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Duke Basketball: Takeaways from Michigan State loss in 2020 Champions Classic

By Matthew Travis

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 07: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs during the first half of their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 07, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 07: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs during the first half of their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 07, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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Duke Basketball (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Duke Basketball (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

Need to Win the Rebound Battle

Duke struggled a lot on the glass on Tuesday and ultimately it was one of the reasons they went onto lose. Michigan State beat the Blue Devils in the rebounding battle as the Spartans grabbed 12 offensive rebounds, and 34 defensive rebounds for a total of 46, while Duke grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and 29 defensive rebounds for a total of 40.

One of the big reasons Duke lost the rebounding battle is due to the fact that they only had a true center play four minutes of the game as Mark Williams saw the floor, but that’s not an excuse.

Duke’s leading rebounder was Matthew Hurt who came down with 13 boards, which makes sense seeing he was the tallest Blue Devil on the floor for a majority of the game, but after Hurt, no player grabbed more than five total rebounds, and that is not ok.

If Duke wants to win the rebound battle and ultimately win the game, against anyone not just Michigan State, they need to have more than one player pushing double-digits when it comes to grabbing rebounds.

Jalen Johnson is 6’9″ and he came down with only four rebounds despite the fact that he played 22 minutes, he must get that number up if he wants to help his team. In Duke’s first game of the season, Johnson grabbed 19 rebounds and ultimately helped Duke beat Coppin State.

If Duke wants to beat good teams, they’re going to need Johnson to put up numbers similar to these. I’m not saying he needs to be grabbing 19+ rebounds a game, but if he is capable of grabbing 19, he should be able to come down with more than four in other games.

I’m not putting the fact that Duke lost the rebounding battle all on Jalen Johnson, but Johnson grabbing only four rebounds certainly didn’t help.

Nonetheless, if Duke wants to be competitive moving forward, they’re going to need to improve on the glass.

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