DURHAM -- A seven-point halftime lead was on the verge of evaporating before
Duke got the shot it wanted. Kyle Singler threw the ball across the court to
Jon Scheyer, wide open behind the 3-point line with Miles Plumlee standing
in the way of anyone running at Scheyer's shot.
The best long-range shooter in the ACC won't get many better looks than
that. He missed, one of many misses on the night. Duke's lead went missing
not long after.
The Blue Devils didn't lose Sunday, coming back for a 67-55 win over
Virginia Tech. They won't lose many games from now until the end of their
season, whenever that may be. But anyone watching closely saw a vision of
the future that could be: This is how it will end for Duke.
When Scheyer, Singler and Nolan Smith all misfire, Duke puts itself in a
difficult position. The offense is built around those three, and it's a coin
flip whether anyone else steps up. No one did Sunday, and the Blue Devils
found their way out thanks to some gritty defense and rebounding, but it's a
dangerous game to play.
"I'd like to have other people score. That's an obvious thing," Duke coach
Mike Krzyzewski said. "But what I want to do is win, and not let scoring or
lack of scoring impact in a negative way our defense or rebounding. It'll
come."
Scheyer was 4-for-19, Singler 7-for-15 after hitting his last three shots
and Smith 6-for-17. Nonetheless, they scored 63 of Duke's 67 points -- 20
on free throws -- as the rest of the Devils went 1-for-11.
Duke finally put the game away with an 11-2 run keyed by a three-point play
by Brian Zoubek, the first and only basket of the night by anyone else.
An opponent having a better offensive night than Virginia Tech -- a prime
example would be Villanova in last year's regional semifinal, under similar
circumstances, but it wouldn't take that much -- may have built an
insurmountable lead long before then.
"Once we had the lead, we had opportunities to score and create some
separation," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "We just didn't score.
We didn't make enough shots. We got stops. We just didn't seize those
opportunities."
It doesn't have to end this way. Players like Zoubek and the Plumlee
brothers have, at times, shown the ability to score inside. Andre Dawkins
could still find his shooting touch. And if the Big Three goes the rest of
the way without a collective off night, the Devils may not have very many
nights off.
On most nights, Duke's decent is good enough in a weaker-than-usual ACC. On
any given night, the Blue Devils are good enough to beat anyone. When Duke's
shooters are on -- and it only takes one, really -- it takes a comprehensive
offensive and defensive performance to beat the Blue Devils. When their
shots aren't falling, Duke is ripe to fall.
So many of the shots the Blue Devils missed Sunday were wide-open looks,
exactly what the offense is designed to provide.
"If we were hitting some of those, those are signature plays for us,"
Krzyzewski said. "We get a rebound, kick it out for a 3, hit it and then we'
re skipping down the yellow-brick road."
Instead, it took a late flurry to pull the Blue Devils through. That is not
a game the Blue Devils will want to play in March.
luke.decock@newsobserver.com, (919) 829-8947 or twitter.com/LukeDeCock
