Duke played tough against UNC, but it wasn’t enough for struggling Blue Devils
There was nothing soft about Duke’s performance against North Carolina on Saturday night.
The rivalry wouldn’t allow such nonsense.
The Blue Devils followed their coach’s game plan. They showed moxie when, after falling behind by 10 points in the first half to rally back and actually take a three-point lead.
In the second half, UNC bullied its way to a 12-point lead and again was poised to run Duke out of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke stood strong, chipping away until the game was tied twice.
“Our guys really fought like crazy,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
The toughness question is usually a non-factor with the Blue Devils but these are not normal times.
Just five days ago, Krzyzewski described the team’s play as “soft” when the Blue Devils lost to a sub-.500 Miami team, 77-75.
So that mission was accomplished.
But in losing 91-87 in a hard-fought game to their bitter rivals from Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils weren’t great.
It’s greatness that has defined this rivalry, with ACC championships regularly on the line and top-five rankings usually assigned to both teams.
Neither team qualifies as great this season. Even in this watered-down condition, Duke (7-7, 5-5 ACC) is a step behind UNC (12-6, 7-4 ACC).
Tar Heels shut down Blue Devils’ Matthew Hurt
The Blue Devils turned the ball over 15 times and UNC tallied 28 points off those miscues.
A Tar Heel team that had made just 30.2% of its 3-pointers entering the game made a season-high 10 on 15 attempts.
Now, one could chalk that up to UNC simply having a rare good night from the field. But that argument doesn’t hold up when you consider Duke’s opponents have made 38.4% of their 3-point shots this season.
Duke’s defense against 3-pointers is No. 321 nationally. The Blue Devils simply aren’t good at guarding out there this year. Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton took advantage with Love hitting four of five 3-pointers while scoring 25 points and Walton making all four of his attempts to score 12 points.
The expectation was UNC would have an advantage inside, where the Tar Heels are big, strong and deep with big men Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot, Day’Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler.
Those guys helped the Tar Heels gain a 38-31 rebounding edge, including 14 important offensive rebounds that helped UNC score 15 second-chance points.
But, more importantly, they reduced Duke sophomore Matthew Hurt to a shell of his usual self. The ACC’s second-leading scorer with 18.8 points per game, Hurt was scoreless in the first half and finished with only seven points.
The 6-9 sophomore fouled out with 4:16 to play, robbing Duke of a key scoring threat in the final minutes as the Tar Heels held on to win.
Even without Hurt, Duke played much better offensively, collecting 23 assists. The Blue Devils assisted on 63.9% of their field goals, a marked improvement from doing so on just 27.6% against Miami.
Yet for the tough-minded play and the strong sharing of the ball on offense, Duke fell short.
Coach K says his team needs to ‘keep playing’
The Blue Devils find themselves with break-even records, both overall and in ACC play.
An NCAA tournament bid is a dream at this point. Duke has to find a way to simply be a winning team.
That means winning Tuesday at home against Notre Dame.
That’s as far as Krzyzewski plans to think at this point.
“We’ve just got to keep playing,” Krzyzewski said. “I don’t have a long-term goal. My goal is to get ready for Notre Dame now.”