DURHAM – Imagine Duke basketball this year without point guard Tre Jones.
Well, the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils faced finding out the hard way when Duke announced prior to its home game against Wofford that Jones would sit out with a “minor injury.”
Nevertheless, the Blue Devils (10-1) routed Wofford (7-5) with an 86-57 victory Thursday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium; Jones watched from the bench in a Duke white polo shirt.
So at least based on one game against Wofford, Duke learned it can win without Jones and is deeper and better without Jones than North Carolina is without its point guard, Cole Anthony.
Oddly enough, just four days earlier Wofford, a Southern Conference team that was in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, visited North Carolina and beat the then-No. 15-ranked Tar Heels 68-64. Anthony missed the game with a knee injury that has him sidelined for about a month following arthroscopic surgery.
Wofford coach Jay McAuley didn’t say it directly, but the difference for Wofford losing to Duke and beating North Carolina was pressure defense. The Blue Devils forced Wofford to play farther from the basket and took away lanes to the hoop.
“We were sped up a little bit and Duke had a lot to do with that and we have to handle that better moving forward,” McAuley said. “Their pressure took us out of things.”
Duke seemed the same old Duke with junior Jordan Goldwire taking over a point guard and playing with the same tenacious defense if not the same skill set on offense as Jones.
He harassed Wofford point guard Storm Murphy into finishing with only eight points, one assist and two turnovers. Against North Carolina, Murphy, a 5-foot-11 senior, had 15 points and three assists and one turnover. Against North Carolina, Murphy was 5-of-10 from three-point range. At Duke, he hit only two in only three attempts.
Goldwire, a 6-2 junior, finished with eight points and five assists and no turnovers. He was three-of-three from the field, including hitting his only three-point field goal attempt. But what stood out was the confidence he played with in a starting role. It makes one wonder what practice is like when Jones and Goldwire, with similar pit bull personalities, square off.
“It’s fun to watch them in practice,” said senior Jack White, a team captain with Jones. “They make each other better. Jordan has really worked hard since he got here as a freshman. He plays with a lot of confidence.”
How long Duke can play well without Jones won’t be answered for now. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said Jones was held out as a precautionary measure.
“If this was an ACC game, he would have played,” Coach K said. “He has a slight sprain and it’s better with a break for him to get well. He’ll be back and play right away.”
Goldwire, who had only one previous start, had been averaging 15.4 minutes a game but was on the court for 27:39 against Wofford.
“I didn’t do anything different to prepare for this game than any other game,” he said. “The only thing different was mentally I had to be ready to play more minutes and a bigger role.”
Duke, which hadn’t played in two weeks since beating Virginia Tech on the road in its ACC opener, is off for another week before Brown of the Ivy League visits Durham on Dec. 28 at Cameron.
Krzyzewski was pleased with his team’s balance and with spreading the ball around. Nine Blue Devils played 10 minutes or more, nine scored and three were in double figures. Sophomore forward Joey Baker scored 22, freshman center Vernon Carey 20 and freshman forward Matthew Hurt 12.
Baker’s total was a career-high while hitting five straight three-point field goals among 5-of-7 from the arc and 6-of-11 from the field overall.
Carey added 10 rebounds to post his eighth double-double of the year in 11 games.
In addition to Goldwire replacing Jones, another difference in this game from Duke’s most recent win at Virginia Tech was the play of Carey.
Duke’s schedule featured the oddity of playing at Virginia Tech and hosting Wofford back-to-back. .Virginia Tech’s new coach is Mike Young, who had been at Wofford for 17 years. Young’s successor was his top assistant, McAuley.
That meant Duke prepared to defend the same offensive style in back-to-back games. At Virginia Tech, the Blue Devils struggled so much with the Young’s four-guard offense, Krzyzewski took Carey out of the game and played his own four-guard lineup to pull out the victory.
That switch limited Carey to 15 minutes with 12 points and five rebounds. He was on the court for 23:25 against Wofford.
“We hadn’t played that style of offense this year,” Carey said of the Hokies. “This time we were more prepared with our game plan. It helped that we had played the same offense.”
But in addition to Goldwire, Baker and Carey, Krzyzewski was happy with the all-around effort.
“Our kids played really well tonight,” he said. “They had outstanding defense. They shared the ball. They had the least amount of turnovers we’ve had (eight). We played a lot of guys. We beat a really good team.”
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://www.shanahan.report/a/forty-four-underground-railroad-legacy-facts
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
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