This was an emotional week for Duke, going from the malaise of two badly played home games to the ecstasy of a commanding win over #2 Texas.  As an interested observer, a few things were clear after the week: Duke has a number of flaws but is finding ways to mask them and accentuate its strengths; Coach K is still the game’s best motivator; the Devils have Redick & Williams and you don’t.

    Let’s back up and address Duke’s flaws, and a few things the educated fan should keep in mind.  First, it can’t be emphasized enough that this was the week prior to exams, when most papers and projects are due. Duke cut its reading period by a day, and so any deadlines the team faced had to be met ahead of time; and before they left for New York on Thursday.  Of course, the stress level has to be much greater for the frosh.

    Second, the fact that the Devils lost a key defender & rebounder affected how the entire defense played.  And I’m not just talking about DeMarcus Nelson here, though his ability to defend any position, run the floor and grab rebounds has been sorely missed.  The man I’m talking about was one of Duke’s best helpside defenders, shot-blockers and rebounders last year, and he’s now wearing a 76’ers uniform: Shavlik Randolph.  Certainly, Shav was a liability on offense, but his presence made last year’s defense one of the best in the history of the school.

    Consider Sean Dockery and Shelden Williams.  A number of fans have been perplexed at how so many lesser guards have been able to take Dockery off the dribble, or how Williams has struggled one-on-one against top post players.  Dock and Shel didn’t regress as defenders this year; they simply have not adjusted to the absence of Randolph.   Last year, Dock could funnel guards inside to be met by the wall of Shav & Shel.  With that duo used to playing with each other, there was always great communication defensively and so either could slide over to the weak side and block a shot, alter a shot, or take a charge.   Shel knew he had someone to help him block out and do a lot of dirty work, especially in setting screens. While Josh McRoberts brings a lot to the table, it’s going to take a while before everyone’s on the same page defensively, and before Coach K figures out how best to utilize him at that end.   Of course, the perimeter players miss Daniel Ewing’s defense.  By the end of his career, he had become a terrific position defender and had the quickness to keep up with anyone.

    The third point I’d like to make is that Duke has played an extremely strong schedule, one that has exposed a lot of problems but has also given the team an opportunity to work out some kinks.  Forget about the three ranked opponents Duke has faced; while they were all quality teams, rankings are fairly meaningless at this point.  Instead, consider Boston U, Davidson, Drexel and UPenn.  All four either win their conference on a regular basis or at least are in the hunt.  None of them are strangers to the NCAA and NIT tournaments.   All play tough schedules and relish the opportunity to play against the best (and best-publicized).  One must consider that parity has made these teams more than competitive with the big boys.  Outside of talents like Redick & Williams, those squads have the talent, chemistry, coach, preparation and teamwork to compete with anyone.  The Duke intimidation factor has no effect on squads like that, and there’s an understanding that if they work hard and stick to the game plan, they have a chance.  I like scheduling teams such as these, because it forces Duke to find ways to motivate itself.  Anyone can get up to play the #2 team in the country, but it teaches the players a lesson if they take a team like Penn lightly.  The Devils learned that sloppiness against these opponents would be punished, especially at the defensive end.

    At the same time, Coach K sensed his team’s tightness against these squads.  Being #1 is something that should be a boost of confidence for a team, not a burden.  The ‘92 team wore that mantle with a sneer; their body language exuded confidence before each game that was worth 5-10 points against many teams.  Conference foes tend to be immune to that sort of thing, but more on that later.  Coach K managed to transform his team from being the hunted (a passive position) to the hunter.  Duke went from being the weary shootist who had to gun down yet another young gunfighter to  a group that was just as hungry to win as any team in the country.  That looseness allowed each player to forgive his own errors and move on to Next Play, and when players fully embrace Next Play, Duke becomes simultaneously loose and laser-focused.

    The last point that must be made before moving on to more specifics is that the opponents must be mentioned in Duke’s performance.  Virginia Tech exploited every Duke weakness and never surrendered.  They outplayed Duke in nearly every phase of the game.  Duke is a better team with two weapons in Redick & Williams that no one has, but the Hokies maximized their advantages and Duke was unable to minimize its weaknesses.  Penn  forced a number of Duke errors and came close to making Duke sweat in the second half of their game.  Texas has superb talent but didn’t make adjustments against Duke and visibly got flustered.   Duke did not play well against VPI or UPenn, but that had a lot to do with those teams excelling.  Duke was excellent against Texas, and the final score was not indicate of the difference in talent, but rather that the Longhorns did little to help themselves.

     The ideal Duke team defensively has a lockdown point guard who can stand up to any counterpart.  He’s not necessarily trying to steal the ball every time, but rather force his opponent into spots on the floor where’s he not comfortable.  Making him pick up his dribble is especially desirable.  The forwards need to be versatile enough to swing inside and out and play great help defense. They need to be able to read defenses and beat opponents to scoring spots on the floor.  Being able to take charges is a must.  The post player also needs to be agile enough to guard players high or even trap on the sidelines, in addition to getting back to the basket quickly.  Having a shot-blocker is desirable but not necessarily a must.  Lastly, the wing should at least be able to have a good plus/minus ratio, if not being a lockdown defender.  Given this setup, Duke can generate a ton of turnovers using its base defense by overplaying the wings and disrupting passing lanes. The Devils believe in defending the perimeter first against good shooting teams (see: Indiana), double-teaming posts when necessary against foes with dominant big men, and trapping teams with shaky ballhandling.  Coach K has never been much for full court pressure except in rare instances when it would clearly yield good results.  His philosophy has always been that he wants his players to expend their energy in halfcourt defensive sets, and to never hold back.

    Looking at this set of players, Duke doesn’t have all the pieces it needs to make their normal defense work.  Dockery can lock down his man if he puts his mind to it, and he’s had to be coaxed into playing his man more aggressively than he did last year.  K noted that Dock was a bit flummoxed by DeMarcus Nelson’s absence and didn’t quite know what his role should be.  Coach K assured him that he was a good player who needed to do more, and that he expected him to play better; and knew that he would.  After struggling against Memphis and Indiana, Dock exploded this week, averaging 10 ppg, 5 rpg, 4 spg, 2 apg and shooting 6-9 from three.

    Both JJ and Shelden are solid in their positions.  Redick will never be a great defender, but he doesn’t make many mistakes and is usually in the right place at the right time.  When Williams cuts loose in the post and doesn’t conserve his fouls, he is a frightening force. That leaves Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts.  Both are slowly improving as defenders, but it’s quite obvious that both are often found out of position on defense.  At the same time, both have other abilities, and Coach K has found a way to make that work.

    Against Texas, Coach K unveiled a halfcourt trap that took Texas by surprise.  While the Longhorns had 16 turnovers, 10 of those were Duke steals that led to easy scoring chances.  More than JJ’s insane shooting display, it was the opportunity to get these easy scores that made things so easy for the Devils.  What was interesting about the trap is that McRoberts was often used high to set the trap.  His mobility and length made him perfect for this, and as a result it made him more confident and aggressive than usual.

    This is a classic case of Coach K never forcing a particular system on a set of players, but rather find ways to make a flexible system fit his players.  Looking at the way Virginia Tech spread the floor so easily against Duke, it’s obvious that the traditional help defense Duke employs is not going to be leak-proof.  Spreading the floor has always worked well against Duke teams that don’t rotate quickly to the weak side to take a charge against the dribbler.  With this team, one must simply accept that a team that drives against the defense will be able to turn the corner and get good scoring chances.  But by setting traps, opponents will only be able to do that half the time.   Springing a successful trap means that a player must pass out of it (often blindly), and passing against Duke’s overplaying defense (especially crosscourt or skip passes) is a very bad idea.  Also, even when teams are able to get past the trap and the defender, they still have to deal with Shelden’s shot-blocking.  Judicious use of traps, executed quickly and crisply, will generate a lot of easy points for Duke this year.

    Anyone who’s followed Duke over the years knows that they’ve never been a dominant rebounding team.  This is due in part, of course, to the way that Coach K builds his teams.  In addition to eschewing the use of plodding, space-eating monsters, the fact that he spreads his players out on defense means that he rarely has two or three bigs under the basket waiting for misses.  On offense, the use of motion and the fact that Duke prefers to send its players back quickly on defense means that they rarely dominate the offensive glass.  Duke tends to make up for their rebounding deficit by forcing turnovers and limiting their own. The problem against Penn and VPI was that they were +2 against the former and -6 against the latter when you tallied up boards and flubs. Contrast that to a +10 against Texas and it’s easy to understand why Duke won so easily.

    While Duke doesn’t have to dominate on the boards, they at least have to keep it close.   Minus Randolph and Nelson, Coach K had to turn to his guards and ask them to take collective responsibility for helping on the boards.  Dockery responded magnificently with 7 rebounds against Texas, but Redick and Paulus each had 4 apiece.  A huge and athletic Texas squad missed 32 shots and had just 11 offensive rebounds, while an undersized Penn team missed 34 shots and had 14 offensive caroms.  The difference may seem small, but relative to size, it was a significant factor in the game.

     Duke struggled during the week, but it wasn’t because they weren’t playing hard.   Overall, the defense was quite solid against Penn, though it was atrocious against VPI.  Duke was playing hard but not with any kind of flow, especially on offense.  After a great showing in New York, Greg Paulus was mediocre against VPI (2-7 shooting, 4 assists, 3 turnovers) and awful against Penn (0-4 shooting, 2 assists, 5 turnovers, 5 fouls [2 offensive], 0 steals).  Coach K recognized that he was feeling overwhelmed running the team and simplified his role a bit.  The results were immediate and obvious: 2-4 shooting, 5 assists, 1 turnover, 2 steals.  Greg simply needed to value the ball, develop a feel for when to create and when to call his own number, and not force anything.  With two huge targets in Williams and Redick on the floor, he doesn’t have to think too hard about whom to pass to, and he looked a lot more comfortable on the floor as a result.

    Speaking of Duke’s stars, they also had to refocus a bit.  There’s no two ways around it: Redick was acting a bit like a prima donna against VPI.  Yes, he was being held, but driving and throwing up the ball as though you were fouled didn’t cut it the first time, and certainly didn’t work when he tried them again.  He had gotten so concerned with the officiating that he forgot that his primary goal was to find ways to make his team win.  It was a shame, because he had done such a good job against Memphis as acting as a decoy when he was blanketed, but he simply lost his cool against Virginia Tech.  That lesson learned, he did a fine all-around job against Penn before confidently calling his own number against Texas.

    Shelden was actually the steadiest player the whole week.  He did make 2 crucial errors against Virginia Tech: he left a free throw short against them that could have clinched the game, and he got caught in no-man’s land defensively when Coleman Collins almost won the game for them.  Other than that, he averaged 21 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks, and shot 20-32 from the floor and 24-28 from the line.  The most pleasing stat was that he averaged 3 assists a game.  Not known as a great passer, the fact that he was looking for his teammates helped keep the offense flowing.

   Onto to some specific notes about each game.  Regarding Virginia Tech, it was amazing to see Dockery and Williams keep the team in the game in the second half.  Williams put Duke up with a three point play and then hit Dockery twice with relocation passes for threes.   He then followed a Dockery fast break basket with a long jumper, and then got a rebound and found Redick for a three.  In Duke’s final offensive push, Williams scored once and Dock sank a couple of free throws.  With 4:22 left, Duke had an eleven point lead.

    A number of fans moaned that Duke nearly lost the game because of their use of the stall down the stretch.  Those fans could not have been more wrong.  Whether or not Duke should employ a slow-it-down offense is a debate for another day.  The fact of the matter is that Duke DID NOT SLOW DOWN THE BALL, or at least not significantly.  For reasons that were quite unclear, Duke (and usually Redick) took quick shots with up to 20+ seconds left on the shot clock.  If Duke had used up a maximum amount of the clock on each possession, even without scoring, VPI would have run out of time and forced to start fouling much sooner.  Instead, Redick shot poorly and Paulus was called for an offensive foul.   The fact that VPI scored on their last 7 possessions certainly didn’t help, especially since they took their time and got good shots.  Bad clock management and lackluster defense cost the team, not stallball.  Dockery’s shot was a nice tonic for the team, not only bailing Redick and Williams out for their errors, but giving himself a nice boost of confidence after playing a solid game.

    Other than some errors down the stretch, Duke actually had a decent offensive performance, shooting 46% from the floor and hitting 17-21 foul shots.  Defense was the problem here, allowing the Hokies to hit a remarkable 52% of their shots while only forcing 13 turnovers.  Against Penn, the defense was fine, holding to Quakers under 40% for the game and forcing 26 turnovers (with 16 steals!).  Here, it was the offense that was cringe-inducing.  Duke usually looks for fewer than 10 turnovers a game on their end, with 15 considered way too high.  The Devils had a gruesome 17 miscues here, 10 of them by frosh.  Despite Penn’s late flurry of threes, Duke’s lead never dipped below 10.

    Dockery was the biggest reason why. He became more involved at both ends, and one play in particular may have sealed up the win.  Duke had missed a shot leading by 12 early in the second half.  Penn looked like they were ready to make a run.  Dockery grabbed the offensive rebound and found Redick for a three.  On Duke’s next possession, he drove in for a score.  Suddenly, Duke’s lead was 17.  Later in the game, when Penn again pulled within 12 with under eight minutes left, Dock scored on a fast break and then got a steal and runout.  That was enough to preserve a Duke win.

    While Redick and Williams were both great against Texas, it was role players McRoberts, Paulus and Dockery that proved to be significant wild cards.  Dock’s hustle was again in evidence, this time limiting point guard Daniel Gibson to 2 assists and 3 turnovers, to go with 13 points on 6-11 shooting.  Dock mostly made him stay out of the lane and forced jumpers. McRoberts’ work in traps and finishing after steals burned the Longhorns, who obviously weren’t expecting him to be that quick.  Paulus was finding the open man all day, finishing  couple of plays, and was decent on defense.

     After exams this week, Duke will again have a series of fairly tough opponents.  UNC-G will be in the Greensboro Coliseum, Bucknell will be a high-quality mid-major that’s beaten Syracuse and Pitt, among others; St John’s continues to improve; and Valpo will likely be more of a challenge this year for Duke than last.

    What’s next for Duke will be trying to rehab Lee Melchionni’s game, continue the slow development process for Marty Pocius’ defense, and hope that Eric Boateng and Jamal Boykin can see the game slow down a bit for them.  Hopefully the enthusiasm felt in the Texas game will resonate with the team for quite a while.

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