December
4, 2003. Breslin Center.
For a nationally televised game such
as this, it's not really necessary to do a blow-by-blow account of the game. I will instead focus on what may have happened
between Duke's dispiriting loss in Alaska and the stirring victory in East Lansing. The first thing to consider is that while Coach K
has always been intractable about his defensive philosophies, it can be shown that he's a
lot more flexible with regard to his offense. Coach
K recruits and plays the sort of ballers who excel in a man-to-man, ball-pressure defense. He will make minor adjustments from time to time,
emphasizing players who have unusual floor vision with regard to defense (Shane Battier),
are shutdown specialists (Billy King) or big-time ballhawks (Tommy Amaker, Bobby Hurley). But Duke will always overplay the wings, will
always apply ball pressure, will always try to deny the post.
On the other hand, while Coach K prefers to run a
pure motion system that emphasizes reads and intelligent decision-making over sets and
excessive structure, he is far more willing to tailor his offense to his personnel than
his defense. In his early days, his offenses
were built around his big men, though those bigs usually could shoot, pass and handle the
ball. Still, it wasn't unusual to see Jay
Bilas & Mark Alarie on the floor together, or Danny Ferry & John Smith, or
Christian Laettner & Alaa Abdelnaby. In
the early 90's, Coach K went to a 2-guard, 2-slashing forward, 1 big formula, with players
like Grant Hill & Tony Lang playing "power forward". In the mid 90's, K's formula shifted again with a
surprising dependence on the jump shot, especially from three. In years past, this had been used rather
sparingly; in the mid to late 90's, his teams were free to fire away at will from long
range. That came with another new paradigm:
the power forward as center. Elton Brand
& Carlos Boozer represented a new kind of player, one who dominated thanks to their
physical strength but was also nimble enough to play Duke pressure defense.
Coach K went into this season thinking that this
team would fit into the same paradigm as the teams from 1998-2003: a quick team built
around a single post that fires up a ton of threes. With
Chris Duhon as a senior and the emergence of JJ Redick and Dan Ewing as the team's best
players down the stretch last year, it seemed to make sense that this team would be built
around them. With Duke playing so many
quick teams early on, it also seemed to make sense that all three players would start,
especially since Luol Deng became adept so quickly at playing defense in the post. Keeping
Ewing & Redick in together was important to making sure this would be a high octane
offense.
Of course, this didn't happen. There are a lot of reasons why. Redick & Ewing are not entirely healthy. Both players put too much pressure on themselves
to be the guy who made the most important shot rather than worrying about how the team
would score. Neither was playing great
individual defense. The small lineups that
Duke was facing were outquicking it, while the bigger Purdue team feasted on Duke's small
lineup. Duke's bigs were playing good defense
but didn't seem comfortable in demanding the ball. Michael
Thompson's unhappiness was another distraction.
Duke clearly wasn't going to be successful as a
team that emphasized the three. It needed
balance, particularly because there was no single dominant player on the squad. There was no one player to build the team around
that had the sort of transcendant talent of a Jason Williams or Elton Brand, or the hoops
genius of a Shane Battier. Instead, you had
a solid group of players with enormous talent, but talent that did not overlap. Against Michigan State, Coach K made the decision
to structure his offense a bit differently. First
of all, he made a commitment to both Shelden Williams and Shavlik Randolph by starting
both, though that commitment came with the understanding that both would have to be able
to create good spacing on the floor so that they wouldn't get in each other's way. Williams would be the low-post specialist while
Randolph would be a more versatile forward, who could shoot, drive and pass as well as
post up.
One of Duke's problems this year has been its
inefficiency on offense. Duke sometimes has trouble coming up with easy baskets, the kind
that can establish a rhythm or trigger a big run. Coach
K's reasoning was that the easiest way to create easy points was to generate them by way
of one's defense. To that end, he made the
bold move of starting Sean Dockery next to Chris Duhon.
Dockery up to this point had been mediocre at best in the 2003-04 season. He hadn't scored a single point, looked out of
control when handling the ball, and generally stalled the offense. It was obvious that he was still a relentless
ballhawk, but he was pressing too much when he came in the game. Starting him seemed to calm him down a bit,
especially since he wasn't worrying about getting yanked.
The move worked brilliantly, as Michigan State's guard-oriented team ran
into the Dockery/Duhon buzzsaw time and again. Furthermore,
their attitude was contagious, as the whole team did a magnificent job of cutting off
penetration and forcing the ballhandler to make quick decisions, often resulting in a bad
shot. Williams & Randolph were quite
ready to play defense inside, using their feet to get proper position.
Early in the game, Duke was still turning the ball
over too much, with 11 in the first half alone. However,
Duke got out to an early lead thanks to Shavlik Randolph (8 early points), and even though
the game was very close throughout much of the first twelve minutes of the half, there was
a sense that Michigan State was on the edge of disaster.
Without a true point guard, the Spartans were quite vulnerable to Duke's
pressure. Eight different Spartans committed
at least one turnover. Duke applied a lot of
ball pressure and prowled the passing lanes as per their usual M.O., but they also would
allow slashers just enough space to drive and get surrounded, often resulting in a
turnover. Duke's help defense was as good as
I've seen in in the last few years.
Duke kept plugging away defensively, and the dam
on the offense finally broke in the form of a 20-2 run.
What was most impressive about it was its balance. Six different players scored in a variety of ways. Williams had a jump-hook and a post-up. Dockery and Duhon scored on drives. Redick hit a
couple of threes. Randolph moved well without
the ball and was in position for a couple of dunks off Duhon passes. Duhon then noted that no one was guarding Shav on
the inbounds and got the easiest assist of his career.
Duke led 33-15 with four minutes left.
Michigan State mounted a small rally, outscoring Duke 9-5 down the stretch. Even then, Deng got one of his 5 steals and passed
out to Ewing for a dunk, getting him going a bit.
One expected the Spartans to come out swinging in
the second half. Instead, they came out flailing, and took control with some precise
strikes. MSU's outstanding young big man,
Paul Davis, had had difficulty dealing with both Randolph & Williams, so the plan was
to pound it in early. This was made even
easier by the fact that a frustated Tom Izzo didn't start him in the second half. Duhon hit Shelden & Shav for easy hoops, and
then Shelden went in and banged for another score. MSU
countered with 4 straight points, but Duhon took over with a drive and an awkward bank
shot as the shot clock was running down. That
basket seemed to deflate the Spartans, who managed to get within 18 a couple of times but
couldn't stop Shav & Shelden. A Deng
rebound basket put Duke up 59-34 with under ten minutes to go, and it was all gravy after
that.
The most pleasing thing about the second half was
Duke's ruthless efficiency. With about eight
minutes to go and a 20 point+ lead, Duke went into its 2-3 motion, aka a delay set. In years past, this method usually worked but was
rarely pretty, sometimes letting other teams creep close enough to make the fans sweat. In this game, Duhon worked this scheme to
perfection. Instead of putting up a bad shot,
Chris would drive the lane with under 10 seconds to go on the clock, and then read the
defense. If he had a clear path, he'd go all
the way and try to get a layup or leaner. If
he drew the defense, he'd either pass out for a three or dish to his big man. On a couple of different occasions, he drove and
found Williams. With under three minutes to
go, he seemed to be running out of real estate but passed behind him to Williams at the
last second for the score.
Another thing to consider in this game was the
team's overall tiredness. They had just come off a three games in three nights tournament,
got back on Sunday afternoon, had class on Monday & Tuesday afternoons along with
practice, and then flew up to East Lansing on Tuesday night, all with the spectre of
finals looming in the next week. It's a
high-stress, low-energy time, and Coach K wanted to see how his team would adjust in an
incredibly hostile environment. Needless to
say, and despite the fact that there's still plenty of room for improvement, he was
immensely pleased with this showing. The
Spartans almost never lose at home and had been waiting to play Duke for years at home. They got what they wanted--good and hard.
** Negatives:
1. Foul shooting.
Duke could have really throtted MSU a bit earlier on, but they failed to
cash in a couple of times. This is a team
that will rely on the free throw as one of its biggest weapons, and they will need to
convert at least 70% of them.
2. Valuing the ball. Some of Duke's players are still being lured into
going one-on-one, and as a result are getting stripped.
Some passes are also being forced.
** Positives:
1. Rebounding.
Though Duke gave up 12 offensive boards, their overall performance was
pretty amazing. Duke's defense was so
disruptive, forcing so many bad shots, that MSU was out of position for the rebound on
many occasions.
2. Ball pressure.
Some of the best pressure I've seen in years.
They pilfered the ball from penetrators, anticipated every ball thrown in
passing lanes, and collapsed on players at precisely the right times. Michigan State was
reduced to having Paul Davis take contested 19' jumpers.
Player-by-Player:
**
Williams: Shelden was enormously efficient at both ends of the floor, often getting a
couple of baskets in a row as Duhon was dialing his number again and again. Against a program that has specialized in
rebounding over the years, Shelden led a fearsome effort on the boards from his team, with
his 5 offensive boards leading everyone. Indeed,
Duke outrebounded MSU 31-21, with 14 total offensive rebounds. Defensively, Shelden was even more impressive,
with 5 blocks and 2 steals. While not a speed
burner, Shelden is nimble enough to play passing lanes and strong enough to stand his
ground against anyone. Furthermore, his
defensive positioning has undergone a quantum leap in the last year, going from
near-hapless to extremely solid. Shelden's
ability to play outstanding help side defense is one of the biggest keys to Duke's season. The one area where he needs to improve is his free
throw shooting. While he has a nice touch, he
seems to change his routine a bit from attempt to attempt.
**
Randolph: Shav is slowly getting used to his new body and new responsibilities. His best play of the game was a dribble drive from
the top of the key, where he drew an extra defender towards him. He then tossed a perfect bounce pass to Deng for
an easy dunk. Most of Shav's scores have been
pretty basic stuff: rebound baskets, cuts, free throws, etc. However, he's capable of much more. We haven't seen him display his shooting touch
much, or his ability to drive and finish. The
most improved part of his game has been his defense.
Starting Shav was perhaps the biggest gamble Coach K made against a 4-guard
lineup, because there was some fear that MSU would exploit his lack of footspeed off the
dribble. Shav counteracted this gambit by
drawing in defenders and teaming up with others to force turnovers. As the team learns effective team defense, they
will continue to flourish.
** Deng: Luol had a quiet game
offensively, but made a lot of noise in other regards.
5 assists, 5 steals, 6 rebounds and frightening defense meant that he earned
every one of his 31 minutes. With the
spotlight turning away from him a bit, he'll have a chance to learn and grow a bit before
becoming the player the team is built around. His
versatility means that a team can flow through him without him necessarily dominating the
ball, ala Grant Hill. Down the line, he'll
need to become this kind of player for Duke to have a chance to win it all.
** Dockery: Dock was a whirlwind of activity, and even though
he picked up a couple of quick fouls, his mere presence disrupted MSU's offense. It was very nice to see him score his first
points, something that seemed to settle him down a bit.
** Duhon:
A superb floor game for Chris. His 6 assists
don't tell the whole tale, because a few of them were perfect passes that turned into
fouls. His utter domination of Chris Hill was
reminisicient of the job he did on Jason Gardner in the 2001. Duhon's penetration showed off his increased
quickness, as he blew past MSU's athletes several times.
Even his long-range shots that didn't fall were fine, since they stretched
out the defense a bit, opening up some driving lanes.
Chris has long struggled with the mantle of leadership, but earning that
respect comes through one's deeds as much as one's words.
Chris' hard-nosed play was a perfect example for his teammates: playing with
energy & enthusiasm but also with focus. Right
now, he's filling his role to a "t".
** Ewing:
Dan's foot continues to bother him, but poor ballhandling also haunts him a bit. His 4 turnovers were a big negative for the team.
However, a couple of scoring clusters proved to be important for his team. The first came
in the first half, when he hit Duke's first three and erased a 10-9 Michigan State lead;
he followed that up with a free throw. Late in the half, he scored on a drive and a
breakaway dunk to keep Duke's lead strong. Dan
was one of several players showing some defensive intensity, attacking the ballhandler and
forcing turnovers. Even though his body and
game aren't 100%, he still made a difference.
** Redick:
JJ has really been struggling with his shot and has been trying to find other ways to
score as a result. His threes in the first
life helped to bust the game open, and there was no denying his tremendous hustle on the
defensive end. While he's not going to shut
anyone down, he can still make an opponent's life unpleasant. A 4-10 shooting game is nothing to complain about,
though it'll be nice to see him really go off in a game.
** Horvath:
Nick looks surprisingly overwhelmed on the floor. Yes,
he's only getting limited minutes, but he's not able to make any kind of impact when he's
out there. Duke will need him to play a bit
inside with the departure of Michael Thompson, even if it's just 5 minutes a game or
whenever there's foul trouble. He doesn't
need to do much: rebound, play defense, get the occasional tip-in.
**
Melchionni: Lee is another player who needs to step up.
K lost confidence in him after he did little with his intial playing time
this year. You can always fight your way back
in practice, and there is room for him to contribute, especially for a team that is
struggling to score.
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