DURHAM – Two looks at Duke without Tre Jones in late December have offered contrasting views of the Blue Devils’ depth and balance. Those qualities, coach Mike Krzyzewski believes, are the key to the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils winning an ACC and/or national championship
Duke (11-1) appeared to miss Jones’ presence more in its 75-50 win over Brown (5-6) on Saturday afternoon at Cameron Indoor Stadium – at least in the first 25 minutes, that is – than nine days ago when the bench didn’t miss a step in an 85-567 rout of Wofford, an NCAA Tournament team last year that had defeated North Carolina four days earlier.
Despite the final score, Brown trailed 35-29 at halftime and still was within three scores of the Blue Devils, 55-46, with 9:14 remaining. But Krzyzewski said an experienced team like Brown, which hadn’t played in 18 days, can play closer to its ability against tougher competition or after a holiday layoff than a younger lineup.
“Brown is a veteran team and well prepared,” Coach K said. “They’ve coming off their winningest season ever (20-12), and they have older guys. They have seniors and two really good guys that could be All-Ivy in (Brandon) Anderson and Tamenang Choh.”
Freshman center Vernon Carey, who was strong inside once Duke struggled with its outside shooting, led the Blue Devils with 19 points and six rebounds.
Junior guard Jordan Goldwire made his second straight start in place of Jones, who is nursing a sprained foot. Krzyzewski said with Jones home for Christmas and told not to work out, he wanted him to have another day off before the Blue Devils begin preparations for their return to ACC play. They meet Boston College at 6 p.m. Tuesday at home.
“They were a good defensive team,” Goldwire said, “but I think it was more so we weren’t making the right reads early.”
Goldwire finished with four points, five assists and three turnovers. That was a downturn from a more seamless performance against Wofford with eight points, five assists and no turnovers. But Coach K preferred to cited how Goldwire composed himself after a slow start. That’s the sign of a junior, he added.
“J Gold over these last two games has done a really good job,” he said. “Not having Tre hurts everyone and puts a lot of pressure on him. He knew we weren’t playing well and he sped up a couple of times in the first half. To his credit, he stayed composed in the second half and I’m proud of him for doing that.”
One first-half difference was Duke’s defense didn’t take Anderson, Brown’s senior point guard, out of his game. The Blue Devils had managed to do so with Storm Murphy, Wofford’s point. Murphy finished with only eight points four days after he scored 15 to beat North Carolina.
Anderson entered the Duke game averaging 21.0 points with 3.8 assists a game. By halftime he had nine points and three assists, but he didn’t add an assist or a three-point field goal in the second half while finishing with 16 points. Duke also held Choh to five points and five turnovers.
Another Duke trouble-spot compared to the Wofford result was three-point shooting. The Blue Devils were 0-of-11 at halftime and 2-of-16 for the game. Against Wofford, Joey Baker missed his first three-pointer before hitting five in a row. Baker, making his first start off his career-high 22 points, finished 0-of-4 at from the arc with two points.
Once Brown had taken a 17-14 lead midway through the first half on an 8-0 run, the Blue Devils used their size advantage inside with high-low plays from Carey and senior forward Jack White.
The inside emphasis included White converting an offensive rebound basket. Then there were back-to-back buckets by White on an inbounds play under the basket and Carey on a post move that bumped Duke’s lead to 35-24 before the half finished with Brown on a 5-0 run.
It wasn’t until 6:46 remained in the afternoon game that Duke’s Alex O’Connell hit the team’s first three-pointer for a 58-46 lead. His score sparked a 19-4 advantage the remainder of the contest to account for the deceptive 25-point margin.
“They have so many different guys that can hurt you,” Brown coach Mike Martin said. “They are clearly a better team with Jones in the lineup and Goldwire off the bench, although he was terrific, defensively especially. But, you bring in (Wendell) Moore, (Matthew) Hurt and O’Connell off the bench. There are a lot of guys off the bench that can hurt you.”
O’Connell, a junior guard/forward, finished with 14 points in 23:02 playing time and Moore, a freshman guard/forward, also was in double-figures with 10 in 26:23. Hurt played 22:39 with eight points.
Duke entered the game averaging 24.5 minutes from the bench, the most in the past five seasons. In the previous four games, Duke had averaged 32.3 bench minutes.
“When we’re all in sync and everyone is having a good game, with all five players being in a bit of a balancing act, we’re comfortable and confident,” Coach K said. “I just think we’re nowhere near the team we can be. To be 11-1, we can’t get fooled by that. We know we have a lot of work to do. We’re just going to keep working in conference play and keep taking it one game at a time.”
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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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