Ten days ago the Duke Blue Devils exited Georgia Tech’s Thrillerdome with their second loss in 15 games and a strong sense that their offense needed a tune-up, if not a complete overhaul.
Pointing to senior point guard Jon Scheyer’s 25 points, junior forward Kyle Singler stared at the floor and muttered, “Jon had a good game, but we kind of rely on him too much. We have to do a better job of helping him out.”
Echoing that, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski added, “We can’t only rely on Scheyer to score.”
Yet when someone pressed Coach K on leaning too much on the long ball — given that the Devils had missed 22 of 28 3-point tries — he forced a smile and said, “That’s just what we do. We usually hit them. Today we didn’t.”
The unspoken message seemed to be that the Blue Devils have won a lot of games doing it their way, so an occasional loss wasn’t going to alter a coaching philosophy that’s produced three national championships, 10 Final Four appearances and 10 30-win seasons since 1986.
But a quick look at the No. 7 Blue Devils’ last two games proves that even an old championship show dog like Krzyzewski can embrace a few new tricks.
In beating both Boston College and Wake Forest by 20 points in the past week, Duke shot just 25 3-pointers combined, hitting a grand total of five, including a wretched 1-for-12 display against BC.
Yet the Dookies have rarely looked better in pounding the ball inside to 6-foot-10 sophomore Miles Plumlee, his 6-10 freshman brother Mason, the 6-8 Singler and 7-1 senior Brian Zoubek.
And when that hasn’t worked, they’ve merely sent Scheyer, Singler or guard Nolan Smith to the bucket to hit layups, draw fouls or both.
The results have been stunning. The Blue Devils pulled down 42 offensive rebounds in those twin wins and hit a combined 48 of 59 free throws (82 percent), all while shooting seven fewer 3-pointers and hitting five fewer than their averages.
“Last year we wouldn’t have won a game like that,” Coach K said after the Boston College victory. “We had to hit 3s.”
The Devils pretty much have had to hit 3s to win ever since last earning the NCAA title in 2001. Their dependence on the 3-ball cost them dearly in a Final Four semifinal loss to UConn in 2004 and a shocking regional semi loss to LSU in 2006.
But even as Scheyer and Singler were firing them from all over the court the last couple of seasons, Krzyzewski was gradually retooling with Zoubek and the Plumlee brothers. Throw in the slashing Smith, who is averaging almost as many points (18.5) as Scheyer (18.9), and you have the most balanced Dookies squad since their last national championship team.
“We’re not going to live and die by the 3s this year,” Smith said last week. “We can drive the basket and we’ve got bigs who can finish inside. When the 3-pointers aren’t falling, we have other ways to score.”
They also have other ways to defend. Kentucky may officially be the tallest team in the country with an average height of 6-7, but the Blue Devils come in at 6-6.8. They’re outrebounding foes by more than six a game (up from less than three last year) and blocking more than five shots a game. And they’re holding opponents to under 39 percent shooting from the floor.
Said Penn coach Jerome Allen after being crushed 114-55 by Duke, the worst loss in Quakers history: “It felt like we were standing in the trees. Sometimes their starting forwards are 6-8, 6-9 and 6-10. At other times they can go 6-9, 6-9, 7-1. Duke’s size is definitely one of its strengths.”
The Blue Devils’ lone weakness this season has been winning on the road. Duke has lost by four points at both Wisconsin and Georgia Tech, its only true road games to date.
Playing Wednesday at North Carolina State and Saturday at Clemson, the Devils must prove they can be as dominant away from cozy Cameron Indoor Stadium as they have been inside it for 10 of their 15 victories.
Not that Gonzaga coach Mark Few believes that will be a problem. After falling 76-41 to Duke at Madison Square Garden in December, Few said, “They have everything.”
And now they’re making full use of it.