PHILADELPHIA -- Worry about your game plan, not the other team's. It's a simple and overused sports credo, but one which the Blue Devils attempted to use in their 59-58 loss to Temple in the Spectrum in Philadelphia Thursday night.
The second-guessing of head coach Mike Krzyzewski and his players started early in the game against Temple, since Duke did not get the ball any closer than the foul line until the 12:58 point in the first half. Instead the Blue Devils bombed away from the outside. While the execution was not ideal, Duke was able to get just enough production from senior Chris Collins to stay in the game.
Collins and the Duke offense were synonymous terms in the first half as Collins scored 11 of the team's 26 first-half points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-5 from behind the three-point arc. Several of Collins' shots would be considered long for many of the NBA's three-point experts.
"Honestly, I don't even know where I'm at on the court sometimes," Collins said. "I catch the ball in rhythm and I go up. People will be like, `Hey, you shot from really far,' but I really don't realize that. I just feel really comfortable with shooting the ball right now."
The rest of the team, however, must have been spending too much time watching the Chris Collins show, as they shot a paltry 5-of-21 from the field.
While many people will complain that the Blue Devils lost the game with their shooting antics, the truth is that only by shooting the three would Duke have ever had a chance to win.
Although Duke started the game slowly, hitting only 3-of-10 three-pointers in the first half, this 30 percent mark was nearly as good as the 6-of-17 (35 percent) that Duke was shooting from the two-point area. Also, it is necessary to remember that Collins was credited with a two-pointer when his toe touched the line on one shot, and Capel also drained two long jumpers from 17 and 19 feet. A more accurate calculation of that statistic would be Duke shooting about 6-of-14 from long-range (42 percent), and 3-of-13 (23 percent) from inside 15 feet.
This trend should surprise no one as it is what the Blue Devils have been doing all year. Prior to the Temple game, Duke had been shooting 40 percent from beyond the three-point arc, while managing just under 47 percent from inside the three-point line. I know we are all Duke-educated, but let's do the math together.
If Duke took 100 three-point shots and hit them at 40 percent it would have 120 points. If it took 100 points inside the arc at 47 percent, it would only have 94 points. While it is true that Duke's three-point shooting would suffer with the more shots it takes, as long as it can make 32 percent of its three-pointers, shooting three-pointers is more effective than taking shots inside the arc.
This becomes even clearer when you only take statistics from ACC games. Early in the season, Newton was able to dominate against some smaller centers, but lately he has been having trouble with the more talented centers in the ACC.
The result is that in conference play Duke is shooting 40.2 percent from three-point land and managing only 40.8 percent from inside the line. In the Temple game, Duke went as far as hitting 34.6 percent of its three-point shots, while making only 30 percent of its other shots. The Blue Devils actually shoot the ball better from outside so instead of fixing that, they need to exploit it.
The biggest problem with Duke right now is that the outside and inside are practically at war with one another. The guards never get the ball inside, and on the rare occasion that they do, the inside players feel that they have to do something with it or they won't ever see it again. The result is a black hole in the middle of Duke's offense. Rumor is that several small players have been lost in there.
Instead Duke needs to work on its inside-to-outside game. The Blue Devils should continue to launch the three, but by spreading out the defense with more passing, they will get better looks on their shots. Few defenses would be able to keep up with a team that could score occasionally inside and be able to shoot it outside from beyond NBA three-point range.
"They are a very, very difficult team to defend," Temple head coach John Chaney said. "We run down the floor and there's Collins up there shooting almost a 30 footer--and he's draining them."
Collins, Jeff Capel and nearly everyone of the Blue Devils have the outside skills to keep Duke in a game. Until the team realizes that having a strong outside game can improve its inside attack, the Blue Devils will be destined for more games like the loss against Temple.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.