GREENSBORO - Having watched the Colonials employ strong pressure defense to erase a 17-point deficit Thursday night against UNC-Wilmington, the Blue Devils knew what to expect from George Washington Saturday. They were ready for GW's full-court attack, and that is exactly what they got for a good portion of the game.
The Colonials threw all sorts of different defenses at Duke, changing from man-to-man to a 1-3-1 three-quarter-court press to a 2-2-1 full-court attack, but none were capable of holding down the Blue Devils.
Time after time, Duke was able to beat GW's defense and have a numbers advantage in the half-court, allowing the Blue Devils to get easy layups. Duke was so successful against the Colonial pressure that GW eventually went away from its strength, realizing that it was not slowing down the Blue Devils.
What was most impressive about how Duke controlled the ball, however, is that most of the time a freshman was in possession of it. Point guard Greg Paulus and 6-foot-10 Josh McRoberts passed and dribbled their way up the court throughout the game, allowing Duke to stay in control.
"The biggest thing for us was.our handling of the pressure," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "[Josh] makes so many good decisions on inbounding the ball and he can handlie it like a guard. He gives us a great weapon against pressure."
As any coach will say, the key to breaking a press is not being able to dribble through it but to be able to pass around, under and over it and getting easy buckets once the defense has broken down. Instead of having their guards try to dribble through pressure, the Blue Devils used their big men as release valves when the ball handlers got into trouble. That was exactly what McRoberts accomplished during Saturday's game.
"It's a position I'm really comfortable in," McRoberts said of handling the ball. "I feel really confident when I have the ball out top and can make plays and set up my teammates."
McRoberts passed the ball in to one of the guards and would stay behind the ball, waiting as an outlet. When his teammates got into trouble, they found McRoberts, who beat Colonial big men off the dribble against the man-to-man. Against a zone press, the freshman used his height to see over GW's players to find his open teammates.
On one play early in the first half, McRoberts broke the press with his dribble and zipped a pass to an open Shelden Williams under the basket, who was promptly fouled. The play served as a warning to the Colonials that the big man knew how to handle the ball.
Not to be outdone, Paulus demonstrated his maturity, having one of his better games of the season. After struggling Thursday night, he immediately put his offensive mark on this game. During the game's second possession, he notched a steal and found J.J. Redick open on the wing for a three-pointer. He continued attacking, scoring four of Duke's next six points by taking the ball to the basket with authority.
"I think that was a big key for us-how Greg attacked their pressure right away and got a couple buckets," Redick said. "We knew they were going to pressure us and we knew they were going to press us. Basically we had two freshmen breaking their pressure, so it was huge they didn't have turnovers that led to easy baskets."
Thursday night against Southern, the struggles of Duke's two starting freshmen were evident. Paulus turned the ball over seven times and McRoberts was very quiet against a much smaller foe. For the Blue Devils to advance deep in the NCAA Tournament, they will need several more performances from their role players like the ones they received Saturday. Points here and there will help, but if Duke faces another press or a new type of defense, the freshmen, DeMarcus Nelson and Lee Melchionni will need to adjust.
"For us to be really good in this Tournament, we're going to need other guys to score in double figures," Redick said. "We don't need guys to score 30 or so. If that happens, it'd be nice, but 10 to 12 or 14 for Josh is just great."
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