Heading into the NCAA Tournament this weekend, the men's basketball team knows one thing it has to do.
"We have to get our offense going, especially going into the tournament," Elton Brand said. "It's going to be tough. Our defense is pretty strong, but we have to get our offense going. It's a lot tougher when the shots aren't falling. When the shots are falling, it's easier to play defense because you want to play defense, because you want to get the ball back and hit another shot. But when you're missing, you have to play defense. You can't let them score if you're not scoring, so it's a lot tougher."
Duke has the highest margin of victory in collegiate basketball-it defeats its opponents by an average of 24.6 points-and the fourth-highest scoring offense, at 87.7 points per game, but the Blue Devil offense has slipped out of its usual prolific form of late.
At the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament last weekend, the Blue Devils' shots didn't fall. They shot a collective 36 percent from the field in their three games in the tournament and a meager 33 percent in their loss to North Carolina Sunday. But it wasn't Duke's lackluster jump shots that cost it the ACC Tournament title. What it failed to do to make up for its poor shooting was to take the ball inside.
All too often the Blue Devils missed three-point shots as Brand, Shane Battier and Roshown McLeod went empty-handed in the post. Last Sunday, Duke was 22-for 67 from the floor, and 32 of its shots came from beyond the arc.
"There were a few times, at least a handful of times, when if we're not shooting well, we should get it in, get fouled, drive or whatever," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Situationally, maybe to make a few passes and then get that shot, that would be an improvement. But again, if all of a sudden you're out there, and you may have a younger group in there, there may be a little more of a pressure that, 'I have to take this shot right now, or it's not flowing,' and that's game experience and playing together."
What's more, by not driving through the lanes, the Blue Devils miss out on even more opportunities to score-from the free-throw line. With the country's eighth-best free-throw shooter in Trajan Langdon, Duke can't afford not to capitalize on this resource by penetrating and getting fouled.
Another resource the Blue Devils will need to take full advantage of in the NCAA Tournament is Brand. The ACC Tournament marked his first appearance in the starting lineup since he broke his foot in December.
While Brand himself has made his presence known in the low post, the effects his addition has had on Duke's lineup, substitution pattern and chemistry may require some getting used to. Chris Carrawell was relegated to the bench, leaving three 6-foot-8 post players on the floor, and at times, Duke looked unsure what to do with this combination.
"We may be clogging the post a little bit too much having three bigger guys in there," Krzyzewski said. "We have to take a look at that. We need to just get to practice more and work at it.... Battier, McLeod and Brand, we haven't adjusted as well offensively to that lineup in there.
"Everybody knows where the life vest is in airplanes, when the stewardess comes on, and.... You hit an air pocket, and you don't know it's there. You haven't been in that. That's what I'm talking about. We hit an air pocket, and, 'whoa,' we do have Elton. It's not instinctive that you go to those things."
Granted, the Blue Devils won't have to deal with all of the problems it faced last weekend in Greensboro. Steve Wojciechowski won't be sick, for one, and Duke will have had another week of practice to get itself reacquainted with Brand's presence on the court. The Blue Devils intend to go far this year, but if they want to bring home an NCAA championship, they will have to drop their old habit of relying on the outside shot and use the resources they wasted last weekend.
"If we live and die by the three-point shot, we'll be going back to Durham pretty soon," Carrawell said.
Yvonne Krywyj is a Trinity junior and associate sports editor of The Chronicle.
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