Why can’t Duke basketball play good defense? And your other questions

After losing its first game of the season on Saturday, No. 4 Duke won’t play again until after exams, on Dec. 20.

In the Blue Devils’ 89-84 loss at Boston College, the Eagles went on a 9-2 run over the last three minutes of the game. With a few exceptions, Duke’s bench had a hard time stepping in for the starters, a sign that its team isn’t deep. And the team’s depth is something you want to know more about.

About twice a month, I’ll answer your questions about Duke basketball.

Here’s what you want to know:

@jpogrady22 I’m not surprised Jordan Tucker isn’t playing, but it’s strange a top 50 recruit isn’t even getting garbage minutes.. what gives? #AskJMA

The reason Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski hasn’t gone deep into his bench in its early games is because he’s trying to develop his starters. Those are the players who are going to play the most minutes, he said.

“That’s like whatever portfolio you have or whatever business, the people who are going to play the most need to have a chemistry and do that,” Krzyzewski said after Duke’s win over South Dakota. “I’ve been spending most of my time developing those starting five and for these kids, like Alex (O’Connell) has given us good minutes, Javin (DeLaurier) is a good player and really made some good hustle plays today, and then Marques (Bolden) gave us a little bit different presence.”

He added that he is trying to develop those players and possibly add one more to the rotation.

Also, in regards to Tucker, just because a player was rated in the top 50 coming out of high school doesn’t always mean his game will automatically translate to college his first year. I think that is the case here. DeLaurier was a top 50 prospect coming out of high school and didn’t play much his freshman year. Now he’s the first player off the bench.

Right now Tucker isn’t better than O’Connell, Bolden, DeLaurier and Jordan Goldwire, which means he wouldn’t be ahead of them in the main rotation.

@bayoubluedevil: Why can’t Duke be a good defensive team, and being young isn’t a good answer like everyone throws out there, Kentucky has been young and has been good on defense a many times lol

Duke can be a good defensive team. But right now, it isn’t, particularly when it’s playing man-to-man. Krzyzewski contributes that to not having practiced much.

And teaching man-to-man defense takes time. It’s a lot harder to teach than zone.

That’s why you see teams in youth leagues always playing zone defense.

I’ll use my personal experience as an example:

I coach kids in a youth league who are 10, 11 and 12 years old. One practice, we were playing 3-on-3 and I was on a team. I had one of my teammates set a pick for me. I went around the pick, taking two defenders with me. My teammate rolled to the basket, while my other teammate was at the 3-point line in the far right corner, being guarded by another player. Instead of the defender leaving his man in the corner (most kids that age can’t shoot 3s) and rotating to cover the wide open man cutting to the basket, he stayed on his man. I passed it to my teammate under the basket who had a wide open layup. I asked the defender why he didn’t rotate to cover the open player at the basket. He told me that he didn’t want to leave his man open in the corner.

It was then that I realized teaching man-to-man defense is much more difficult than showing someone how to slide their feet and stay in front of their man. You also have to play help defense, communicate, learn how to hedge a screen and know what your rotations are. Even most high school teams primarily play zone defense.

I’ve seen Duke players have problems communicating with each other, on whether someone will switch when a team sets a screen, or whether they’ll go over or under the screen.

It’ll likely take longer for freshmen to learn man-to-man defense than it would if they had veteran players.

Needless to say, my team doesn’t have as much time on the court as Duke, so we’re probably going to play zone this year.

@thejaysonmoyer how much does bench depth/production worry you with Duke going forward? Still time to develop it more...

It doesn’t worry me.

But it should worry Duke. There are going to be times, such as last Saturday against Boston College, when the starters just don’t really have it going. The bench will have to step up when that happens.

Outside of DeLaurier, who had 8 points and 5 rebounds Saturday, the bench didn’t do that. Bolden played eight minutes, but had only two points and one rebound. O’Connell played only two minutes. And Goldwire got in briefly. After the game, Krzyzewski said, among other things, that his team “wasn’t as deep.”

This has been an issue all season, though. The bench has played well defensively, but hasn’t contributed much in scoring. The starting five accounts for 82 percent of Duke’s scoring. No player off the bench averages more than 5.3 points per game.

@DavenportCamm Do you see (Goldwire) sliding back into the rotation in upcoming games or will he be at very limited minutes?

Based on previous games, it seems Goldwire, a freshman guard, won’t play much unless Duke has a good lead, and freshman guard Trevon Duval needs a rest or is in foul trouble.

Recently, Duke has used senior guard Grayson Allen as a point guard when Duval has had to sit. Allen has done a good job as a playmaker.

Against Michigan State on Nov. 14, Goldwire played well in 11 minutes, coming up with 4 points, 2 rebounds and a steal in Duke’s win.

But since then, he hasn’t really played well against the top teams. He is currently the ninth player off the bench, and Krzyzewski has been mostly playing only eight in the tight games.

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Why can’t Duke basketball play good defense? And your other questions."