Hello toughness, Duke’s old friend. Blue Devils rediscover their edge.
It figures to take Duke all season to escape from the proverbial wreckage of its loss to Stephen F. Austin. That’s the kind of loss that will reverberate throughout the remainder of Duke’s 2019-20 run.
The only way for Duke to recast last week’s 85-83 overtime loss is to use it as a jumping off point to a great season.
At Duke, of course, a great season means spending March and early April earning new banners to hang in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
On Tuesday night in one of the nation’s toughest venues for an opposing team, Duke pulled together time and time again to push its unsightly loss further in the past and show it might be capable of collecting banners and championships after all.
The Blue Devils’ 87-75 win over Michigan State was dominating on all fronts. The Spartans, the nation’s No. 1 team when the season began, held two leads -- 2-0 and 5-4. That’s it. Jack White’s layup less than three minutes into the first half gave Duke a lead it never lost.
“We knew what we had gotten ourselves into here tonight,” Duke guard Tre Jones said. “We knew how together we’d have to be out there and how much we’d have to fight and how tough we’d have to play to get a win.”
Playing as the nation’s No. 1 team, Duke didn’t employ that style of play or that urgency in two home games last week. The Blue Devils did beat Winthrop 83-70 three nights after losing to SFA, but no one around the program was satisfied with that performance.
“Even in Friday’s game, we weren’t really ourselves,” Jones said. “Still missing a little bit. But the way we fought tonight, the way we defended is something we’ve done all season, except last week. We’ve got to keep that up. Keep defending like we know how we can.”
Jones and freshman center Vernon Carey put up the biggest numbers on the stat sheet for Duke as both produced double-doubles.
Carey was unguardable at times, scoring 26 points with 11 rebounds. Jones scored 20 points while collecting 12 assists. Only one other player in Duke history, Bobby Hurley, had a road game with 20 points and at least 10 assists.
But let’s not get distracted by shiny things here.
Those two players put up the biggest numbers, but the supporting cast of Blue Devils formed a cohesive unit that will make Duke tough to beat this season if, the big if, they keep playing this way.
“This is a huge win,” Krzyzewski said. “But it doesn’t mean you’ve arrived.”
No it just shows Duke’s ceiling is very high once again, just the ugly loss on its home court a week earlier shows its floor may be lower than usual.
Duke played hard-nosed defense against the Spartans (5-3), who turned the ball over six times in the game’s first seven minutes. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said he could hardly believe the box score that showed his team finished with only 14 turnovers because it felt like an avalanche of mistakes.
But Izzo can be forgiven because the game’s tone was set in those early minutes when the Spartans, with senior point guard Cassius Winston running the show, stumbled.
The hamstring injury that has freshman guard Cassius Stanley sidelined messed with Duke’s substitution patterns and its depth.
But it didn’t matter because Duke got solid contributions from nearly everyone.
Senior forward Javin DeLaurier scored 10 points while hitting all five of this shots. He played 19 minutes without a turnover.
Matthew Hurt matched him with 10 points.
Joey Baker hit five of six shots to score 11 points while not turning the ball over in 17 minutes.
Jack White did his usual glue-guy stuff by scoring seven points with six rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. When White hit his only 3-pointer of the night with 9:09 to play, it boosted Duke’s lead to a comfortable 22 points and they cruised from there.
“We all can contribute and we are a tough team,” Carey said. “We play together.”
They played together and they won in their first true road game of the season.
It was quite the step on the road back to respectability after Duke got humbled last week.
“Getting back to ourselves,” Jones said. “I think I said that on Friday after the game. But even in Friday’s game, we weren’t really ourselves. Still missing a little bit. But the way we fought tonight, the way we defended is something we’ve done all season, except last week. We’ve got to keep that up. Keep defending like we know how we can.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 11:09 AM.