Duke Basketball: Takeaways from Blue Devils humbling defeat to NC State

Vernon Carey Jr. continues to put up National Player of the Year numbers

Duke basketball put themselves in quite an early hole in Wednesday’s loss but Vernon Carey Jr. did his best to lead the comeback charge. He and Tre Jones (more on him later) were the only Duke players who looked ready to play on offense and Carey’s 21 points and 12 rebounds—albeit in a loss—represented his second 20-point performance over the last three games and his 13th double-double of the season.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1230319733322506246

Carey was his usual bruising self in the paint and racked up an impressive 12 trips to the charity stripe but only converted on 58.3% of those 12 free throws. The extremely poor free throw shooting hurts but the fact that Carey’s teammates did so little aid him actually adds a bit to his Player of the Year case.

On Wednesday night Carey account for 40.9% of Duke’s points, 27.9% of their rebounds, and a whopping 54.5% of the Blue Devil free throw attempts. Carey gave some of those points back to Funderburk on the defensive end but it is frightening to think of what the Duke offense would’ve looked like without him on the floor. His rim protection wasn’t amazing against NC State but Carey’s trio of blocks for the evening showcased an effort to do the right thing on defense, even when the technique isn’t exactly there.

Duke has five games left in the regular season including a rematch with NC State. Wednesday was the first time Duke has lost a game in which Carey scored over 20 points and something tells me it will be the last time as they look to finish the season with five straight wins.