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Game commentary
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Blue Devils turn aggressive defense into more offense**
It was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Cameron Indoor marathon that took place Sunday afternoon was anything but a pristine basketball game. The game was organized chaos at best. It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't smooth, but at 83-73, it was another Duke victory.
"To say the least it was a hard-earned victory," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I thought overall our kids played hard and well. We made what looked like huge mistakes at times, but overall our kids played their hearts out and hit big-time free throws. I was proud of them. It was an excellent win for our kids."
It was a win that almost wasn't. With just under 10 minutes remaining, the Blue Devils seemed poised to cruise to its third consecutive conference win. But there were still questions about which Duke team would show up for the final minutes of the game. Would the team go into a delay, sleepwalk home and win by 15? Would Duke continue to attack and build on its 20-point lead? Would the Blue Devils call a timeout and insert all of its walk-ons? What was Duke to do?
As it turned out, the all too-familiar evaporating lead trick occurred, and only a key three-pointer by Steve Wojciechowski, and timely foul shooting kept Duke from the Atlantic Coast Conference cellar. From the fans' perspective, the game seemed headed towards a Duke debacle. For the players, it was never in question.
"We're not looking at the past at all," Wojciechowski said. "Every game we can get better and we have done that so far. Tonight we had a big lead and they came back, but we held the lead and we didn't lose it. The whole game I thought we were going to win. They never got closer than two possessions, and that's a great comment on our part. We have to pull for each other, and we got to help each other out. I think we did that tonight."
There is no question that Duke has been under scrutiny the last several games because of its inability finish off the win. It's a fact of life when you lose close games. The Blue Devils faltered in the final minutes against Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, and they almost did again Sunday.
Even more impressive, though, has been the play of the Blue Devils in these games. They have been there at the end of every game, regardless of the outcome, and all of it has started on the defensive end of the court.
Sunday was no different.
The first half was a clinic on aggressive, in-your-face defense. Duke held Maryland's potent offensive attack to 28 points, allowing only Johnny Rhodes to hit double figures with 10. The Blue Devils outrebounded the Terps by a 26 to 17 margin, often times getting second- and third-chance opportunities. It seemed like the players spent more time on the floor diving for loose balls than they did standing. The Duke effort was there.
"When we're running, playing D like that and getting on the breaks, we can be really dangerous," senior guard Chris Collins said. "We just need to realize that our offense comes from our defense. We can't expect to just outscore teams. We've got to get on the defensive end and get some stops and get out running. When we do that, we're very dangerous."
"We played great team defense," junior center Greg Newton said. "Everybody helped out, it was just a great team effort."
The second half was more of the same, as only the offensive lull in the final 10 minutes allowed a blowout to become a game. Even when the game appeared to be in question, the Blue Devils pushed just enough of the right buttons to hold on. Their play was hectic and erratic, but it wasn't the play of a team that was worried about losing.
"This team is a limited team," Krzyzewski said. "We can focus on all its weaknesses, but they've won, and they've been in every game. What they need to believe is that they're maybe not as fragile as people, and sometimes they, think of themselves... In building up their confidence from last year, the fact is they've won 12 games in a really tough schedule and we've been in all of our ballgames. We've competed. We needed to learn how to win, and we did today."
Sunday also featured the breakthrough for freshman Taymon Domzalski and Wojciechowski. Both played gritty defense, and both seemed to make huge plays at critical points. In an early second-half surge, Domzalski blocked two consecutive shots that sent the somewhat complacent crowd into a frenzy. The Blue Devils responded with an 8-2 run. Wojciechowski did it on both ends, first snaring the ball from Maryland's Terrell Stokes at mid-court and going in for a three-point play, and then nailing a huge three-pointer with 2:51 left. Their play, combined with junior Carmen Wallace's improving defensive and rebounding skills, can only mean good things for the Blue Devils' future.
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