Duke Basketball: Good, bad and ugly from 2019-20 victory over Kansas

Duke was horrible on the offensive end on Tuesday night

Duke was HORRIBLE Tuesday night when it came to shooting. The Blue Devils were a combined 23-64 from the field and they’re very lucky they came out of this game with a win because most nights against the third-best team in the nation, a field goal percentage of 35.9% won’t cut it.

This 23-64 mark obviously can’t be placed on a single player, everyone was bad. Duke’s starters were a combined 17-41, meaning the bench was 6-23 combined, not great.

We knew that Duke’s three-point shooting was going to be a problem, but the Blue Devils couldn’t put the ball in the basket from anywhere on the floor.

The good news is Duke managed to get the ball down low repeatedly to Vernon Carey, Javin DeLaurier and Wendell Moore. The three had a combined 18 field goal attempts while totaling 17 points.

However, only 17 points on 18 attempts is once again horrible and this is something Duke will undoubtedly improve on as the season progresses. If not, I wouldn’t expect the Blue Devils to get very far.

Free Throw Shooting

Another thing Duke did very poorly was their free throw shooting. The Blue Devils were a combined 14-23 from the charity stripe. 60.9% is absolutely horrendous and like their shooting from the field, it simply will not cut it later on in the season.

Both Vernon Carey jr. and Javin DeLaurier had six attempts from the line each, but they only made a combined five. Right there alone you have seven missed free throws which in many cases could make or break a game and Tuesday night it almost did.

14-23 from the free throw line is absolutely horrible and had it not been for the 28 turnovers committed by Kansas, it likely would have cost Duke the game.

Luckily it did not, but in order to win big games like this one that is decided by only a couple points, Duke will have to be better from the line.

Rebounding

Duke was horrible on the boards on Tuesday night as they lost the rebound battle 40 to 30. Yes, Kansas had the clear size advantage with Azubuike and McCormack down low, but there’s still no excuse to come down with ten fewer rebounds overall and 11 less on the defensive end.

11 offensive boards aren’t bad at all, but only 19 on the defensive end simply is not good enough. Vernon Carey needs to be a bit better because only six total rebounds from a starting center in 25 minutes won’t cut it.

If Carey continues to get the minutes he got on Tuesday he’s going to have to be better on the glass. If he doesn’t you could see K put Javin DeLaurier back in the starting rotation as he had only two rebounds less than Carey while being on the court for 11 minutes less than Carey.

Nonetheless, Duke needs to be better on the glass and if Carey doesn’t improve you should also expect to see DeLaurier get some more minutes going forward.