We all know about recency bias. Saturday night around 8 P.M. the Duke’s men’s basketball team was an unstoppable juggernaut, all take your lunch money and diss your mama.
A couple of hours or so later the sky was falling, the walls were caving in and the team was so full of flaws it couldn’t possibly be fixed.
A deep, cleansing breath frequently is a good idea. Duke played not only without two starters but two really good starters, the team’s best defender in Mark Mitchell and senior guard Jeremy Roach, the team’s second leading scorer and undisputed leader on the court.
A healthy Mitchell and a healthy Roach and we’re not having this discussion, at least not this exact discussion.
Raise your hand if you think Blake Hinson hits seven 3-pointers if Mitchell is guarding him.
Didn’t think so.
And for the record, Jon Scheyer said today that both Mitchell and Roach would be game-time decisions Tuesday night at Louisville.
So, no problems, right. Get healthy and we’re cooking with gas, to use an ancient phrase much favored by my grandmother.
Perhaps. But the Pitt game did expose some chinks in Duke’s armor. There was the seven-foot, presumptive All-American who managed to play almost 36 minutes without grabbing a single offensive rebound. There was the presumptive sophomore lottery-pick point guard who had one assist in over 37 minutes and only scored one point in the second half.
Even with Mitchell out one would hope Duke would have done a better job defending the pick-and-roll.
Duke got into the double bonus with 7:51 remaining. But from 7:03 remaining until 3:35 Duke took and missed four 3-pointers before again going to the line. Hinson picked up his fourth foul with 7:03 left but never fouled out.
Did Duke throw Pitt a lifeline?
Jon Scheyer certainly seemed to think so.
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