How an ‘old school Duke day’ boosted the Blue Devils. Takeaways from win over Notre Dame
A disheartening loss to rival North Carolina caused Jon Scheyer to coax response from his No. 9 Duke Blue Devils, who delivered immediately, though not perfectly, Wednesday night.
After using an intense day of work on Monday to get things straight, the Blue Devils scored 17 consecutive points early against Notre Dame in what became a workmanlike 71-53 ACC basketball win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Scheyer, Duke’s second-year head coach, criticized his team for failing to match No. 3 UNC’s compete level when the Tar Heels won 93-84 at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill. That was the most points Duke has allowed all season.
Rather than waiting to talk to his team prior to its scheduled afternoon practice, he called the team together for a Monday morning meeting. When practice arrived, Scheyer opted against using the scout team to face the starters and instead split the 10 healthy scholarship players into two squads for a blue-white battle.
“For me,” Scheyer said, “Monday was one of those old school Duke days that we needed.”
Struggling Notre Dame, which entered Wednesday night’s game last in the ACC in scoring at 61.9 points per game, was the perfect foe for Duke (17-5, 8-3 ACC) to give an improved defensive performance.
The Irish (7-16, 2-10 ACC) missed 12 consecutive shots when the Blue Devils ran off 17 points in a row to take a 20-5 lead. Notre Dame didn’t score for a stretch of 8:22. The Irish shot just 33.9% overall, including 7 of 27 on 3-pointers.
“It was our defensive intensity,” said Duke freshman guard Caleb Foster. “We picked it up. We didn’t do that in the game against Carolina.”
Duke failed to build on its early 15-point lead, allowing Notre Dame to cut the deficit to 33-25 at halftime. But the Irish couldn’t make enough shots to draw any closer.
Foster tied for Duke’s team lead in scoring with 13 points in a reserve role while fellow freshman guard Jared McCain added 11 points. Sophomore forward Mark Mitchell in scored 13 points with 10 rebounds as the Blue Devils won the rebounding battle, 42-35.
The Blue Devils won despite hitting just 4 of 18 3-pointers. They hit 43.3% of their shots overall.
“I thought it was great to get a win without necessarily playing our best on offense,” Scheyer said.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Filipowski struggles
For the second time this season, Duke’s Kyle Filipowski turned in a sub-par performance against Notre Dame.
When Duke beat Notre Dame 67-59 on Jan. 6 at South Bend, Indiana, Filipowski scored seven points while making just 2 of 12 shots from the field.
On Wednesday night, the preseason ACC player of the year scored eight points while making 2 of 9 shots from the field. The 7-foot sophomore went scoreless in the first half when he played only 7:29 due to picking up two fouls.
He did finish with nine rebounds and three assists against Notre Dame.
“We need him to be better,” Scheyer said, “and he’s hard on himself and he wants to be better. He still had five offensive rebounds. He’s two points away and a rebound away from having a double double. But the standard that I have for him and he has for himself, he knows he can be better.”
Filipowski is averaging a team-best 17.7 points and 8.5 rebounds for the Blue Devils this season. While he’s topped the 20-point mark eight times this season, Wednesday marked the fourth time he’s failed to reach double-figures.
Filipowski appeared frustrated throughout the game. Late in the game, with Filipowski on the bench, Scheyer made a point to kneel in front of him for a face-to-face conversation.
“Sometimes my face can show a different expression that I’m not really trying to show,” Filipowski said. “I’m just trying to be like, `Don’t overreact. Don’t say (anything) stupid or show any signs. So that’s why I’m just trying to keep straight face like that.”
Duke’s defense
Again, Notre Dame doesn’t have a team that provides much offensive firepower. Still, the Blue Devils needed to flex their muscles on defense after UNC scored 1.22 points per possession against them. That’s the highest offensive efficiency any team has recorded against Duke this season.
The Irish managed just .855 points per possession against Duke. Prior to Wednesday night, the Irish had produced .927 points per possession in ACC play.
Early subs
After Saturday’s disappointing performance in the loss at UNC, Scheyer was quick to go to his bench when he didn’t like what he saw against Notre Dame.
After what appeared to be a miscommunication by Duke’s defense allowed Notre Dame’s Markus Burton to get free for a layup in a half-court set, Scheyer immediately sent Ryan Young in to replace Filipowski. Young got to the scorer’s table to check in at the 17:58 mark — after just two minutes and two seconds of play.
Because play didn’t stop for another three minutes, it took that long for Young to enter the game. By then, he was joined by freshman Caleb Foster and the Blue Devils were already in the middle of their 17-0 run.
Scheyer used five players off his bench before the game was 11 minutes old. He said the reserves earned that playing time with hard work in practice. But, also, a lesson from the UNC loss was how the regular rotation players appeared to coast at times to save energy.
“I thought we got into a thing Saturday where we paced and didn’t play every play,” Scheyer said. “And that’s the expectation. To win these games, you have to play every play.”
Scheyer sent a clear message up and down the roster and he felt it was received and acted upon against Notre Dame.
“We have good players,” Scheyer said. “I don’t care who you are on our team. If you’re out there not impacting the ball on defense and not being in a stance and going to the boards, then we’re gonna get somebody in who can. And I thought tonight was a great example of that and we got to keep doing that.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2024 at 11:10 PM.