Duke v. EA Sports: Game Over

November 14, 2002.

Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Well, I'm sure everyone reading this already knows about the weird confluence of Bad Things: Coach K getting injured on the same play where Chris Duhon sprained his wrist. Thankfully, Coach K will be back in practice on Monday and Duhon probably won't miss many games, if any at all. Johnny Dawkins took over for Coach K in the second half and didn't miss a beat, extending a 21 point halftime lead to 40 at one juncture.

Apart from that, this was a solid win against a team that lost at the buzzer to NC State last night and only by about a dozen to UNC. One can understand why: unlike most traveling teams, they actually played some defense. They undoubtedly saw or heard about Duke raining threes last week and so played Duke very tight on the perimeter (result: Duke shot 7-24). They muscled up Duke's big men and pressured the guards, at times going to a full-court press. Duke responded by attacking the basket and taking short jumpers, and it worked. EA had three legitimate scorers in Damien Cantrell, Mike Elliott and Isaac Harmon, and they did a lot of damage from behind the three point stripe. All-in-all, they were a much tougher challenge than the Nike team that Duke thrashed last week.

The starters were Duhon, Redick, Jones, Randolph & Williams--not Ewing, interestingly enough. That group struggled and Dockery, Ewing & Horvath came in for Williams, Redick and Jones. That combo clicked and ran off 12 straight points, with Ewing hitting a three, Randolph getting a stickback, Duhon hitting a short jumper, and Duhon hitting a fadeaway jumper while falling on his posterior (plus the foul!). Casey Sanders came in and hit a nice 5' jumper. Dockery hit another falling to the floor shot as Duke went up by 15 points. The lead stayed between 13-17 until the last three minutes of the half, when Duke went on a 14-6 run. Again, it was a variety of players doing the damage: Dock hit Shav with an alley-oop, Duhon hit a three, Shav had a stick back, Ewing scored on a cut, Jones hit a three and Redick nailed a 17 footer.

After Duhon went out and the big men were starting to develop foul trouble, the frosh picked up the intensity and turned a 66-43 lead into an 88-48 blowout. Shav had 8 points in the run, JJ had 4 and an assist, Dock had 7 and even Mike Thompson came off the bench to hit a free throw. Duke started subbing heavily with about six or seven minutes to go, and EA took advantage by firing away.

If it sounds like there weren't any dominant performances tonight, that's because there weren't. Instead, there were good players who played great in spurts. Dan Ewing is a good example. He sizzled in the first half, scoring 11 points and hitting a couple of threes that the team really needed. In the second half, his numbers tailed off quite a bit. In all, five different players had double figures: Jones (11), Randolph (18), Redick (14, even though he was 0-6 from three!), Ewing (16) and Dockery (12). Dock also did a fine job running the team in Duhon's absence, only turning the ball over twice.

Duke has a lot of very intriguing parts, and Coach K will need to find a way to make them all fit. The veterans and the rookies all have roughly the same level of talent, which gives the veterans an edge thanks to experience. At the same time, the rookies will help immediately. Army is unlikely to be a tough test, even if they do play with discipline. Still, it'll be nice to play against a real team, even if it lacks talent.

** Negatives:

1. Blocking out. Duke allowed a few extra shots because they couldn't put their hands on some boards, playing "tip drill" instead.

2. Free throw shooting. 65% is below what this team will need to succeed against good opponents, especially when you consider that a large percentage of their offensive plan will involve attacking the basket. The starters did shoot 13-15 from the line, however.

3. Three point shooting. Duke will need to do better at finding ways for the players to generate their own shots from three. When Duhon set things up for others, players got easy shots. It was otherwise a spotty evening from three.

** Positives:

1. Offensive rebounding. Great group effort here, especially from the three frosh posts. They were credited with 6 offensive boards, but Thompson actually tipped a ball out to Ewing; Dan got the rebound but Michael did all the work on that play. Nick Horvath is also quietly becoming a rebounding force.

2. Ball pressure. This will be a major strength of this team. If an opponent does not have a top-flight point guard, they will be in trouble. That will especially be true when Duhon & Dockery are both in the game. Throw in Dahntay's suffocating on-ball defense, and you can see that Duke will be much harder to attack off the dribble and from outside this year.

3. Attacking the basket. With the three taken away from them, everyone did a great job of going to the hoop hard. Redick, Ewing, Duhon, Dockery & Jones were quite efficient in doing so.

Player-by-Player:

** Williams: This was the first time I've seen Shelden play poorly. Early in the game, he missed a couple of easy turnaround jumpers in the lane, and this seemed to shake his confidence a bit. Even worse, it affected his concentration on defense, as he started to miss some switches that led to scores for EA. Coach Dawkins actually yanked him from the game early in the second half as a result. Shelden still managed to grab 6 rebounds, proving that no matter what else might go wrong with his game on a given night, he will always attack the boards. Duke's rebounding suffered at times when he was out, reverting to the tip drill we've seen all too many times. I expect Shelden will bounce back against Army and take the ball strong to the basket.

** Randolph: Shav continues to string together impressive performance after impressive performance. And while he's certainly a versatile player with fine perimeter skills, he's excelling as an inside scorer. His first score was a three point play, finishing after absorbing contact. He also had two stickback baskets, always alert after a miss. Shav displayed his underrated athleticism by slamming home an alley-oop pass from Dockery. In the second half, he was in great position a couple of times and then got fouled, going 4-4 from the line. He also had yet another stickback hoop and showed off his range with a feathery 17' jumper. The major problem he had in this game was foul trouble, especially when trying to guard a quicker wing player driving past him. Shav is stronger than he was in high school but still can be pushed around a bit. Despite that, he has excellent shotblocking instincts and isn't afraid to accept some contact.

** Jones: Dahntay had a solid game, though he's still taking most of his offense into his own hands. He had Duke's first two shots; his first was a miss after he got a steal, his second was a strong finish for a three point play. A late first half three broke a mini-drought for the Devils. He started the second half the same way he began the first: he posted up an EA player and got a three point play out of it, and then hit a short shot on a jump stop. That was a new move, and a very effective one for a player who was called for a number of charges last year. One could sense that he was gearing up for an offensive explosion, but it didn't quite happen. To his credit, he made sure to take care of the ball, and most of his shots were good ones. As always, he played excellent defense.

** Redick: JJ got the start but continues to struggle from three. After missing his first 3 threes, he had an open shot in the left corner. Instead of taking it, he dribbled and moved a foot inside the line, and drained the 18' jumper. To his credit, he came out firing in the the second half, scoring on drives. This clearly surprised EA Sports, whose scouting report must have said "stand-still shooter". JJ later intercepted a bad pass on scored on a runout, then took another step inside the three point line and hit another long two pointer. Throw in a couple of free throws from a technical foul, and you have a solid night's work. It was nice seeing him muck out some points when his three wasn't falling and the other team was playing him tight. The coaches have been happy with him in practice, which no doubt led to him starting.

** Duhon: Duhon was in complete control of the game until he got hurt. He started Duke's scoring with an alert stickback after a Jones miss. Then he set up Randolph for a three point play, dished to Ewing for a couple of threes and a later basket on a cut, and even got struggling Shelden Williams an easy hoop. Chris also stuck a 10' jumper and hit a late three that started a run that gave Duke a huge advantage towards the end of the first half. Amazingly, he played through his wrist injury and played well for a while, but the pain of the injury started to show in the second half when he started missing easy shots. Going just 1-5 from three clearly frustrated him despite the other positive things he was accomplishing, probably because he knows he needs to become a more consistent scorer this year. The other negative is that every now and then Chris is careless with the ball--he bounced one ball off of his foot and out of bounds. As always, his defense was excellent--he took a charge.

** Horvath: Nick had a really solid, blue-collar kind of game. His scores came when he was in the right place at the right time: the first came on a defensive breakdown where he was wide open under the basket and called for the ball, the second came on a break. He also hit a three. Where he did most of his damage was on the boards, leading all players with 8. His big problem came when he tried to put the ball on the deck-- a significant mistake for a player with only an average handle at best.

** Ewing: Dan bounced back from a mediocre game last week to bring a huge spark from off the bench. He was part of the group that led Duke's big early run. He hit a pull-up three off a Duhon pass on a fast break and also found Horvath inside for an easy score. Dan followed that up by hitting Redick in transition, sinking another three thanks to a Duhon pass and started a beautiful break that Horvath finished. He kept up the pressure in the first half by getting a steal and sinking a 15' jumper right when he saw a man in front of him, and scored on a cut late in the half. Ewing led the Devils with 11 first half points, had 2 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. He wasn't quite as spectacular in the second half, though he did hit another mid-range jumper, had a pass to Horvath for a three, and hit a three that gave Duke 100 points. All-in-all, a very smooth and effective game for a player who will put up big numbers on some nights.

** Dockery: Dock continues to excel, especially in hitting his patented "falling on his ass while getting fouled" shot. He really is a sort of Tommy Amaker on speed--a fierce defender with an excellent handle who is always thinking about attacking the basket. His problem is that he often drives without having a coherent plan of what to do next--something that happened to Bobby Hurley a lot early in his career. That said, he really makes things happen around the basket. He will average a lot of rebounds in his career because he's so quick to the ball. There was one point in the second half where he hit a three on a Redick pass, stole the ball and got a runout on the next possession, and later drove in for a fancy, twisting layup. It's rare that you see a scoring point who loves defense as much as he does. Sean also did a fine job of running things when Duhon was out, though he didn't have a ton of assists. He really does add a lot of depth to Duke's backcourt, which will bring a lot of firepower to the table despite the departure of Jason Williams.

** Sanders: Not a bad game for Casey, despite fouling out. The game was called very tightly, and he was whistled twice for moving picks. He wasn't whistled for being out of position on defense like in games past. In the first half, he hit a 5' jumper from the baseline and dished to Horvath on a break and also picked up several offensive boards. In the second half, he hit a turnaround jumper, got a stickback and used an up-and-under move for a one-handed dunk. His major problem in the game was putting the ball on the floor (resulting in 3 turnovers) and getting hit with those whistles. This was not a dominant performance by any means, but if he can play 10-12 minutes in regular games and get 8 & 4, Duke will be in very good shape this year.

** Thompson: Big Mike entered the game with about twelve minutes to go, at a point where Sanders & Randolph both had 4 fouls. While Duke still had a 30 point lead, he was expected to hold down the post. His first points came when he was intentionally fouled going for an offensive rebound, and he hit 1 of 2. Overall, he still needs time to become more comfortable out there; one can sense that the game is moving a bit too fast for him at this point.

** Melchionni: Lee did not get into the game until the second half and basically stayed in until the end. He was basically there to fire away, but he missed on some decent-looking shots.

** Buckner: Andre missed a couple of shots, both times when the shot clock was running down.

** Means: Andy missed a jumper with the shot clock running down but did find Johnson down low.

** Johnson: Patrick scored on a nice feed from Andy Means and generally looked very comfortable out there.

** Cameron Craziness: There was a much better crowd for this game than the last exhibition game; a letter in the Chronicle from the head line monitor certainly helped.