Duke Basketball has been on a seven-game win streak, but it hasn’t all been easy. They’ve managed to win them good, bad, and ugly which signifies growth from a young team that may be hitting its’ stride at just the right time.
About a month ago, Duke Basketball was sitting at a bit of a crossroads. They had beaten an overmatched Miami Hurricanes squad at home but had gone into that game losing two in a row. In those games, the Blue Devils missed critical free throws, were sloppy with the ball and showed some glaring lapses in what had previously been a stout man to man defense.
After the Miami game, Duke received a rare gift in the form of a mid-season bye week to work through some of their issues. Since that time off, Duke’s play and results have run the gamut from great to gritty with the Devils benefiting from some good fortune along the way.
They had solid wins against Pitt and at Syracuse, with Vernon Carey taking center stage to reassert himself into the national consciousness. The Blue Devils followed those good wins with their worst game of the season at BC. Earlier in the year, a Duke team that only made one three on 6.7% shooting from behind the arc with their worst FG% and lowest point total of the season would have probably lost that game.
Instead, they tightened up at the end, switched defenses and found a way to win. The North Carolina game was a different animal altogether. Duke was down for the whole game until they weren’t. It seems that there are many times where teams mount furious comebacks only to see their efforts come up a little bit short.
This appeared to be the case four or five times for the Devils, but they kept meeting the challenge and eventually overcame it. It will be interesting to see what Duke does the rest of the year due to the amount of confidence and swagger they were able to gather from that win.
The Seminole game was almost the perfect setup for a letdown. Instead, Duke played well outside of 21 turnovers and really locked in defensively when they could have easily come out flat. They ran FSU off the three-point line and made them take contested shots when the Noles weren’t stealing the ball away on careless Duke passes.
It was a very business-like effort in a contest that was played within the five-point final margin for three-quarters of the game. It also marked one of the few times Duke had a negative turnover to assist ratio and won the game. That Duke had only 13 assists to those 21 turnovers and they were able to beat a top ten team shows their improvement in other areas to let them compensate for this season-long issue.
That was a great example of what good teams are supposed to do on their home floor when they play other good teams. This shows an increased level of maturity among a group of Blue Devils that really seems to enjoy playing with each other. They need to continue to grow and keep gelling for continued success as the calendar turns to March.