Promising season concludes on sour note

Duke’s season came to a bitter end Monday night in the Blue Devils’ upset loss to Baylor in Memphis.
Duke’s season came to a bitter end Monday night in the Blue Devils’ upset loss to Baylor in Memphis.

When then-unranked Texas A&M routed then-No. 6 Duke 95-77 in the Blue Devils’ second game of the season, questions arose about the team’s ability to put together a dominant 2009-2010 campaign.

“It was such a miserable loss,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie told The Chronicle. “It was absolutely pathetic.”

Did Duke have the pieces to make a run in the NCAA Tournament? Or would the Blue Devils fail to make it past the first weekend like last year’s top-seeded squad?

Thirty wins, a regular season crown, an ACC tournament championship and a trip to the Elite 8 later, McCallie’s players proved that they possessed the talent and motivation necessary to be counted among the nation’s best teams.

Although the Blue Devils came up just short of reaching the Final Four in a three-point loss to Baylor Monday—they led up until the final minute­—McCallie views this season in a positive light and as a building block for future years.

“[This season] is one that we’ll look back on as a catalyst for future success,” she said. “It feels like things are starting to fall into place, but we’re still seething after that [Baylor] loss.”

After falling to the Aggies Nov. 15, Duke won 11 of its remaining 13 nonconference games, highlighted by an 83-67 win over then-No. 3 Ohio State. The two losses came against No. 2 Stanford and No. 1 Connecticut­—both of which have reached the Final Four.

By the time the ACC slate began on Jan. 7, the Blue Devils were ready to cement their identity as a team predicated on defensive toughness and physicality.

The stat sheet re-enforced their conviction. Duke led the conference in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, rebounding margin, blocked shots and steals en route to the school’s first ACC regular season title since the 2006-2007 campaign.

McCallie emphasized how each of her Blue Devils became devoted to playing stifling team defense, and that collective commitment was sparked in part by a challenge she issued at the beginning of the season.

The coach called her players weak, and they responded by hitting the weight room with a passion, ultimately increasing their maximum bench-press weight by at least 20 percent each, according to McCallie.

“The weight room was critical to our endurance, strength and ability to play physical without fouling,” she said. “Throughout the season we were described as an edgy, gritty and physically demanding team. It takes that kind of team to win a national championship.”

And even though Duke won’t be cutting down the nets in San Antonio, this set of Blue Devils set the bar high for future teams in terms of their overall athleticism. McCallie called this year’s squad the strongest she’s seen in her 18 years of coaching—and Duke proved to be one of the strongest teams in the country as well.

Rebounding is one of the easiest ways to measure physical strength and toughness. Even though no player averaged more than 6.7 rebounds per game this season, Duke rarely lost the battle on the glass. The Blue Devils out-rebounded their opponents by an average of nine boards per game, the eighth-best mark among all Division I teams. Duke also developed a penchant for scoring points off turnovers, and it ranked second in the nation in steals with 13.3 swipes per contest.

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, juniors Jasmine Thomas and Krystal Thomas—the team leaders in steals and rebounds, respectively—will be back to lead the defense.

On the offensive end next year, Duke will miss the contributions of second-leading scorer Joy Cheek, fourth-leading scorer Bridgette Mitchell and Keturah Jackson.

Despite the departure of the seniors, the Blue Devils will return their best offensive weapon: third-team All-American Jasmine Thomas. The junior guard averaged a team-high 16 points per game, scored 20 or more points 11 times and posted only the third triple-double in school history Nov. 27 against Marquette. Starting center Krystal Thomas and explosive guard Karima Christmas also have one more year on the hardwood of Cameron Indoor.

Even with all the returning talent and experience, McCallie knows that team chemistry does not necessarily transfer from year to year. If Duke wants to replicate and possibly exceed the success it had this season, the players will need to come together and understand their roles all over again.

But now that they have been as close as 45 seconds away from the Final Four, the 2010-2011 Blue Devils should be as hungry as ever for some tournament hardware.         

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