Duke 81, Michigan
59.
December 7, 2002.
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
An odd and unpredictable season had a few
more odd twists and turns against Michigan. First
of all, Coach K used a small starting lineup of Chris Duhon, JJ Redick, Dan Ewing, Dahntay
Jones and Casey Sanders. He did this for two
reasons; first, he wanted to match up with a perimeter-oriented Michigan team, and second,
this was the lineup that built up a huge lead against Ohio State. K is searching for a starting lineup that works
against in any situation, and he has yet to find it. Early in the year, Duke still doesn't
really have an identity, yet they continue to win. Granted,
they're not beating top 10 teams, but they could have easily folded down the stretch
against UCLA, Ohio State and Davidson but instead made some key plays. Michigan was not a likely candidate for a big
challenge either, but the difficulty of playing against Tommy Amaker (perhaps K's favorite
player ever) as well as their blend of athletes made this a somewhat intriguing matchup.
The game became a worse-case scenario for
this year's team: what if none of their threes go down during a game? What does Duke do then? The way Duke has used the three this year was as a
tool to knock out opponents. A quick flurry
of threes (often in transition to a trailer) could build a working margin. Against some foes, this would quickly lead to
blowouts. For better teams, Duke could afford to live off the working margin and keep the
other team at arm's length. (This is what
happened in the 2001 national title game, for example).
Against Michigan, Duke went back to its roots, using its defense to generate
its offense. Forcing 25 turnovers (14 of
those steals), Duke ran the Wolverines off the court.
In the halfcourt, they attacked the basket and got 32 free throw attempts.
The Devils also were an impressive 25-37 from two-point range, offsetting their 3-19
showing from three.
The first four minutes of the game were
ugly, to say the least. Ewing hit a three on
an inbounds play thanks to Duhon, but Duke wouldn't score again for nearly three minutes. The Wolverines took a 7-3 lead during this time,
but couldn't fully exploit Duke's woes due to fouls and 3 turnovers of their own. Duke missed four shots and committed a turnover of
their own. Finally, Ewing collected his own
rebound and was fouled after hitting the shot, cutting the lead to 7-5. Following yet another UM turnover, Duhon pulled up
for a three. Jones then hit Nick Horvath on a
cut to give Duke a 10-7 lead with fourteen minutes to go in the half.
Duke suffered another drought on offense,
this one lasting two minutes. Michigan struck back with 4 straight points, with a Sanders
turnover leading directly to one basket. Coach
K had just thrown in a new batch of players, including Horvath, Shelden Williams, Shavlik
Randolph and Sean Dockery. Shav put Duke back
up for good when he stuck back a Redick miss. Duhon hit a couple of freebies after Duke
rebounded a miss. Duke turned up their
pressure on defense as Duhon picked up a steal. He
passed to Jones, who gave it up to Randolph for a little push shot. Shav picked up a steal and gave it to Jones, but
Dahntay missed the front end of a one-and-one. Shav
was then fouled after a miss, and hit both shots. Duke
now led 18-11 with eleven minutes to go, and was playing with a lot more energy.
Michigan scored 4 in a row on jumers,
converting a miss by Shav on the other end. Duhon
struck back with a well-timed floater, but someone blew an assignment on the baseline
which led to an easy UM dunk. Duke had a
20-17 lead but couldn't seem to stretch it out. Jones
countered with a hard drive to the hoop for 2. Ewing
got a rebound, drove and was fouled, nailing both freebies. Duhon then got in the passing lanes for a steal
and runout dunk that really fired up the crowd. Duhon
missed a three that would have given Duke a double-digit lead, and Michigan made him pay
by cutting the lead to 26-19. Dockery sparked
his team with a spectacular drive that got him fouled, but he missed the foul shot. UM had their chances to crawl back in, but a
missed shot and turnover led to Jones pulling up for a 19' jumper. A Randolph free throw made it 31-19 with about six
minutes to go in the half.
UM again had chances to really get back into
the game, but the Wolverines missed the front end of consecutive one-and-ones after
cutting the lead to 31-21. Duhon put Duke up
33-21 on a pretty post-up move, a rarity for Chris. Bernard
Robinson kept UM within striking distance with a drive, but things were about to turn
ugly. An 11-2 run to end the half essentially
brought the game to a close. It was fueled by
the defense, which was starting to assert itself more and more. Ewing started it by hitting a couple of foul shots
on a drive. After Jones missed a three, Duhon
hustled to get the rebound. Jones took
advantage by generating a three point play, putting Duke up 38-23. Smelling blood, Duhon picked off another pass and
got a runout. Michigan had a brief moment of
hope after finally scoring, and getting the rebound after Jones missed 2 free throws.
Another Ewing steal squelched that hope. He
passed it up to Duhon, who gave it up to Jones for a one-handed tomahawk special that sent
the crowd into hysterics. Another Michigan
turnover led to Duke getting the ball under UM's basket.
Dockery was inbounding the ball. Coach
K had told him that if the Wolverines continued to have their backs to him, he should
inbound the ball off one of their players and just go in for the layup. This is exactly
what Sean did--a spectacular, Globetrotters kind of play. It was also the right play at
the right time. Shav got a rebound on UM's
next miss, but Duhon missed a shot at the buzzer.
Duke had amassed a 44-25 lead on the
strength of 17 Michigan turnovers that included 8 steals of their own. Duhon was brilliant with 13 points, 4 boards, 2
assists and 5 steals. Ewing was only 2-8 from
the floor but had 9 points thanks to his work at the foul line. Jones was solid with 7 points, while Randolph had
7 points and 3 rebounds. Sanders, Redick and
Williams failed to scratch, with JJ going 0-4 from three.
The key would be to continue to attack the basket and stop Michigan from
making threes.
The second half got off to an ugly start as
Michigan turned the ball over twice but Duke responded with a turnover and missed shot. Finally, Ewing stole the ball, and passed ahead to
Redick. JJ tossed up a lob that Casey Sanders
hammered down. After Michigan's 4th tunover
of the half, Ewing scored on a simple inbounds pass from Duhon. Shelden got into the act when Chris fed him inside
and he converted for a 50-26 Duke lead. After Blanchard hit a jumper, Jones hit a
turnaround. A three by Daniel Horton cut the
lead to 53-31, but Shav drove and stuck in a pretty reverse layup that drew oohs and ahhs
from the crowd.
Ewing then put on a one-man show, pulling up
for a 10' jumper, driving in for a layup and then getting a steal and runout. That last basket put Duke up 61-36 with eleven
minutes left as Coach K called off the press. Duhon was now in full "create"
mode, dishing to JJ for a three and to Casey for another throw-down. Michigan was fouling left and right, and Duhon
& Jones took advantage with freebies. Duke's
biggest lead of the half came at 78-49 with over four minutes left when Duhon dished to
Williams for a nasty one-handed jam. The
reserves were brought in and Michigan went on a game ending 10-3 run to feel a little
better about themselves. But the damage had
been done, and Duke simply ran them out of the building.
Michigan stayed in the game early on because
they were able to convert their shots when they weren't turning the ball over. That ended in the second half when Duke really
cranked up the defense. Duke won the
rebounding battle, kept their turnovers down to a reasonable 13, and used excellent shot
selection in the second half (13-25). The
Devils got to the free throw line early and often and put Michigan in a tight sot by
getting their shorter bench in foul trouble. The
best thing about the game is that Duke went up big against a team with some significant
offensive weapons and didn't let them back in the game.
And they did it by working hard at both ends.
** Negatives:
1. Shooting. Pretty obvious, eh?
You can throw in "shot selection" as well, at least in the game's
early minutes. Good shooters keep on
shooting, but smart players also know when something's not working. Duke adjusted, tried a different approach, and it
paid off.
2. Post play. Duke was unable to really press Michigan inside
when they had their posts in the game until the second half. Part of this was matchup related, but Duke's posts
simply didn't do a good job of pressing their advantage when they had it.
3. Foul shooting. 62% as a team is still way too low. Duhon & Jones missed 5 combined free throws. Duke will need to shoot at least 70% as a team if
they want to be successful.
** Positives:
1. Pressure defense. Duke's full court press was outstanding, forcing a
number of turnovers. Moreover, the Devils did
a good job at getting downcourt if the initial press didn't produce a turnover. Slowly but surely, the team is starting to develop
a defensive identity. Having more players at
his disposal means that Coach K can have his players go all-out more often.
2. Rebounding. Eight players had at least 3 rebounds. Surprisingly, the team was led by Redick &
Ewing, who combined for 15 boards, 6 offensive. As a team, Duke had an impressive 16
offensive rebounds.
3. Attacking the basket. It's what Duke has always done best, and they did
it here over and over. The dunkfest that was
the second half reminded me of the early 90's teams.
Player-by-Player:
** Sanders: Casey had 2 highlight-reel alley-oop dunks, but
also picked up a couple of early fouls. He
played just 11 minutes as K was trying to get minutes for his younger big men, but this
overall wasn't one of his more effective games. Casey
did have some key early rebounds, took a charge, and didn't make any significant mistakes.
** Jones:
This was a solid game for Dahntay. He
couldn't hit anything from three (going 0-3), but he did hit a long jumper, scored on
several drives, hit a pull-up or two and had that one big dunk. After going just 1-4 from the foul line in the
first half, he hit all 4 of his second half attempts.
He also shut down Bernard Robinson, holding him to 2-9 shooting. One senses that Dahntay wants to be able to take
over games for Duke, but can't quite do it without a reliable jumper. If his threes started going down with any
regularity, he would suddenly become very difficult to stop. As it is, his strength allows him to drive through
a lot of opponents.
** Redick: An awful shooting night for
JJ, who finally hit a three in the second half. But
he played 27 minutes because he did the job on defense and hustled his butt all over the
court. Picking up 7 rebounds was just an
amazing thing to see. Despite a tough
shooting night, you never saw him mope or play with less energy; if anything, he tried
even harder. And his very presence on the
court had to be respected; if left open, you knew he would bury a shot. JJ continues to find ways to contribute other than
as a sharpshooter.
** Ewing: Dan was superb, despite only
hitting 1-5 from three. His drives, his quick
hands, his hustle after the ball and his ability to get to the foul line made him
impossible for Michigan to deal with. His 6
quick second half points were the final knockout punch for a Michigan team that was
staggering around. His early three and three
point play prevented Michigan from running up a bigger early lead. Dan did have 3 turnovers, a big no-no, but made up
for it with his hustle. Through seven games,
Dan has been Duke's most consistent offensive performer.
** Duhon:
Chris put in another masterful performance.
He had "only" 5 assists here, partly because so many outside shots
wouldn't fall. Chris hit the boards in the
first half, attacked Michigan's offense mercilessly with 6 steals, had 2 key runouts for
scores, put Duke up with a three early on and generally took over the game for brief but
key moments. I have a feeling that he's still
growing into his role as leader but grows more and more confident from game to game. He's really starting to remind me a lot of Bobby
Hurley as a senior, who at first was a bit reluctant to take a lot of shots but who by the
end of the year would win up with 20 points in every game.
Chris has played well so far, but I think his best is yet to come.
** Horvath: Nick scored on a first half
cut and grabbed a board, but sat out most of the game.
K alluded to injuries on Nick's part, saying he had sustained some
"body blows". I think K simply
didn't want to risk further injuries in a game that was under control. Nick will play a big part in this team's future.
** Williams: Shelden had been putting together solid defensive
games, but seemed tentative on offense. His
late game dunk seemed to really lift his spirits--perhaps it's the spark he needs to step
up the rest of his game. On the other hand, his defense was quite spirited, as he blocked
several shots in the second half. More
promising was his earlier post-up, the kind of move I saw regularly in practice. Still to be corrected: his tendency to foul. Shelden really needs to be able to play 20
productive minutes a game for Duke to be successful, because he has the potential to be
Duke's best rebounder, best interior defender and best interior scorer. He has a long way
to go, but the potential is there.
** Dockery: Dock continues to excite the
home fans with his heads-up play and defense. His
drive and score came at an important time, and his Globetrotters move really seemed to sap
Michigan's will to compete. Sean really isn't
needed as much as the big men are, but he seems to be good for at least one or two huge
plays on offense or defense. With so many
skilled perimeter players on this year's team, he has the luxury to come in and play a
hustle role. Very little is expected of him,
which makes his contributions so welcome. There
will be a time when Duhon gets into foul trouble this year, and I expect Sean to step in
and do a good job. Still to be resolved: his shooting.
That will probably take a summer to really improve.
** Randolph: Shav returned from his exile on the bench to make
some big plays at both ends of the court. He
played the lanes for some big steals, frustrated Lavell Blanchard on defense, went to the
hoop and took his game outside for scores, and converted at the foul line. More important was his stickback basket, one of
his 5 boards. Guarding a long wing like
Blanchard was a big step for Shav, who will need to be able to guard perimeter players
during his career if he wants more freedom on the court. He played with passion and with
purpose. This wasn't a dominant performance,
but it was still a significant rebound from awful showings in his last two games. One suspects that with both Shav & Shelden,
Coach K is breaking both of them down to build them back up, a luxury he has because of
Sanders & Horvath. We'll see how both
young forwards respond, but it's clear that K would prefer to start both Shav &
Shelden together if they're ready.
** Melchionni: Lee missed a free throw and was mostly relegated
to the usual mop-up duty.
** Thompson: Big Mike was fouled going up
for a shot and hit both freebies with nice form. Unfortunately,
he also picked up a couple of quick fouls and turned the ball over.
** Buckner: Didn't scratch on the stat
sheet, but I love every opportunity he gets to play.
** Means: Missed a shot but grabbed a
couple of rebounds.
** Johnson: Missed 2 free throws in late
game action.
** Cameron Craziness: Not a bad showing
by the students, who were about to kick off exam week.
They chanted "in Ed we trust", a reference to the whole Ed Martin
scandal at Michigan, and some students had fake money and dollar signs scrawled on them.
Reported by Rob Clough,
tmc@duke.edu
Rob's Archive
