Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils Have Lost Two Straight Games And Have Left Lots Of Question Marks
By Jacob Rude
The Duke Blue Devils went from one of the elites to being blown out at home in just two quick games. Where did it all go wrong and can Coach K get his team to rebound back?
Heading into the last Sunday’s contest against the Wolfpack from NC State, Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke squad was undefeated and considered among the elite in basketball. Considering the fact Kentucky had barely escaped against Ole Miss earlier in the week, a statement win by the Blue Devils could see them take the #1 spot in the polls, if not at least take first-place votes from the Wildcats.
By Tuesday night, the Blue Devils were not only NOT among the elites anymore, serious questions were being raised as to just how good Duke was this year. After being dominated in Raleigh against NC State (far more than the 87-75 would lend one to believe), the Blue Devils answered by getting drubbed by the Hurricanes at home, snapping their 41-game win streak in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The feat is so rare that you have to go back over half a decade to find a pair of losses like those suffered by Duke this week.
Duke hasn’t lost back-to-back regular season games since 2009. Last time that included a home game was 2007. Lawd.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) January 14, 2015
What went so awry for the Blue Devils is such a short time?
For one, their defense has been lackluster and their opponents have been shooting lights out. While Duke may not have had the level of defense as that of Kentucky, they did have a respectable team defense that created some turnovers.
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However, against NC State shot 55% from the field including 62.5% from three-point line and had just 10 turnovers. Against Miami, they did marginally better, “holding” the Hurricanes to 51.8% field goal shooting and 50% three-point shooting while forcing just 11 turnovers this time.
Considering that they’re season average for opponents on the year is 42.8% shooting, clearly the Blue Devils slipped. More importantly though, their freshman have started to look like freshman. The team had relied on the surprise maturity of their trio of freshmen in Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor, and Justise Winslow.
On the season, the trio is averaging 40.2 points, 17.6 rebounds, and shooting a combined 52% field goal. In the last two games, they’ve averaged 30 points, 18.5 rebounds on 36% field goal shooting. Most noticeably, Jones and Winslow have struggled mightily in the last two games.
However, this has been a total team effort. Against Miami, Marshall Plumlee, Grayson Allen, Matt Jones, Tyus Jones, and Justise Winslow scored a total of 13 points. Similarly, against NC State, Okafor, Winslow, Quinn Cook, and Rasheed Sulaimon combined for 62 of the 75 points.
This slump is not so different from the two-game slump the Wildcats from Kentucky suffered through, one which saw them need overtime and then double-overtime in a two-game stretch to avoid potential upsets. The difference is, Kentucky is so supremely talented that they could rely on that talent to bail them out. Duke doesn’t have that level of talent and, subsequently, could not avoid their upsets.
Duke’s freshman overachieved at the beginning of the season and surpassed expectations. There was always going to be a regression to the mean where the freshman would start playing as such. However, no one could have anticipated the drop-off to have occurred so quickly and so starkly. Duke is still a great team going through growing pains.
The problem is, Duke picked the absolute worst time to go on this stretch. On Saturday, they travel to Louisville to take on the #6 ranked Cardinals. They have a short breather at home against Pitt before a trio of road games at St. John’s, at Notre Dame, and at Virginia. In the middle of that somewhere, Krzyzewski will probably knot his 1000th win, adding to the media pressure.
The Blue Devils will be given a baptism by fire. But if there’s anyone who could pull off, it’s Coach K. This Duke team will bounce back and will be a force in the tournament, they just have to grow up a little bit before they do.