It seems the referees were practicing last night, and a basketball game broke out.
Well, let's just say a basketball game at least tried to break out. Personal fouls--with one technical on the side--were the meal du jour during Duke's 81-55 win over Clemson, as the fans were treated to a somewhat sloppy ACC contest and a referee's whistle-fest--The refs blew them 49 times for personal fouls before the shrills were silenced.
For the Blue Devils, still the No. 1-ranked team in the country and still undefeated in conference play (9-0), there were some parts of the game to be proud of, but there were some negatives, too.
As Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell repeatedly said after the game, Duke should be praised for its play on "either side of the halves". Beginning with J.J. Redick's three-pointer and Shelden Williams' tip-in and subsequent three-point play after a teammate's missed free-throw with 18 seconds left in the first half, the Blue Devils did a great job distancing themselves from the Tigers after a less-than-ideal opening 18 minutes of play.
Duke ran out of the locker room and continued the surge, and around the 16-minute mark, the Blue Devils had completed a 14-0 run and given themselves a 14-point lead to work with.
According to my father, who watches Duke games from his perch on the basement couch, one of the things "great Duke teams do" is go on big runs out of the locker room that puts opponents away.
Free throws are big with my dad when making his victory checklist. The number of foul shots Duke makes should be more than the number of free throws the other team takes. In a game in which Clemson attempted 26 foul shots, the Blue Devils managed to nudge the Tigers, going 27-of-32 from the foul line, paced by Redick's uncharacteristically dismal 9-of-10 performance.
The night wasn't all roses, however.
Somehow, in a game with 49 personal fouls called--that's more than one per minute--the Blue Devils couldn't get Chris Hobbs, the player defending Williams all game, to commit his fourth foul despite Hobbs picking up his third personal with less than five minutes to go in the first half. (Hobbs eventually was charged with his fourth with less than four minutes left in the game when the outcome was already decided.)
For Duke to do well, especially on nights when the outside shots aren't going to fall, the Blue Devils have got to get Williams the ball. It opens up space on the perimeter, creates high percentage shots, gets Williams to the free throw line and gets the other team's big men in foul trouble, sending them to the bench and giving Duke a big advantage (no pun intended). It's a sound strategy and a sound bet that other teams will be trying to do the same thing to Williams and Duke all year, particularly in the NCAA tournament.
The referees called 19 personals on Clemson in the second half. How difficult would it have been for Duke to feed Williams the ball and draw a foul on Hobbs?
The checklist also looks to what happens after Duke makes that second-half opening surge. Does Duke lets the other team grind away at the lead, or do the Blue Devils maintain their intensity and end up winning via blowout. (It's assumed regardless that the opponent will make one big run at some point in the second half which will have be withstood.)
In the NCAA tournament, leads have to be treated like gold. They must be protected. Just ask the 1997-98 squad that blew a 17-point lead to Kentucky in the Elite Eight.
Tonight, Duke did a little of both: they exploded the lead to 16, let Clemson chip it to 10, and then brought it to 20 and coasted from there.
"Shawan was hitting huge shots for then, and we were having trouble stopping their post," said Duke forward Shavlik Randolph in explaining the Tiger's mini-comeback. "We played hard, I just think for a little stanza we may have taken it too lightly."
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