Texas Tech is a very good basketball team. They are a year removed from an Elite 8 run, and came into their Thursday night game with the Duke Blue Devils, 10-0 and ranked in the top 15. The Red Raiders are a team with Final 4 aspirations, and are arguably the 2nd best team in the Big 12 behind Kansas.
They lost their top 2 scorers off last year’s team, but this was a dangerous team for the Duke Blue Devils to face.
Duke played poorly Thursday night. They shot 15% from 3 point land. Zion Williamson spent most of the night in foul trouble. The Red Raiders were getting into the lane with relative ease and led for most of the 2nd half.
Duke turned up the defensive intensity and won 69-58, and that’s what should scare their opponents. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The fact that Duke won by 11 tonight with the way they played offensively should scare people about as much as their win over UK.
— Jon Pence (@scacchoops) December 21, 2018
Jon Pence is right. Duke took a gut punch from a good team, in a game that they didn’t play well in and won going away.
Duke finished the game on a 16-3 run. Against Kentucky, Duke was on fire and played a lights out. They destroyed the Wildcats earlier in the year, and we know when Duke it at their best they are going to be nearly impossible to beat. They aren’t unbeatable. Gonzaga proved that, but if they can dispose of top 15 teams with they way they played Thursday then as Jon Pence said that’s even more impressive than their Kentucky win.
The Blue Devils aren’t going to run the table. The ACC is too good. Virginia has been as good as any team in the country in the regular season the last 5 years and currently sits 10-0. North Carolina ran that Gonzaga team out of Chapel Hill that beat Duke. Florida State is capable of matching up physically with the Blue Devils. NC State is one the ACC’s early surprises. This year’s Virginia Tech team might be Buzz Williams’s best yet.
You get the idea, there are just to many landmines in the ACC to expect Duke to not lose again.
That said when this Duke team has something different from their other recent talented versions. They are a better defensive team. They are in the top 50 in scoring defense, and they are 5th in FG defense. If Duke can continue to defend that level, then on poor offense night like Thursday they can still beat quality teams and that should concern everyone outside of Durham.
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