This time a week ago the Duke men’s basketball team was reeling after a bitter home loss to a Pittsburgh team they had mauled on the road earlier in the season.
Duke had two games this past week and won them both. You can’t do better than winning two of two games.
So, I’m going to start with the good stuff. I’m not sure what to make of Duke’s 83-69 win over Louisville Tuesday night. Duke was dominant for most of the first half, opening up a 38-20 lead. Then Jeremy Roach sprained an ankle and Louisville clawed back to within three points.
But a young team on the road minus their leader regained their mojo and pulled away for a 14-point win. And Louisville was showing signs of life after a doleful start to their season. Never sneer at an ACC road win.
But then I watched the Louisville-Virginia game yesterday or at least as much as I could stand. It was like watching someone club a baby seal. The halftime score was 41-13. At Louisville.
Still, an ACC road win. Let’s go with that.
Which brings us to Saturday’s home game against Clemson. The Tigers may not be the team we thought they were when they jumped as high as 16th in the AP poll. But they're bigger, deeper and more experienced than Duke, were desperate for a win to burnish their NCAA resume and were coming off a convincing win at Florida State.
So, it was a good win for Duke. Keep in mind no one has defeated Duke by much. In an alternate universe Duke gets one more stop against Arizona and Pitt, one less technical foul against Georgia Tech, Caleb Foster makes that late 3 against Arkansas. A handful of plays and we’re talking top of the polls, undefeated perhaps.
But Duke didn’t make those plays. They did last night, at least enough of them. Remember Clemson had the ball with a four-point lead with less than two minutes left. But Jared McCain and Mark Mitchell got huge steals, Kyle Filipowski got a huge three-point play and Tyrese Proctor made a huge play and knocked down two huge foul shots.
Huge. The kind of plays that spell the difference between winning and losing. Last night’s game had 12 lead changes and 11 ties, mostly in the second half. Neither team lead by more than two possessions for the final 14 minutes. Duke hit 43 percent (9-21) from beyond the arc, held Clemson to 38 percent shooting.
Clemson didn’t lose that game. Duke won it.
And maybe grew up a little.
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