Duke basketball: Without Coach K, Bagley shines, Allen struggles
With a showdown game against the Hurricanes coming Monday, Duke refuses to look ahead, handling Wake Forest from start to finish.
The Blue Devils have been struggling with the collective health of the team lately, especially coming from the bench. After missing the previous game at Pitt due to knee and leg injuries, reserve big men Javin DeLaurier and Marques Bolden were both unavailable for today’s home game versus Wake Forest.
But someone else from the bench wasn’t able to participate in this game only — this time it was the Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski who was a late scratch, citing a virus as the reason. That meant that associate head coach Jeff Capel was the next man up, but he had a difficult task on his hands.
On paper, Duke 15-2 (3-2) should’ve had no problem against Wake Forest 8-9 (1-4), but this with Miami coming up on Monday, this young team had every reason to take ahead and take this Demon Deacons team for granted.
However, to the credit of this team, they took care of business this afternoon, getting a 13 point halftime lead over Wake while staying in control for basically all 40 minutes for the 89-71 win. Marvin Bagley III once again put on a show, with 30 points and 11 rebounds. His Demon Deacons counterpart Doral Moore had no answer for him all night, nearly fouling out in the process. In fact, the losing team committed a season-high 26 fouls, with each big on the roster having at least three fouls.
Bagley wasn’t the only one to get a double-double and cause problems down low, with fellow star freshmen Wendell Carter Jr. having 15 points and 11 boards himself. And when the double-teams started to come, Gary Trent Jr. took complete advantage, scoring 19 points on a very efficient 6/7 from three-point range.
It wasn’t all roses in this game, as senior Grayson Allen failed to make a field goal in this game, going 0/5 for just two points. Since ACC play started, the senior guard has averaged 11 ppg in the five league games, and he’s taking less shot attempts.
When it came to the bench, only freshman Alex O’Connell played much, scoring 13 points while making a couple of three-pointers. After having a career game in his previous game, Justin Robinson was relegated to garbage minutes in this one.
Next: Latest ACC power rankings
It’s certainly good for Duke to get the win, especially without the head coach, but Allen’s struggles have officially gone from a simple slump to an issue that needs to be fixed unless Bagley, of course, wants to keep dropping 30 and 10 every night. We’ll see if he can do it on Monday, or Allen can play well against a great defensive team in Miami.