The post-exam games are always a bit weird.  The team's anxious to get home to their families for a few days, especially since that's the last bit of freedom that they'll get til April.  Everyone's rusty after the post-exam layoff. Still, as I mentioned in my last column, this is a potentially crucial time of development for the team's young players. It's a time when they can make a move into the rotation, or play themselves into holding down the bench for the rest of the year. For the team, it's a last chance to work on the most difficult aspects of mastering Duke's system.  Because Duke's defense relies so much on communication and collective responsibility, it's easy for it to break down when even a single player isn't doing his job.  With Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts having such a tough time mastering the basics of defense in Duke's system, it's often been up to Sean Dockery & Shelden Williams to cover their errors.  That's a lot of pressure to put on a player, even for two defenders as good as Dock & Shel.

  Though the St John's game's final score was a lot closer than the Valparaiso game, the victory against the Red Storm was more impressive in a number of ways.   First off, Valpo didn't have anything resembling a servicable big man (hard-working Dan Oppland is an undersized four), yet they matched Duke on the boards, grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and scored 15 second-chance points.  The Devils were only +3 on turnovers and were awful in transition, giving up 14 fast break points.  If you aren't going to crash the boards, you'd better get back on defense, and Duke didn't do a good job of that.  The reason Duke won this game was because they were aggressive on offense and did a great job of getting to the foul line, albeit against an opponent that was overmatched.

  In the first few minutes of the game, the score was pretty tight. Duke led 20-14 six minutes into the game, as Valpo was able to keep up despite 3 threes from Duke.  Even after Paulus dialed his own number for a trey, the Crusaders responded by narrowing the margin to 7. Unfortunately for the Crusaders, they fell apart for about one minute. Those 60 seconds saw Duke score 11 straight points, pushing their lead out to 18.  Lee Melchionni was fouled taking a three, and hit all 3 shots.  Duke got a stop, and Paulus fired a bullet to Williams for an easy dunk.  Dockery then stole the ball, made the basket in traffic and got shoved in the back doing it, drawing an intentional foul.  He hit both of those shots and Duke got the ball back.  Paulus then dished to Josh McRoberts for an emphatic dunk.

  To Valpo's credit, they didn't give up and in fact outscored Duke 28-19 the rest of the half.  Coach K referred to that lead as a bit of fool's gold, because Duke started taking bad shots and played indifferent defense.  The worst came in the last 4:30, when Valpo outscored Duke 11-3.  Only 16-20 shooting from the line kept Duke's lead at 9.

  Duke came out firing in the second half and Valpo couldn't keep up. Paulus was playing masterfully, generating some easy hoops for McRoberts, finding JJ for a drive, and firing a pass to Williams in transition.  What was most interesting was the play in the last five minutes.  Jamal Boykin got a cameo in the first half when Williams had a couple of fouls, and this time he seemed a lot more relaxed out there. Of course, Boykin's "relaxed" is "manic" for everyone else, but at least things seemed to flow a bit easier for him this time.  In the first half, he had an offensive rebound and a stickback, and this came at a time when points where at a premium for Duke.  In the second half, he played in the post and scored on two nice lead passes from Paulus. Jamal also dished to Lee for a three point play and blocked a shot. Nothing revelatory, but quite solid.

  It's clear that in addition to having trouble with the speed of the game in general, Jamal is having trouble adjusting to the athleticism of his opponents.  This wasn't quite so pronounced against Valpo, but it's obvious that he'll have to learn that positioning and anticipation can help counteract a lack of athleticism in Duke's defense.   Shane Battier never wowed anyone with his lateral quickness, but he was always able to think things out ahead of time and knew the tendencies of his opponents backwards and forwards.  All told, Boykin took a step forward with his performance here.

  Regarding the other frosh, McRoberts had a lot of problems on defense, though he did have a block and a steal.   He continues to have positioning difficulties with regard to rebounding.  Defense and rebounding are what Duke needs the most from him, and he's not performing up to his potential in either area at the moment.  Marty Pocius in this game had even more troubles at the defensive end, fouling out in just 17 minutes.  He did start off by taking a charge, but wound up playing defense with his hands instead of his feet the rest of the way.  He simply has to learn that reaching in after someone blows by you is just an invitiation for the officials to blow the whistle.  Paulus wasn't great on defense either (he had problems getting back in transition), but his jaw-dropping 15 assists made things very easy for his teammates.

  Duke's veterans all had solid games.  Williams had 19 points and 11 rebounds and really took control in the second half.  JJ Redick had a ho-hum 30 points, with 5 threes (including a 4 point play!), a couple of 17 footers, and even a drive.  Dockery continued his recent excellent play with 14 points and superior defense.  He generated 4 steals and had 3 big offensive boards.  His ability to consistently hit free throws now is becoming one of his biggest strengths. Last but not least, Lee Melchionni broke out of his slump to the tune of 18 points and 5 rebounds. While he hit a couple of threes, he scored most of his points attacking the basket.  He obviously won't be able to do that against every opponent, but it certainly put a bounce in his step.

  St John's plays a grinding style of basketball that can make things very ugly for opponents.  Offensively, they spread the floor and attack with penetration, and try to clean up on the offensive boards if that doesn't work.  Shooting is not a strength, but they play with toughness and discipline.   Of course, it's well known that you can hurt Duke with dribble penetration.  If you value the ball, you will get reasonably good shots if the Devils don't close down quickly enough.  Help defense has been a weakness for this group with so many young players being worked into the mix, and St John's would test that.

  Duke got off to a quick start, thanks to a McRoberts runner and scores from Redick and Williams.   Duke then went about nine minutes scoring only 9 points. St John's posts were forcing Williams outside and the Devils were settling for contested jumpers.  Redick missed a bunch of shots early on, and with Williams ineffective, the Devils sputtered offensively.  Pocius and Redick both hit difficult 17' jumpers, while the defense did generate a basket when Williams blocked a shot and Paulus hit Dockery in transition.

   Meanwhile, Duke's defense was getting killed on penetration and second-chance points.  Players simply weren't getting back quickly enough, and the Red Storm was getting some chances at the foul line. Things got ugliest when Williams found himself drifting out by the three point line with the ball.  Instead of passing it back out or trying to dribble closer to the basket, he half-heartedly threw up a three that missed badly.  Coach K responded by immediately yanking him from the game (replacing him with Boykin!) and demonstrating on a greaseboard in no uncertain terms where he should and shouldn't shoot from.

  St John's eventually took the lead, though Duke fought back with some free throws to go ahead 21-19 with 6:30 left.  The Devils again missed some shots and the Red Storm went ahead again, but Paulus hit a big three after a Williams offensive board.  Redick was fouled taking a three but amazingly missed the first 2 free throws.  He shook himself out of it with a smooth finish off a Paulus pass and by nailing a three to put Duke up 6.   It was 34-30 with 1:48 left, but Duke scored the last 5 points of the half, with Melchionni scoring on a drive (that Valpo game helped!) and Dock & Shel getting some free throws.

  The second half was fascinating to watch, because one could see things click for several players all at once, and the result was some Cameron-shaking action.  McRoberts didn't start the second half due to his passivity at both ends.  Melchionni did well in his stead, scoring the first 3 points of the half for Duke.  When Josh entered the game three minutes into the half, I said out loud, "That kid just needs a dunk to get going."  About three seconds later, Paulus tossed him a perfect lob as Williams set a back screen for the stuff. Beyond getting everyone excited, it seemed to focus Josh.  Suddenly, the entire Duke defense was moving as a unit, rotating over crisply and cutting off penetration.  Williams was blocking shots like a madman as a result of players funnelled at him at precisely the correct angle.

  Offensively, things were starting to run a lot more smoothly, as Duke's players were getting more accustomed to finishing with contact. In particular, Williams made it a mission to power up inside, dunking and drawing a foul on a pass from Redick.  The real highlight of the half was the Josh McRoberts show that came with about thirteen minutes to go.  Redick found him for a dunk, Williams dumped off a pass to him when he got double-teamed, and then he stole a pass and drove all the way in for a tomahawk.  Finally, he got the ball at the elbow and drove in for a runner.  That put Duke up 60-37 with under nine minutes to go.

  Duke started to spread the floor a bit, and Dockery did a masterful job of attacking the basket with dribble penetration.  His most impressive play was a drive to the basket and a flip over and behind his head at the hoop that went in (and with contact, no less!).  The Devils put in the reserves and the frosh were not exactly impressive.  Duke gave up 11 points in the last five minutes, and Boykin got whistled for an offensive foul.  Boateng got a few minutes and looked leaden on the floor, not moving his feet at all.  On the other hand, things really clicked for Pocius.  While he did have a turnover on a too-fancy move to the hoop, he played solid defense throughout the game, and his help defense was quite good.

  Again, Duke's rebounding wasn't great (-4, with only Williams grabbing more than 4 boards), and they were just +3 on turnovers, but they held St John's to 41% from the floor.  Duke kept the Red Storm off the foul line in the second half and generally made things very difficult for them.  Offensively, Duke took good shots and had assists on about 70% of its field goals.   Part of that came from turning defense into offense, with 18 points off turnovers and 11 fast break points.

  Duke is now going through another period of game inactivity.  However, the players got back into town today, and they'll be practicing intensely until Saturday's game.  UNC-G will be a good warm-up for the more intense contest against Bucknell on Monday.  Playing in Greensboro is all part of getting Duke used to big buildings.  Duke is still more-or-less holding serve at 11-0, having passed a number of tests and slowly getting better.   Don't be too surprised if DeMarcus Nelson makes an appearance against Bucknell.

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