Duke vs. Syracuse: Keys and storylines for 2019-20 matchup

Kill with Carey

After weeks of seeing his numbers slowly slip down the lists of the ACC leader boards, Vernon Carey was back with a vengeance to the tune of 26-pts 13-reb 4-ast.  It was his ninth double-double of the season but only his first since playing Wofford back in December.

Carey started the year off like a rocket for Duke, racking up double-doubles in his early games and garnering national headlines.  He hit a little midseason lull for a variety of reasons but Duke decided it was time to reestablish their star and he responded.

The four assists is tops for the season and a nice new element from a player who sees a lot of double teams so expanding this part of his game will only help Duke out in the future.  The biggest takeaway for me though was his 35 minutes played which was also a season-high and exceeds his average by over ten minutes.

I wrote in an earlier piece about the importance of Carey, his production and his increased usage, so it was good to see those words heeded which is exactly what I think Coach K and his staff did during the bye week.  What else do they have to do besides reading Busting Brackets right?

Duke can let Carey occupy the middle of the zone against Syracuse where he can shoot it with his nice stroke and range out to hit the occasional three.  He could also dictate play and pass to open shooters and cutters if the zone starts to collapse on him.

Coach K could also slip Matthew Hurt into the middle position with Hurt playing the same role as Carey or possibly Cassius Stanley.  With someone else inside, Carey would be free to roam the baseline, looking for cuts to the basket and alley-oop attempts.

Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett dominated out of the middle against Syracuse, but mostly in going to the basket and Stanley has similar qualities although he isn’t the passer that either Zion or RJ was, averaging only 1.2 assists per game.