With a regular season ACC title trophy almost in the cabinet, an unfamiliar foe had a chance to crash the senior night party last night in Cameron Indoor Stadium. While Tulsa (19-9) gave Duke all it could handle in the first half, a composed Blue Devil squad rode out a Golden Hurricane to improve to 16-0 at home on the season.
If the Blue Devils aspire to cut down the twine in early April, however, a nonconference matchup with Tulsa proved Duke still has a long way to go.
The Blue Devils came into Thursday nursing a six-game winning streak, and after Nolan Smith sprung from the 3-point line to pick off a lazy Joe Richard pass and threw down a thunderous one-handed dunk with a Tulsa defender in his wake, it seemed No. 5 Duke (24-4) was on the fast track to a late season confidence boost.
But the Golden Hurricane had other plans.
“I thought we thought we were going to be able to knock them out,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “But they’re not a team that’s going to get knocked out.”
Following a Ben Uzoh miss from outside four minutes into the game with the score 4-2, sophomore reserve Steven Idlet out-hustled Miles Plumlee and Ryan Kelly inside for an offensive rebound and deposited a putback of his own that elicited an energized scream from the 6-foot-10 forward, in unison with an irate Krzyzewski.
Just minutes later, 7-foot NBA prospect Jerome Jordan backed down an overmatched Mason Plumlee, drew the double team, and still finished with a 10-foot turnaround hook shot over the Duke big men to draw the Golden Hurricane within five.
The front court trio of Jordan, Idlet and Richard helped lead Tulsa to 20 points in the paint in the first half, providing a consistent scoring option on a night when leading scorer Uzoh—who averages 16.1 points per game—shot 20 percent from the field.
“In the first half, they were just relentlessly getting into the paint, and we were just fouling,” senior Lance Thomas said.
Duke maintained a slim lead in the first period thanks to an effective two-man game between point guard Jon Scheyer and resurgent center Brian Zoubek. The big man, who was integral in screening and facilitating the pick-and-roll, repeatedly earned his team open shots and was effective around the rim when his number was called.
The possession after a Zoubek double-screen enabled a Scheyer triple, the 7-foot center corralled a missed shot and instinctively kicked the ball out to Scheyer. The Tulsa defense recovered and collapsed on the Duke guard, but Scheyer flipped it to an unmarked Zoubek, who comfortably layed the ball in, sending the Crazies into a frenzy and giving the Blue Devils a 10-point lead at the time. Still, the Golden Hurricane stuck around until the intermission.
Following a halftime speech in which Krzyzewski urged his team to be better or face snapping a winning streak against nonconference opponents in Cameron that stretches back to 2000, the Blue Devils made an obvious effort to ratchet up the defensive intensity. An opening Richard-to-Jordan alley-oop aside, Tulsa was not afforded easy baskets in the second half.
“We calmed down, relaxed and played our defense that we have been doing,” Smith said.
A weak-side rejection from Kyle Singler in transition—one of four Blue Devil blocks in the half—exemplified Duke’s effort. After a battle in the post in the first 20 minutes, Duke outrebounded Tulsa 20-13 in the second half, added 11 points off of turnovers and matched the Golden Hurricane in the paint.
“It was good for us to play an out-of conference-team,” Thomas said. “It’s something we’re going to see later this year.”
Still, the Duke faithful will be concerned with the defensive performances against marquee post players. ACC rivals Gani Lawal and Al-Farouq Aminu have both put up more than 20 points against the Blue Devils, and if Jordan didn’t pick up two early fouls, it’s likely the Tulsa big man would have eclipsed that mark as well. Whether or not Duke can advance deep in the NCAA Tournament will likely hinge on post defense, but Krzyzewski accepts players living up to their hype.
“They’re good,” Krzyzewski said. “You’re not going to pitch shutouts against good teams. There’s 40 minutes, and you hope you win more of them than they do.”
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