Capsule: Rebounding could determine Duke-Yale
No. 4 Duke vs. No. 12 Yale
NCAA tournament West Region
When: 2:40 p.m.
Where: Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Providence, R.I.
TV/Radio: CBS, WDNC-620 AM, WDNC-96.5 FM
Projected starting lineups
Duke (24-10)
G Matt Jones, 10.8 ppg, 2.3 apg
G Luke Kennard, 11.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg
G Grayson Allen, 21.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg
G Brandon Ingram, 16.9 ppg, 6.9 rpg
C Marshall Plumlee, 8.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg
Yale (23-6)
G Makai Mason, 16.3 ppg, 3.7 apg
G Anthony Dallier, 4.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg
G Nick Victor, 6.8 ppg, 7.2 rpg
F Brandon Sherrod , 12.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg
F Justin Sears, 15.9 ppg, 7.4 rpg
Three things to watch
1. Yale point guard Makai Mason
The sophomore scored 31 points in the opening-round upset over Baylor, shooting 50 percent from the field and going a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-thow line. As a freshman in high school, Mason attended Duke’s camp and did catch coach Mike Krzyzewski’s eye.
“Coach K came to one of my AAU tournaments and I didn’t play that well. It’s easy for him to move on, which I definitely understand,” Mason said.
Duke ended up with Tyus Jones that recruiting cycle.
2. Rebounding
The Bulldogs held their own on the boards against Baylor, one of the best rebounding teams in the country. Suffice to say, Yale’s confidence is high heading into the matchup with Duke.
“We out-rebounded Baylor, one of the strongest rebounding teams in the country,” Yale forward Justin Sears said. “So if we’re going against a weaker frontline like this, I think we can take advantage of that.”
Said Matt Jones for Duke: “Ultimately, it comes down to how bad we want to win. If we want to win bad enough like we say we do, then we’ll go down and we’ll rebound.”
3. Zone or man?
When Duke beat Yale 80-61 in Cameron on Nov. 25, the Blue Devils had to go to a 1-3-1 zone to stop the Bulldogs. Yale had no problem with Baylor’s 1-3-1 matchup zone, to the point where the Bears had to switch to a man-to-man defense.
Duke has used both man and zone defenses this year and has gone to the zone after a short turnaround between games. Undoubtedly Krzyzewski has both ready to go this time around.
Laura Keeley
This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Capsule: Rebounding could determine Duke-Yale."