TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - When Duke invaded the Seminoles home court on Saturday night, Florida State head coach Pat Kennedy figured that he possessed a considerable advantage over the No. 6 Blue Devils. Since 6-foot-11 senior center Greg Newton didn't even make the trip to Tallahassee, the Seminoles literally towered over Duke.
With 6-foot-10 Kirk Luchman and 6-foot-9 Corey Louis in the starting lineup and 6-foot-11 Randell Jackson coming off the bench, the Seminoles should have dominated the inside. After all, the tallest player to receive considerable minutes for the Blue Devils was 6-foot-8 junior Roshown McLeod.
Realizing the discrepancies, Kennedy opened the game in a triangle-and-two defense. The strategy was directed at stopping Duke's lethal combination of Jeff Capel and Trajan Langdon. Except that there were three other guys on the court wearing blue and white.
"The reason we went to the triangle and two was to try and get our big guys in the game early and see if we could take advantage of a big team playing a quick team," Kennedy said. "But [Roshown] McLeod knocked down two from deep range. We didn't get out on him, and then [Steve] Wojciechowski hit two. So the two guys we were playing in the triangle didn't hit them, but the other kids stepped up and knocked them down."
Kennedy's plan was sound in theory except height really doesn't matter 19 feet, 9 inches away from the basket. After Duke drained four threes in the first five minutes of the game, Florida State gave up on its master plan faster than Coca-Cola gave up on New Coke. Kennedy succumbed to the faster Duke lineup and inserted 6-foot-5 LaMarr Greer for Luchman. And the rout was on.
Luchman ended up logging a grand total of nine minutes in the game while the athletic Jackson saw even less court time with only four minutes. Even with quicker players on the court, the Seminoles could not solve the riddle of McLeod, who netted 14 points in 15 minutes of action in the first half.
"McLeod is not really a post guy," Kennedy said. "He made an awful lot of shots against us. It is like playing against five very talented guards out there."
Instead of forcing McLeod into the uncomfortable shoes of playing the pivot position, Duke has allowed the forward to pull the trigger wherever he is on the court. McLeod shot 50 percent from the field and was 2-for-4 beyond the arc.
"I'm not a center," McLeod said. "If I played like a center, I think it would be at a disadvantage to the team. That's not the type of player that I am. When teams try to play me, it opens up opportunities for my teammates. And that's what we want to do. Playing off one another makes us a better team."
If McLeod stuck the knife in Kennedy's plan, then Wojciechowski twisted it. After throwing up prior to the game, Duke's point guard proceeded to play 33 minutes where he collected seven assists and ten points and committed zero turnovers.
"[Wojciechowski] is a very good defensive player," Florida State point guard Kerry Thompson said. "He is a very good point guard. He runs the team. It is a challenge for me. I would like to play against him night in and night out because he makes me want to play."
With the win at Florida State, Duke has recorded six straight conference wins. The Blue Devils now lead the Atlantic Coast Conference by half a game following N.C State's upset of Wake Forest. During this winning streak, the Blue Devils have found themselves. Understanding that the team's greatest strength lies in its outside shooting, the Blue Devils are content to simply do what they do best regardless of the opposition's strengths or weaknesses. In the first half, Duke displayed is offensive prowess by hitting 10-of-15 from beyond the arc.
"We always think about putting up a lot of threes," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That's who we are. I'm not saying that's great. It just who we are.... One of the keys of being good is to be confident with what you have and not talk about what you don't have."
But in the second half, the Blue Devils used their defense to create open looks for mid-range jumpshots. Even when the Seminoles would start a run, it seemed that the game was never really in doubt. Duke would silence the 11,497 people in the Leon County Civic Center with either a three or a long two.
While Kennedy seemed at a loss for a replacement to his trashed triangle and two, Duke was simply content to run its picks and wait for open shots.
"I've coached against a lot of teams, but I don't think that I've ever coached against a team that has the shotmakers that this team does," Kennedy said. "They are a difficult team to match up against. If they continue to shoot the ball and stick it, they will be a difficult team to face."
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