4) A crack in Duke‘s armor?
The Blue Devils are a really good team that will stay in the top five all season long. This isn’t something that will send Duke’s season off the rails, but it is something to watch when they play other elite teams and in the one-game samples of the NCAA Tournament.
What is that something? Duke struggles to play slow.
We’ve spent much of the first month of the season gushing about how unstoppable this team is on the break, and it’s warranted. They are otherworldly in that regard. They remind me a lot of the LeBron James-era Miami Heat due to how any transition opportunity has essentially become an automatic bucket.
But, when they are forced to slow down, execute their half-court sets, and make perimeter jumpers, they’ve really struggled. Hartford and Yale, both of Duke’s opponents this week, were able to stay within striking distance for roughly 30 minutes by playing this way before things got away from them. Army did the same thing before arriving at a similar fate. The Blue Devils also showed those struggles against both Auburn and Gonzaga when things slowed down in the second half of each game.
Part of this comes with having a young team, so they should see some natural improvement as the season goes on. Plus, Tre Jones is one of the best point guards out there and doesn’t turn the ball over. He’ll likely have the offense running at a high level sooner rather than later.
I’m not ready to say that this is something that will be debilitating for the Blue Devils, but rather it’s simply something to keep an eye on. If they figure this out, there may be no stopping them from winning the national championship.