Perhaps not a masterpiece but an outstanding defensive game by the Blue Devils.
Duke bounced back from the tough loss to #1 Kansas Tuesday night with a solid if not necessarily electrifying 70-48 win over Seattle.
Full credit to the Redhawks: they came out the beginning of the game and, we think it’s fair to say, surprised Duke with the intensity of their effort. It’s not hard to understand: this is a well-coached team.
Even so, Duke is a well-coached team and with more talent, and the Blue Devil defense soon matched, then surpassed that of Seattle.
Duke held the Redhawks to 21.2 percent from the floor overall and 21.1 percent overall and forced 16 turnovers.
Seattle hung around for 10 minutes or so before Duke got any separation. The score was still 20-14 with 6:32 left when Kon Knueppel got a steal and Duke scored. About a minute later, Duke was up 10 and Seattle’s chances were effectively over. By halftime, the Blue Devils were up 37-25 and the second half was worse for the Redhawks as Duke’s depth wore them down.
There was a lot to consider in this game, individually and thematically.
First was Duke’s defense, as mentioned above. The overall team defense was excellent but we’re starting to see some superb individual efforts as well.
Do you remember in the preseason when someone - we don't remember who - was asked on the Brotherhood Podcast who the best defender on the team was?
They said it was Maliq Brown and then raved about his ability to get into the passing lanes.
We saw a lot of that tonight. Brown was credited with three steals but he caused more disruption than that. Someone we’re sure is tracking details like how many balls did he touch without deflecting, how many times a Seattle player balked when Brown was nearby. Toss in a couple of blocks although ESPN’s box score only says one, and three rebounds, and the guy had a brilliant defensive performance.
Of the others, we know what Tyrese Proctor, Caleb Foster, Cooper Flagg, Sion James and Khaman Maluach can do. More or less anyway.
Maluach is learning the finer nuances of the way Americans play and it’s not going to happen overnight. We watched Hunter Dickinson toss him around in the Kansas game and we watched him in this one reluctant to assert himself. When Maluach is aggressive and - in the immortal words of former Clemson coach Cliff Ellis - “agile, mobile and hostile” - he’s going to be a nightmare.
Right now, he’s too often content to put his hands up rather that to contest a shot. His aggression comes and goes. Mostly it’s okay because Duke has the luxury of Brown to back him up and Brown is an exquisite teacher by example.
In his defense, Maluach became a refugee at a young age and he didn’t get to go to basketball camps or AAU tournaments. He learned a lot from watching video rather than playing.
But he’s known as a sponge by coaches and guys like that tend to get better. It’ll all work out, but when is a valid question.
We also saw some hard-nosed defense from Kon Knueppel. We’ve seen him dive on the floor often and bust his butt to gain an advantage. He’s another good role model for Maluach.
We also got another look at Patrick Ngongba, who came of the bench and showed beautiful hands and also Isaiah Evans was off the bench early and played well. Darren Harris came in and acquitted himself well too.
Generally speaking, so did Duke as a whole. Sandwiched between Kansas and Auburn, this could easily have been a trap game. Fortunately it wasn’t, and now the team can focus on Auburn and the Cameron stop of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Notes - Flagg made a quiet but spectacular play: he chased a ball as it was going out of bounds, leapt to get it, turned and fired a perfect pass to a teammate for a three point shot...he was close to a triple double with nine points, nine rebounds and nine assists...Caleb Foster was much more aggressive about driving to the rim, which we loved...Sion James continues to surge...is Evans ready for a microwave role? If his defense continues to improve and he can function physically against bigger, stronger players we could see it...
