Tobacco Road Report

By Michael

Despite not playing well, Duke found a way to win against a scrappy IU squad. This game was a real stinker, and part of me wants to skip the write-up in protest, but I’m going to try and forget that I’ll never get these two hours of my life back and push on.

The problems with Indiana (3-2) offensively this year have started with the backcourt, where the guards have tended to play too fast and out of control. This game was no different as the Hoosiers came out like chickens with their heads cut off. No. 10 Duke (6-1) played with high energy pressure defense, causing IU to continually pick up their dribble in the half court set. Offensively, Duke went to DeMarcus Nelson (19 points, 6 rebounds, 3-6 3-FG) early on and he scored 13 of the team’s first 15 points, opening up a 17-7 lead with 8:07 left.

When IU wasn’t picking the ball up in the half court set, they were continually over penetrating. The guards were quick enough to get by Duke’s perimeter defense—something Duke has had trouble with all season—but couldn’t finish, leading to turnovers and the following exchange between TRR and the Official Wife of TRR:

Me: “See, they’re penetrating but not finishing. They’re taking it in too deep in the lane…into the trees and making their shots harder.”

Wife: “So why don’t they just stop sooner?”

After thinking about several answers, including the difficulties of trying to teach 18 year old adrenaline-pumped boys anything, all I could think of was, “I don’t know.” Not exactly stellar insight on my part. Her subsequent glance to me told me she was thinking the same thing.

Duke wasn’t much better offensively once Nelson’s early offense stopped. That Nelson steps up early and then disappears for the next 30 minutes is now something the Devils should be worried about. He has to be involved throughout the whole game. The Blue Devils used their opportunities at the free throw line to open a 33-21 halftime lead. Just how ugly was it? Indiana shot 32 percent from the field with 12 turnovers and Duke shot 39 percent with 9 turnovers.

In the second half, Kelvin Sampson gave Joey Shaw (9 points), Eric Suhr (5 points, 2 steals), and Bassett (16 points, 5 rebounds, 4-5 3-FG) major minutes. TRR thinks that if Kelvin Sampson has a dog house, there are so many Hoosiers in it that the sign would read “No Vacancy”. Wilmont and Calloway have signed long-term leases.

But somehow the message got through and the young Hoosiers delivered good guard play after halftime. The guards were even pulling up shorter on the drives, dropping some nice short jump shots (I would have gladly pointed out to my wife that Sampson must read the Tobacco Road Report, but she had fallen asleep on the couch by this point…I suddenly felt jealous).

Indiana pulled to a tie at 40-40 with 12:03, but a turnover by Bassett led to a DeMarcus Nelson three pointer from the deep corner, putting Duke up 45-40 with 10:14 left, leading TRR to write in his notebook, “whoever executes down the stretch is going to win this one”.

That turned out to be Duke. On a critical possession, McRoberts (7 points, 7 rebounds) passed up a marginal look at a three pointer (despite Dickie V screaming, “shoot it…shoot it”) and Paulus ended up finding Scheyer (10 points) in the corner for his only three pointer of the night, stretching the lead to 53-46 with 4:55 left. Duke would do a nice job of guarding the three point line as the game wound on, and converted just enough free throw opportunities to eke out a 55-51 win.

The Blue Devils survived this game and earned the W, but Coach K isn’t happy. You can see it in his face. He’s not angry, he’s not there yet with this team, but definitely looks perplexed. The defense is still a weakness, but it’s clearly coming along. Coach K went major minutes with Paulus (2 assists, 3 TOs, and 5 fouls in 28 minutes) on the pine tonight since there were times when Paulus looked like he wanted to be wearing crimson instead of blue. McRoberts (8 FGA in 38 minutes) deserves his touches, but needs to finish his moves in the post. Finally, Nelson has to put up a consistent game offensively.