January 15, 2004.
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Photos | Game Log
In Duke's first two ACC games, both on the road, it took a half
for the team to adjust defensively to what their opponents were doing. This was made most clearly evident by Duke's
propensity for fouling against Clemson and Virginia.
As always, it's usually pretty easy to diagnose what's going on in Duke's
defense: if there are lots of fouls, especially on the bigs, it means that the help
defense is a step slow and players aren't talking enough in order to help each other out. Duke made the necessary corrections and proceeded
to roll to easy second-half wins. Of course,
the fact that Clemson isn't a great scoring team and Virginia isn't a great defensive team
allowed Duke to compensate without facing any significant scoring deficits. Duke's opponents in the Thursday-Saturday matchup
would be quite different cases.
NC State came into this game on a bit of a roll. After their typical rough start, the team started
to gel a bit. They've had to integrate 2 new
players as well as a player returning from injury into a complicated offense. The Pack still had the bitter memories of JJ
Redick raining down threes late in the ACC Tourney final last year, wiping out a 14 point
deficit. State is shaky on the road, but
they've given Duke some good tussles in Cameron in recent years.
After a fast break basket by Ewing, State star Julius Hodge dunked. However,
he slapped the backboard on the way down and was called for a technical foul. Apparently, the refs are watching that closely
these days, since Luol Deng was whistled for one recently.
That tech would prove to be important later in the half. Duke took an early 8-4 lead, but State knotted
things up at 11-11 thanks to some nice ball movement and some defensive breakdowns on
Duke's part. Ewing hit back-to-back threes
and Redick hit a third one to give Duke a bit of a cushion, but charges called on Luol
Deng and Shav Randolph gave State the opportunity to creep within 20-15.
Duhon sparked an 11-0 run that was close to being even greater. He scored 4 points, picked Hodge's pocket, got a
crucial rebound and passed to Deng for a three. With
Shelden Williams in foul trouble, Randolph was able to score inside. Meanwhile, State was finding that they couldn't
get anything going inside or off the dribble, and was reduced to taking contested threes. They kept missing, and Duke kept coming. With four minutes to go in the half, Duke led
33-21 and there was a sense that the Devils were letting State off the hook. Duhon drove in for a basket and slapped the floor,
sending the crowd into a frenzy. Duke turned
Hodge over and scored, and then Hodge committed his third foul on a charge. Duhon made
sure that things were very tough for Julius, especially if he tried to take over. Duke ran off 9 straight points to go up 42-21. The only thing that dampened the team's spirits a
bit was that State score the last 4 points of the half to stay within 17.
Redick quickly took care of that problem with 5 straight points to start off
the second half. With Williams back in the
game and both Ewing and Redick scoring at will, the lead stayed in the 22 point range. Towards the middle of the second half, Duke went
on a 10-2 run fueled by Deng to turn the game into a complete rout at 65-36. Luol had 6 points and an assist during the run. The Devils then ran their delay game to perfection
with about eight minutes to go, conserving energy for the big showdown with Wake Forest
just 36 hours later. Duke held a 76-49 lead
with three minutes to go, but the reserves allowed State to reel off the last 8 points of
the game to make the final margin look a bit more respectable. Hodge had fouled out with
about four minutes to go and was never a factor, scoring 7 points on 3-9 shooting and
turning the ball over 7 times. Duke kept him
off the foul line as well (just 2 attempts), which was crucial because Hodge kills his
opponent there. Deng shut down Melvin, who
had 7 points, 2 rebounds and 3 turnovers. Evtimov
also didn't do much harm with 7 points (3-9 shooting) and 4 rebounds. NC State was 4-16 from three and got to the line
just 9 times overall. Meanwhile, the Devils
shot 51% from the field, a sizzling 57% from three (8-14) and went 14-17 from the line
(82%). This was a strong showing against a
very good ballclub.
** Negatives:
1. Turnovers. This was the only significant negative in the
game for Duke, as the Devils turned it over 16 times--4 of them offensive fouls. The
normally careful Duhon had 5 turnovers.
2. Reading the refs. Once again, Duke had a lot of fouls in the first
half. Unlike in prior games, where it was
mostly a defensive problem, this time it was because of offensive fouls. Once Duke figured out that the refs were calling
virtually any contact off of drives as a charge, they adjusted accordingly and drew 4
charges of their own.
** Positives:
1. Team defense. The Princeton-style offense forces a team to make
quick decisions and quick switches in particular. Otherwise,
you will be burned by backdoor cuts. Playing
the actual Princeton Tigers earlier in the year helped prepare Duke for NC State's style
of play, because the Pack were met by a switching Devil every time they tried to cut or
drive.
2. Defensive pressure. Because their help defense was so locked in, Duke
could afford to throw in a little extra pressure, forcing primary ballhandlers Hodge and
Atsur into 12 turnovers, many of which were converted into easy baskets.
3. Rebounding. Duke held State to just 6 offensive rebounds and
still won the battle of the boards despite Shelden Williams playing just 19 minutes. Duhon
and Deng were particularly effective in going after boards.
Player-by-Player:
**
Williams: Shelden was a force early on,
scoring on a dunk and a couple of free throws against the physically overmatched State
frontline, but he picked up 2 quick fouls and then a third when he came in later. In the second half, he rallied for a stickback, an
easy dunk on a Deng pass, and a turnaround jumper as Duke was milking the clock. A quiet game overall, as the team was able to
dominate State without him.
** Deng: Luol continues to excel with his
unconventional approach to the game. I've
compared his dribble to Chris Carrawell's--awkward, somewhat high--but he gets the job
done even as he seems to be out of control. His
out-of-nowhere pass to Williams for a dunk as it looked like he was about to turn the ball
over was jaw-dropping. He also found Shav for
a score inside, keeping up that connection. In
the first half, he did a great job filling in for the bigs, grabbing 6 rebounds and
playing excellent defense. Deng hit a three
and then flummoxed State with a drive. In the
second half, he could play a bit more at wing again and had an awesome finish on that feed
from Redick, threw down an alley-oop dunk and had a steal & layup. Luol also really frustrated rangy forward Marcus
"Chasity's Better!" Melvin into a mediocre game.
Throw in a charge taken and you have a little of everything from this
exciting frosh.
** Ewing:
Dan is a great scorer, but beyond simply being able to fill it up, he seems
to excel at hitting important shots. After
State tied the game at 11, he hit back-to-back threes that gave Duke a bit of a cushion.
When Duke was trying to kill the clock, Dan had a hand in every score: he started with 2
free throws, found Shelden inside, hit a three and then drove for a score as the shot
block was running down. Dan sometimes is a
bit careless with the ball but he's becoming better and better as a distributor. He seems to see the court a lot more clearly as
the game slows down for him. Ewing is also
doing quite well playing with Redick--both slumped at the same time, and now both are
surging simultaneously.
** Redick:
JJ is a ticking time bomb on offense. You
never know when he's going to go off, and making just one mistake in handling him can be
fatal. In a great Cameron Moment, a Randolph
block led to Duhon zipping down the court as State scrambled to keep up. He drove and suddenly passed back to an open
Redick, who nailed the three as the crowd was screaming in anticipation. Oddly, a late 17' jumper made by JJ in the first
half was recorded by both teams as a three--and so the halftime score was adjusted to
reflect this. Everyone simply assumed he
took a three even though he took a dribble to avoid his man. Speaking of which, JJ is working hard on this
aspect of his game--using a single dribble to get rid of his man and get an open look at
the basket. JJ opened the second half with 5
quick points to put State in a 22 point hole and essentially end the game. Redick also took a charge in this game, but was a
bit slow on his defensive rotations at times.
** Duhon:
Chris had the task of dealing with the league's leading scorer in Hodge. Early in the game, he was instructed to cheat to
Hodge's strong hand and force him to go to his off hand.
That didn't work in the early going as Hodge had 4 quick points. Coach K instructed his players to go back to their
normal defense, and the result was Chris sticking to Hodge like velcro. No matter what Hodge did, Duhon was there, forcing
him to take bad shots and ultimately into an offensive foul. Meanwhile, Chris was breaking off assists like
Bobby Hurley, hitting JJ three times for threes; Ewing in transition, for three and on a
cut; Deng for a three and a lob; and Horvath inside.
He did this without one of his favorite targets, Shelden Williams, being
available for much of the time. Offensively, Chris struggled going to the hoop but did get
a floater to drop and had a pretty reverse layup. Happily,
Chris kept attacking the basket and got fouled, hitting 5 of 6. Duhon doesn't need to hit a ton of threes if he
can keep getting to the line and converting there. More
than anything, Chris was the emotional center of the team.
When he scored on that drive, everyone could sense that Duke had a chance to
knock State out. He slapped the floor, the
place went crazy, and Duke followed up with Dockery getting a steal and then Hodge
committing his 3rd foul. Duhon baited Hodge into trying to take over the game by himself
and he bit--and Duke was ready for him.
**
Randolph: Shav played some important
minutes when Shelden went out with foul trouble, getting 3 key first half rebounds and a
block. He also scored in the post, keeping up
Duke's offensive balance. He needs to be a
bit more aggressive offensively and should utilize more of his skill set--especially his
ability to take big men off the dribble.
** Dockery:
Sean's high-pressure steal and layup against Hodge essentially contributed
to his complete meltdown on the court. As he
usually does, Dock played intense on-ball defense and really took advantage of the fact
that State doesn't have a great point guard. He
really went after diminutive Mike O'Donnell and forced him into some bad decisions. Sean also took a charge. Not flashy numbers, but definitely some important
contributions. The best thing I can say about
Sean was that when Duhon went out with foul trouble, I was extremely comfortable with Dock
running the team. That's the highest
compliment one can pay to a backup point guard.
** Horvath: Nick's good showing against
Virginia combined with early foul trouble for Shelden & Shav meant that he had an
extended appearance tonight. Duhon fed him
for a dunk underneath as State left him wide open, and he also had a screen that sent 2
State players flying. A very nice showing,
proving that he can come up with a good play or two when called upon.
**
Melchionni: Lee managed an offensive rebound in limited playing time.
** Borman:
This was a really tough game for the normally steady Borman, committing 2
fouls and turning the ball over twice as State continued to apply pressure.
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