Weary Legs Doom Blue Devils

In the Blue Devils’ 71-67 defeat to Georgia Tech Saturday, Duke clearly could not find its legs. As the The Associated Press’s recap pointed out:

“Georgia Tech was a team on a mission. It showed.

Duke was just plain tired. That showed, too.”

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski agreed. "They were fresher than we were," said Krzyzewski. "They wore us down some. That can tell in the shooting, when your legs aren't completely there."

The Georgia Tech game was the third game of the week for the Blue Devils, all three  of which were played in different states. After beating Clemson last Sunday, Duke travelled to Chicago and defeated Iowa State in a neutral court matchup before heading down to Georgia for the game against the No. 20 Yellow Jackets.

Duke won the first two games by 21 points each and had control throughout the second half of each of them. In the victory over Clemson, junior Kyle Singler played 40 minutes and Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer each played 38. In Chicago, Singler logged 35 minutes while Smith and Scheyer both played 38 again.

The question seems to be why Duke's "Big 3" played so many minutes in the first two victories when it seemed that the final game of the week would be the toughest. While the Clemson and Iowa State games each presented their own challenges, the game against Georgia Tech was likely to be the most difficult—it was the only true away game and the only matchup against a ranked team.

With the first two contests of the week not even very close, perhaps playing the bench earlier in the week would have been beneficial.