When the No. 2 women's basketball team began the NCAA Tournament, the onus it was lugging was heavier than any the program had every carried. As such, Duke's offense has withered since the Blue Devils took on No. 16 seed Georgia State in the tournament's opening round. And though Duke's defense has picked up its energy since postseason play began, Duke's shooting troubles are somewhat of an anomaly.
"We have been pressing a little bit, we have been doing a really good job with our defense, but we have not been as confident offensively," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "We've had good looks, but we have not put them down the way we did over the course of the season. I think the players...have been feeling a little bit of pressure."
So much pressure, in fact, that Duke's offense--the highest scoring offense in the nation--has sputtered to averaging just 63.5 points in four NCAA Tournament games.
Luckily for Duke, it has held opponents at bay with suffocating defense. Regardless, the woes Duke's shooters are experiencing have Tennessee licking its chops.
The expectations for Duke, as All-American Alana Beard attests, have made players tight and disrupted the shooting rhythms of many of her teammates--herself admittedly included. Sheana Mosch, who stepped up her scoring toward the end of the season, thinks it's just a mental issue.
"But we're an awesome offensive team," Mosch said. "I think it is [a mental issue]."
Goestenkors' team believes the problems they are having on the offensive side of the ball have to translate somehow into good looks that are converted into many points. Thus far, it has not been the case.
"Really, we're getting open looks," junior sharpshooter Vicki Krapohl said. "We're just not knocking them down like we have been."
As a result, the Blue Devils agreed the only way to get confidence back was to be more assertive and aggressive going to the basket. Again, in the first four games of the tournament, Duke has been so passive offensively that it has attempted more three-pointers than it has foul shots, a rare statistical flaw for Duke.
What is scary is that Duke has been trying to reassert itself offensively since the narrow win over Georgia State. But Utah's aggressive man-to-man, and the busy zone defenses of Texas Tech and Georgia have continued to perplex Duke's offense.
"I think it's just about our offense now," Goestenkors said. "Early on against Georgia State, I thought it had been because of the two week lay-off, but we've had four games now, so there is no excuse there."
At the same time, however, both Beard and Goestenkors displayed a little frustration with the media's incessant queries regarding Duke's ability to score. In fact, each hinted that because the team is constantly answering questions regarding offensive struggles, confidence is inevitably lost.
"Every time [my team] reads the paper or sees the television, people are talking about where has Duke's offense gone? What is wrong with Duke?" Goestenkors said. "There is really nothing wrong with us."
Goestenkors even harkened back to N.C. State coaching legend, the late Jim Valvano.
"The bottom line is to survive and advance," Goestenkors said. "We have been able to do that so I am not caught up in scoring."
Beard concurred, but added that she's very optimistic going into Sunday's showdown with the Volunteers.
"When you hear people saying that you're offense sucks, it's going to affect you," she said. "I think that's what sort of happened and it caused our team to get tight and they start thinking about what shots they're taking, whereas in the beginning of the year everyone was just shooting and playing with a good rhythm. I'm just confident that it's going to happen."
But despite all the pressure that has accumulated on Duke's shoulders, the players are confident that since the Final Four has finally arrived, the pressure will subside and the shots will begin to fall--along with the burden of not having a national championship trophy in Duke's trophy case.
"Now that we're in the Final Four it's over with--there's no pressure at all," Beard said.
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