Duke basketball followed loss at Clemson with win over Cal. Why that’s still not enough
A loss becomes even worse when it turns into two or three in a row.
No. 3 Duke was never in danger of that happening Wednesday night — the Blue Devils never trailed while beating ACC newcomer California, 78-57, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
As far as bounce-back performances go, the Blue Devils accomplished what they needed following Saturday’s 77-71 setback at Clemson that halted their 16-game winning streak.
It had been 74 days since Duke (21-3, 13-1 ACC) had lost, so the Blue Devils got to work fixing what they lacked in coughing up a halftime lead to the Tigers (20-5, 11-2 ACC), who are now ranked No. 23 nationally.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer liked what he saw against Cal — to a point.
“I thought our guys competed really hard, did some good things,” Scheyer said.
Duke’s defense, so good all season, wasn’t as strong at Clemson as the Tigers shot 58.8% (better than any team against the Blue Devils this season), scored 40 points in the paint and grabbed 13 more rebounds than Duke. Film review of that game sent a message to the Blue Devils.
“We weren’t tough enough, and that was the biggest thing,” Duke graduate student forward Sion James said. “We learned. We got to be tougher. It’s a tough league, and to win to the standard that we want to we have to be tougher.”
Cal (12-13, 5-9 ACC) fared far worse offensively against Duke, shooting 35.1%. The Golden Bears hit just 8 of 28 first-half shots (28.6%) as Duke took a 38-23 lead to intermission. That was what Scheyer wanted to see. He didn’t much like the second half when Cal hit 41% of its shots. So there’s more work to be done.
“I thought it was a step,” Scheyer said. “I’m still not pleased. I still feel we can be better. Bottom line. I’ll know more after watching the film. But I thought they missed some open looks. I thought they were in our paint way too easily. I thought that effort and the readiness was there, but the attention to detail wasn’t.”
Cooper Flagg scored 27 points to lead Duke with an efficient offensive performance as he made 8 of 14 shots. As for his team’s defense, he admitted the Blue Devils “didn’t have that same pop” defensively against Clemson and that can’t be.
“I thought the biggest thing for us after that game was just looking at the battle down low,” the 6-9 Flagg said. ”I thought we kind of got killed in the paint. They had way too many offensive rebounds. Free throw block outs they got. So just kind of learning from those things, and just knowing that we got to win the rebounding war and the battle down low.”
Duke rebounded far better against Cal, grabbing 43 to 31 for the Bears. Khaman Maluach, Duke’s 7-2 freshman center, had a productive night with 10 points and 12 rebounds. That included seven offensive rebounds.
That’s what Scheyer wants to see on the interior.
“I think our front line wasn’t very good overall on Saturday,” Scheyer said, “and they’ve really been the backbone of our defense. They’ve been the ones that have carried us in a lot of respects. Without even necessarily scoring, they just impacted winning. I thought, Khaman and Coop, coming out right away (tonight). I tried to challenge them to rebound, just to be more assertive and more aggressive.”
Duke has played its way into a strong position to win the ACC regular season and take the No. 1 seed into next month’s ACC Tournament in Charlotte. The loss at Clemson didn’t stop that as the Tigers and Louisville (19-6, 12-2) each have one more league loss than the Blue Devils.
Of its six remaining ACC games, fifth-place Wake Forest (18-7, 10-4 ACC) is currently highest in the league standings and Duke gets that game on home on March 3.
But this team is aiming far higher than simply winning the ACC. The Clemson game was a stark reminder of what lies ahead.
“Those are the games that your gonna face in March,” Proctor said. “You know, real physical. They were an older group.”
Handling Cal as they did was a nice recovery from that Clemson game. But the Blue Devils know they need to find an even higher level of play to have the kind of success they seek.