Duke Basketball: Takeaways from tough home loss to upstart Clemson Tigers

In a season full of amazing upsets, Duke basketball became victim to their second of the season in a Tuesday night loss at Clemson.

The Clemson Tigers came in riding high after winning at North Carolina for the first time in school history and they played like a team with extreme confidence in themselves. Duke, playing without Wendell Moore and Joey Baker due to injury, was coming off of a convincing, 31-point win over Wake Forest. While Clemson was obviously a struggling team early on—as you can see in last week’s ACC Power Rankings—losing six of seven games during a stretch, they have now won three-straight ACC matchups.

Clemson is no pushover and with a few players missing for Duke, the starters were going to have to bring it at both ends of the floor. The Blue Devils put forth a solid effort on offense sans some sloppy passing and awful free throw shooting.

Tre Jones was aggressive but couldn’t find his range from deep, shooting 28.5% from 3-point range despite chipping in 17 points. Jones was tied with Cassius Stanley and Vernon Carey Jr. for the team lead in turnovers, with three apiece. Duke is one of the worst teams in the ACC in terms of turnovers and their sloppy play could be their downfall in what appears to be a very parity-filled ACC.

Tuesday’s 79-72 loss to Clemson puts Duke basketball into a tie with Louisville ahead of their January 18 matchup at Cameron Indoor. Duke had an opportunity to gain some separation in the ACC standings from surging Florida State as well but now they will have to wait until Saturday for that opportunity. As we await Duke basketball taking on Louisville in a big-time ACC matchup, let’s review takeaways from Tuesday’s shocking loss.