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

Did a Good Job of Limiting Turnovers

Although Duke lost on Tuesday, one thing they did well was limiting the turnovers. Last week against Coppin State Duke committed 22 turnovers, but against the Spartans, they committed only 12.

There is still room for improvement, but going from 22 to 12 while playing a much better team in Michigan State, is a great sign. This was both one of my takeaways after the Coppin State game, and also one of my keys for Duke to beat the Spartans as well.

Jalen Johnson led the Blue Devils with seven turnovers last week, but only committed one on Tuesday night which is a huge improvement. This is a great sign for Duke and although they still lost by six Tuesday night, they can at least take one thing away from it.

In addition to limiting turnovers on the offensive end, Duke also did a much better job of forcing turnovers on the defensive end. Against Coppin State, Duke forced only eight turnovers while recording only six steals, against Michigan State, Duke forced 15 turnovers while recording nine steals.

This is great news for Duke because this was another one of my keys to winning this game, they had to be more active in the passing lanes. This is a good sign as the Blue Devils were much better on the defensive end Tuesday, but were much worse on the offensive end.

Overall, if nothing else, Duke can find comfort in the fact that they both did a great job in limiting the turnovers against a much better team, and they also did a great job of forcing more turnovers against a much better team.