Focus on the now

In any other year, admonishing a Krzyzewski-coached team to stay focused on the game at hand would most likely be unnecessary.  However, the 2011-2012 season has proved to be rather unique for the Duke men.

Routinely frittering away large leads, or else beginning games with large deficits has been the M.O. for this team all year.  Which is not to say that they have not been successful - losing only four games so far this year with one of the toughest schedules in the country - but  that they've gone about getting their wins in a rather un-Duke-like manner.  

Personally, I was worried about the year coming in.  Austin Rivers, while confident - and rightly so - had already seemed to develop an NBA-sized ego, running his mouth quite a bit before the season began. Further, and more importantly, it was yet to be seen if anyone would step into the leadership gap that Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith had left.

On the first count, Rivers seems to have responded well to the team-oriented focus of the Blue Devils.  His defense has improved, his encouragement of others has increased, and he makes fewer bad decisions with the ball than he did with his superstar mentality at the beginning of the year.  And of course, he's been the superstar on more than one occasion, not least with his game-winning three-ball to beat the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

On the other count, our fears have been confirmed.  The likely candidates for leadership - Seth Curry, Miles Plumlee, and...err....yeah that's it - have not stepped up.  Miles has had a solid last couple of games, but still lacks that killer instinct, confidence, and poise that a team needs to see in its upperclassmen. And Seth Curry, well, just hasn't taken the reigns.

The team is good.  Very good.  But it's de-centralized, not looking to the same people to come through each night, though Austin Rivers has flirted with becoming the guaranteed playmaker.  As such, and as a team that still cannot pound the ball inside and get points when they have to, they're at the mercy of the hot hand.  Fortunately, they have a lot of potential hot hands - be they Rivers, Dawkins, Curry or Kelly - but come crunch time, teams with an inside offensive presence are the teams that can consistently get the job done.  And as much as the Plumlees are great guys, watching them try to maneuver with the ball in the post can be a pretty uncomfortable experience.

For now, let's not even talk about free throws.  Oy.

All of that, and they're still tied for the ACC title with the Tar Heels, with one more game to go before the likely showdown for the conference championship in Durham.  And that game happens to be against a weak Wake Forest team.  Which is why the game is so dangerous.  Looking past the Demon Deacons in their home finale to a championship bout with UNC could be disastrous.  The Deacons can save a lot of face with a win over the Blue Devils to close up their home season.  They'll be hungry and focused.  After an 18 point win earlier this year over Wake, and with the game of the season coming up next, the Devils might not have their head in the game.  That's a recipe for an upset.

We'll see how prepared and how present Coach K has his Blue Devils tonight at 9 PM Eastern.

Go Duke.

National Champs

To my shame, I have not updated this blog for the entire 2009-2010 season.

And wouldn't you know?

Duke wins the National Title!

It's a little late now for me to say anything of import about the season, but let me say this:

The Big Three were tremendous all year. Duke's defense was stellar all year, allowing them the offense the ubiquitous ten minute scoring drought, and still allowing the team to win. But the key to the title this year was - and I can't believe I'm saying this - Brian Zoubek.

Those of us who remember Brian when he came to the team in 2006 know him as the kid who couldn't even stand still without traveling, requiring Josh McRoberts to play the five - possibly hastening his departure and lowering his draft stock, and as unfortunate in the injury department.

But he didn't complain, and he MUST have been paying attention in practice, because halfway through the season this year, Brian became a man. He learned to use his body to bring down rebounds and challenge shots. He even all but eliminated his traveling violations and worked in a few offensive moves, allowing him to average double-digits in points over a portion of the late season.

Come tournament time, Zoub, Thomas and the Plumlees took care of the glass and made any shot in the paint a less-than-sure bet for opposing teams.

The Big Three took care of the ball, and found a way to score just enough. But without Zoubek's turnaround it would not have been enough.

Congratulations to the Blue Devils.

Go Duke!

2009-2010 Schedule

The ACC has released the men's basketball schedule for each of its teams. Duke's schedule tips off against UNC-Greensboro in Durham on November 13. Duke then hosts the first round of the NIT Season Tip-Off over November 16 and 17, with Coastal Carolina, Elon, and Charlotte also competing in Durham. Duke is the number one seed in the tournament, with UCONN, LSU, and Arizona State rounding out the top four seeds of the 16-team competition.

Other preseason opponents include Radford, St. John's, Gardner-Webb, Long Beach State, and Pennsylvania, all coming to Cameron Indoor Stadium, while Duke will travel to Wisconsin and meet Gonzaga at Madison Square Garden on December 19.

The ACC season begins on January 3 versus Clemson in Durham. Duke's home-and-home matchups include Clemson, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Maryland, and of course, North Carolina. Duke travels to Chapel Hill on February 10, and hosts the Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor on March 6 to close out the regular season.

Interspersed in their conference schedule, Duke will travel to Chicago and Washington, D.C. to face Iowa State and Georgetown respectively, and will host Tulsa as their last non-conference opponent of the season.

The Mile

The boys had their annual mile run today. Chris Collins tweeted that everyone came back in under six minutes, and Kyle Singler won the race at 5:02.

Summer 2009

Good Lord, but if there ain't a ton to talk about.

First of all, the bad news. Gerald Henderson is officially gone. He has signed with an agent, and that, as they say, is that. Currently, there are a few mock drafts that have Gerald being taken as high as 10th by the Milwaukee Bucks. (On a side note, I was surprised earlier this year to find out that Milwaukee still had an NBA franchise.)

This disturbs me as a fan of Gerald Henderson because he had just come into his own this year, only beginning to realize his potential and to act with confidence and swagger in mid-January. If Gerald went another year under the Duke coaching staff, he could solidify his game and leadership and walk out as a potential top five pick.

But it disturbs me more as a fan of Duke basketball, given that an improved Gerald Henderson and a seasoned supporting cast returning next year, could easily have given Duke another ACC Championsip, and perhaps a trip to the Final Four.

What Duke loses in Gerald Henderson, is someone who can create points. Duke will, it seems, always rely heavily on the long-ball. But stretches of 0-12 behind the arc are more easily weathered when you have a dribble-drive penetrator who can finish. Gerald was that guy. Now, who does Duke turn to? Or do they have an incoming freshman who can do the job?

We'll take a look at the remaining Blue Devils for 2009 in upcoming posts.

Final Week

Earlier in the season, amidst the expected rash of wins, Duke's continued lack of a single go-to athletic scorer bothered me quite a bit. There was much talk among sports analysts that this is a Final Four caliber team.

I begged to differ. I didn't think that being as balanced as they were would allow them to penetrate past the Sweet 16.

There were two conditions that needed to be met as I saw it: Gerald Henderson had to realize and become confident in the superstar that he could be. And Elliot Williams needed to start playing significant minutes.

Well, finally, both have happened. Gerald started turning it on January, and Elliot worked his tail off to get ready for when his chance finally came. And he's been contributing in a serious way ever since he got the starting nod against St. John's.

Not only does Williams have the potential to be an even more explosive athlete than Henderson, he is displaying tenacity on the defensive end that used to be displayed by all Duke players. Duke has been playing smart defense, but not intense defense. And Williams, thankfully, brings that intensity to the floor.

That's not to say that Williams does not have his drawbacks. He makes lots of freshman mistakes, but he is just a tick away from creating his shots at will, like Gerald has finally realized he can do.

So the pieces that were missing are in place, and the wins have been coming. Quality wins against Wake Forest and Maryland have allowed the Duke faithful to breathe a little easier as the end of the season approaches. Of their four straight victories (including at St. John's and tonight's victory at Virginia Tech), the win against Maryland was probably the most encouraging - the entire game (in Maryland) was close, and Duke found a way to win. The Wake Forest game was good in the end, but it, as well as the Virginia Tech game tonight, followed a nauseating pattern that has plagued Duke since their loss at home to North Carolina: get up big on turnovers and shot creation early, then squander that lead as the opposition makes adjustments to the pressure and begins to play smarter defense. In the most recent cases, Duke has held on to victory, but what is disturbing is Duke's reluctance to make adjustments to exploit new weaknesses and maintain their lead. Duke even benefited from a couple of seriously questionable calls in the final minute and and a half of tonight's game - and that's something we really don't want going into the final week of play.

All that being said, the pieces are in place, and Duke has won four in a row and remain a single game behind North Carolina in the ACC standings. Wins against Florida State and UNC in Chapel Hill will be difficult, but Duke has an intensity now that could push them over the top. We just need to see that intensity turn to strategic dissection of their opponents in the latter part of the contests. And, as a believer, I believe that we will.

Go Duke!

Duke is used to 30 point victories in the early part of the season. By the end of their season opener against Presbyterian on Monday, Duke tacked on another, 80-49, but the game was far from a resounding success in the eyes of the Duke coaches, players, and knowledgeable fans.

Duke struggled to open up a big lead in the first half before Greg Paulus came in and provided a spark. After the game, players talked about not being on the same page. Then in the second half, Duke failed to run the plays that Coach K called three out of four trips down the court. This is something that even young Duke teams haven't struggled with significantly in the early going for a long time.

This may come as a mild hit to the psyches of fans who have been getting their hopes up hearing about how Duke now has the experience they've lacked for the past two years, the athleticism to replace and exceed Demarcus Nelson's in Nolan Smith, Elliot Williams, and Gerald Henderson, and a surprisingly effective big man in freshman Miles Plumlee. However, in the opener, while the athleticism was evident in plays like Elliot Williams' 360 degree dunk, Miles Plumlee was largely ineffectual and the experience, while providing spark from time to time, did not supply the leadership needed to give Duke consistency throughout the game.

But it's a mild hit at most. It's very, very early, and the Duke coaching staff has some time to build the hustle and consistency back into the team from top to bottom. If they do, then as we hope, Duke could remain a legitimate top 10 contender all year.

Already in their second game against Georgia-Southern, Duke is playing more cohesively. Czyz and Pocius are both seeing some action, and the usual suspects are in double digit figures.

We'll have an early look on freshman production after the game on Sunday.

Go Duke!