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November 5, 2004.
Cameron Indoor Stadium.
It was a mutant massacre in Cameron on Friday
night as Duke beat the not-so-uncanny X-Men of St Francis Xavier. SFX is
one of the top basketball programs in Canada, having lost in last year's
national championship game. As a squad, they didn't have a lot of height
(though they did have a 6-10 starter) or quickness. However, they were
extremely well-coached and attacked Duke intelligently. Anyone who knows
Duke's defensive system knows that the best way to attack it is to use
aggressive dribble penetration. Avoid trying to force passes into the post
or to the wing, because Duke's overplaying style will deflect them for fast
breaks. By spreading the floor and proper use of spacing, a team can score
on drives or get jumpers on kick-outs.
Duke's response in such situations is to apply
more ball pressure so as to either force turnovers or chew up shot clock
time, or simply become more disciplined with help defense. In this game,
Duke did a little of both. While the outcome of the game was never in
doubt, SFX hung in there and stayed within about 20 points. Duke simply
clamped down, used their strength to force players a bit further away from
the basket than they would have liked. The Devils also put more pressure on
SFX by becoming extremely efficient on offense. By scoring nearly every
time, SFX had no momentum and much more pressure on their shots.
SFX was clearly caught star-gazing in the game's
early minutes, and Duke was only too happy to take advantage. Duke blasted
out to leads of 9-0, 15-2, 25-4, 30-7, and 42-13. Their first points came
with a Shav Randolph hook shot, a Dan Ewing steal & layup, and Ewing feeding
JJ Redick for a three. Shelden Williams then stuck back a miss by Ewing for
that initial lead. SFX scored only after Redick bobbled the ball and turned
it over, but Duke went back to its balanced attack. Shav scored on another
hook, Ewing came up with a second steal and canned a 15' jumper, and Shelden
used a dropstep for a score. The jittery X-Men missed twice and turned the
ball over five times during the first four minutes of the game.
After a couple of SFX free throws, Duke went on
a 10-0 run. JJ hit a three on a relocation pass from Shav, while the big
men continued to pound away. Shav & Shelden both got free throw attempts as
SFX couldn't stop them inside, and Shav also scored on an up-and-under,
showing off his much-improved footwork. Coach K went to his bench, and
frosh Dave McClure immediately delivered. First, he tipped in a missed free
throw by Dockery for a score. Then he found Williams inside with a perfect
lob pass for an easy basket.
Duke continued to pour it on as it was Redick's
turn to make some plays. After driving and getting fouled, hitting 2
freebies, he drove again on the break and passed to an open Ewing at the
last second for an easy three. On the next possession, he dished to Lee
Melchionni for a triple. Four straight points by Williams boosted the lead
to 42-13 with under six minutes left.
The X-Men rallied, scoring 6 straight points and
forcing a Duke time-out. They capitalized on a stickback and a couple of
Duke turnovers. After the time-out, JJ hit Shav on a cut, but SFX went on a
7-2 run. Duke's only points in that span came on a Williams stickback.
Spreading the floor was working marvelously for SFX, who started to get into
an offensive rhythm. JJ found Shelden inside, who was impossible for SFX to
stop, but Duke simply couldn't stop the X-Men from scoring again.
The Devils had the ball with about 50 seconds
left in the half. Duke worked the clock down and got a three point attempt
for Melchionni, who missed. McClure skied for the rebound and dished it off
to Ewing, who inexplicably took a three with 20 seconds left in the half and
the shot clock now off. McClure went up and got another offense rebound.
This time, Duke ran the clock down and McClure found JJ in the corner for a
three with about four seconds left in the half. That shot reversed the
game's momentum, but it was McClure's overall hustle that gave the team a
shot in the arm.
Duke shot 50% in the first half, but SFX nearly
kept up at 44%. Williams had 16 in the first half (6-7 shooting) while
Redick had 11 and Randolph 9. The Devils forced 10 first half turnovers,
including charges taken by Randolph and Dockery. Duke could have been up by
a lot more at the half, but they were only 5-15 from three point range.
The first two minutes of the second half featured
a lot of action as Duke couldn't shake the X-Men. Duke wisely abandoned the
long-range jumper and started to attack the basket, with Ewing getting a
tip, Williams scoring with his right hand, and JJ nicely executing a finger
roll. Williams then scored on a turnaround jumper and Shav wheeled in for a
hoop using a polished drop step. Still, SFX was hanging around, down by 23
with under seventeen minutes left--Duke couldn't extend their lead despite
some impressive execution.
Duke got some stops and went on a 7-0 run.
Ewing nailed a three, threw an inbounds lob pass to Williams for a dunk, and
then found Melchionni on a drive to boost Duke's lead up to 30. Back came
SFX with an 8-1 run. It was triggered when Dockery tried a fancy
behind-the-back pass on the break that led directly to an SFX basket.
Melchionni missed 2 straight shots and SFX started to get back into a flow,
making it 69-46 with about thirteen minutes left. The X-Men would score
only 10 points the rest of the way.
The Devils responded with a 15-1 run built
around Williams, Randolph and Ewing. Duke went into Williams first, who hit
a nifty turnaround jumper in the lane. Ewing lobbed into him after Duke
forced a turnover and Shelden responded with another score. After another
miss, Ewing took an outlet pass from Williams and went coast-to-coast for a
driving layup that ignited the crowd. Then it was Randolph's turn. After 3
free throws, he hit a 10' jumper. With the shot clock running down, he
drove around the wing, to the top of the key, and then all the way to the
basket, scoring on a finger roll. Ewing finished off the run with a steal
and another fast break basket that really put the 6th Man into a full roar.
Duke was rolling now and turned Cameron into a
Danger Room for the X-Men. A Williams blocked started a 2-on-1 break where
Ewing fed Dockery for the basket and the foul. Dock missed the freebie, but
Shelden flew in for a tip dunk. On Duke's next possession, Shav scored and
was fouled. He also missed the foul shot, but Shelden again leaped in with a
spectacular, one-handed tip dunk. Coach K pulled the regulars with about
three minutes to go, and the extended bench played pretty well. Patrick
Johnson was getting rebounds, while Joe Pagliuca found Ross Perkins on a
cut. Duke shot a ridiculous 72% in the second half and outrebounded SFX
45-23.
What sort of team does Duke have? There is
excellent balance. It's clear that Redick, Ewing, Randolph and Williams are
all capable of scoring 20+ points on any given night, and that furthermore
all of them are capable of such scoring on the same night. The shooting of
Redick and Ewing help open things up for the big men; the skills of the big
men meant that the guards got plenty of open looks. Duke ran a lot more
motion this year, with multiple players getting a chance to handle the
ball. There aren't a lot of slashers on the team, nor is there a tremendous
amount of spring athleticism. The best scorers on the team are not the best
defenders, and vice-versa. There isn't a "Mr Fixit", do-all player that you
can plug into several positions; Duke is a lot less versatile than usual.
That said, there's a maturity on this team that's been absent the past
couple of years. The juniors all really know what to expect from each
other, and they're all quite willing to share the ball. While there are no
dynamic passers on the squad, everyone is capable of a multi-assist game.
The bench will provide the team with a lot of energy. McClure and Love are
both sparkplugs who will get offensive rebounds, play defense and hustle.
This team will get a lot of free throw attempts
even without a lot of slashers (though Nelson will help out greatly in this
department once he gets healthy). Randolph and Williams are going to be
very tough to stop around the basket. Forget the players who tried to bull
their way to the basket in their earlier seasons. Both have improved their
footwork to the point where they can maneuver around most players, added to
the kinds of shots they can make, and have fine-tuned their decision-making
skills. This is not going to be the kind of exciting, fast-breaking Duke
team that we're used to, but rather a more methodical group that will focus
on half-court execution. Priorities will include staying out of foul
trouble, maximizing the use of the bench, and maximizing the productivity of
Sean Dockery.
** Negatives:
1. Blocking out. SFX was able to get a lot of
scores on tip-ins and second chance baskets with 13 offensive rebounds.
2. Help and recover defense. Duke had a number of
lapses where they allowed the X-Men to penetrate too deep before they really
contested a shot. The Devils also were a step slow at times in recovering
after a pass had been made. A more athletic set of opponents would have
soared for dunks.
3. Defensive energy. At times, there was a
curious lack of enthusiasm at the defensive end. Part of that was an oddly
passive game by Sean Dockery, the starting five's resident ballhawk, but the
overall attention to defense seemed to ebb and flow. Coach K combatted this
by inserting defensive sparkplugs McClure & Love.
** Positives:
1. Efficiency. In basketball, when a team has an
advantage, they should exploit it until their foe finds a way to stop it.
There was no way SFX could stop Duke's post game. They couldn't afford to
double team Randolph or Williams, because leaving the other open would be an
automatic basket. They couldn't play a zone because of how well the Duke
guards shoot. SFX opted to play a mild 2-1-2 press in order to slow Duke
down a bit, but that didn't do much to stop Duke from making the right
decisions.
2. Offensive rebounding. Ewing had 4, Williams
had 5 and McClure had 3. They resulted in lots of easy stickback
opportunities and forced the SFX defense to work even harder. 19 total
offensive rebounds was probably the key factor that led to Duke's victory.
3. Getting to the foul line. Duke had 24 attempts
and went calmly to the line when SFX was getting more and more physical.
One player accidentally almost strangled Shelden on one foul. Even when
Duke didn't convert, someone would swoop in to stick it back in.
Player-By-Player:
** Williams: Shelden was simply a monster and the
picture of efficiency. His teammates got him the ball in scoring position
the entire game, and he finished on 14 of 16 shots. The list of shots he
made: stickback, dropstep, lob finish, dropstep, stickback, post-up, right
handed hook, turnaround jumper, turnaround jumper, lob finish, tip dunk, tip
dunk, high-low finish. He scored immediately on 4 of his 5 offensive
rebounds, blocked 6 shots and controlled the game at both ends. On offense,
he was the go-to guy when Duke really needed a basket. Best of all, he
committed just 1 foul.
** Randolph: Shav dipped deep into his bag of
tricks for his offense. Whereas Shelden was dominant because of power and
positioning, Shav scored by using his feet and quickness. He first
demonstrated a nice hook from about 5' away that was hard to stop. When
bodied a little harder, he scored on an up-and-under. He was still agile
enough to score on a cut and finger-roll. Randolph later used a couple of
power moves to score. The best thing about what he demonstrated is that he
can score even when he's a few feet away. His decision-making is much
sharper as well. If he can't score on his first move, he'll try a spin or a
dropstep. If that's not there, he'll pass the ball out and try again.
Defensively, Shav took 2 charges. He did pick up 3 fouls (his third coming
early in the second half) but kept playing hard and took a charge after he
picked up his third. Granted, he wasn't playing against a great frontline,
but they made him work hard and he came up with all the right answers.
** Ewing: Dan did not shoot well (only 2-9 from
three) but made up for it with excellent playmaking and defense. The shots
he missed were perfectly fine attempts that just didn't go down; he also
missed a couple of tip-ins on one possession. He kept soldiering on and
wound up participating in a lot of scoring plays in the second half: a
tip-in, a three, back-to-back passes for scores and back-to-back fast break
baskets. Ewing played like a senior leader and was a major contributor
despite not shooting his best.
** Redick: A good but not exceptional game for JJ.
He was a solid 4-8 from three but missed a few wide open shots. He didn't
try to create any mid-range opportunities for himself, but did score on a
couple of nice drives. His best play of the game was his drive-and-dish to
Ewing for a three. JJ & Dan are really clicking nicely as a duo, looking
for the other whenever possible. Redick did have a couple of weird
turnovers but was otherwise a solid passer. A solid performance overall,
just not a dominant one.
** Dockery: Aside from his fast break basket and
his earlier passing gaffe that got him yanked from the game, Sean was almost
invisible in this contest. That's odd for a player who usually has so much
energy. K went with Ewing as a defacto point guard for much of the game,
partly because Sean simply wasn't creating opportunities for his teammates.
After his error, Sean came back into the game with renewed energy and played
a lot harder on the ball.
** Melchionni: Lee was the first man off the
bench and had mixed results. The good news is that he looked a lot more
confident shooting the ball and driving with it than he had been in recent
appearances. Lee still had his problems on defense, getting driven by on
one occasion and forced to foul on another. However, he did grab 2
offensive rebounds and got to the foul line 6 times. Lee is striving hard
to be more than just a spot-up shooter and certainly showed improvement in
this game. His release is still a bit slow and somewhat awkward and his
ballhandling is improving but not rock-steady. Lee is a player looking for
a role and this game was a step in the right direction.
** McClure: Mr Energy once again displayed his
basketball IQ and his boundless enthusiasm for the game. In addition to his
offensive rebounds, he also got a fingertip block on a three point attempt
that fell harmlessly near the basket for an easy rebound. Duke doesn't need
him to score--they have plenty of scorers (especially when Nelson comes back
to provide some punch off the bench). What they get with him on the floor
is a heady player who understands where to be at all times, is focused on
rebounding and defending wing players. I wouldn't put McClure into the
"stopper" category just yet, but that's a role that he can seize one day.
** Love: Reggie played with a lot of energy at the
defensive end, snagging a bad pass for a steal. He also was active on the
boards. However, he made some mistakes with the ball and threw some
questionable passes. Reggie set the most bruising screens of the night and
also committed a hard foul to prevent a fast-break basket.
** Johnson: Pat had a solid game. He played a
minute or two in the first half and couldn't complete a layup after a great
pass, but also grabbed a rebound. He had an offensive rebound after a
Davidson miss and was fouled, hitting both shots.
** Pagliuca, Davidson, Novick, Perkins: The deep
subs played well. The Pags-to-Perkins connection was on a really nice
backcourt cut that would have made Pete Carril proud.
** Cameron Craziness: Not a bad crowd
tonight, even if the place wasn't jammed. The students were very
enthusiastic before and during the game. Lots of Canada-themed chants could
be heard towards the end: "Start the snowplow", "Ski home safely", "Not your
sport", "Stick to hockey", etc. Whenever Shelden blocked a shot, the crowd
chanted "Pay your rent!" for the Landlord. The funniest cheer of all came
late in the game, when a young reserve named Mark MacKenzie entered the game
for SFX. MacKenzie looked like he was about 10 years old, and so the crowd
serenaded him a chant of "Where's your mommy?"
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