learn good decision-making (neither is great at valuing the ball), they do no good for the
team if they're passive on the floor. No one
is going to double-team them, and they need to learn how to take advantage of the freedom
that offers them.
All-in-all, this was a solid win that still left
plenty of room for improvement. Duke could
still get a little more offense from Nelson in particular, but also from Dockery. The wait clearly did him some good, as his hand
looked much better. LSU will be a different
sort of challenge, as Duke has to deal with size rather than speed or precision. The Devils should hopefully be rested and hungry
for more than they achieved last season.
Rob's Archive
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