TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Duke’s loss to a big Florida State squad highlighted a weakness that other ACC teams could try to exploit in the coming weeks. While Duke may have an arsenal of esteemed guards that can usually be counted on to shoot well from the perimeter, when those guards are cold, Duke is unable to depend on points coming from the post.
On last year’s national championship team, its late season surge was bolstered by senior Brian Zoubek’s dominant play down low. If Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith or Kyle Singler were struggling from the field, the Blue Devils could push the ball down low to Zoubek.
But last night against the Seminoles, Duke did not have the seven-foot Zoubek. Both Mason Plumlee and Miles Plumlee had their hands full with Florida State’s powerful forwards that were able to do significant damage with their strength and size. Bernard James and Chris Singleton completely clogged the lane, preventing the Blue Devils from penetrating down low.
Mason Plumlee played solid defense, racking up 10 of his 14 rebounds on the defensive side of the ball, but he only scored three points. Miles saw limited playing time and finished with no points. Ryan Kelly was similarly futile offensively, hitting only one shot in the game. Collectively, Duke scored 10 points in the paint.
“There wasn’t a lot of room down low. They’re very big,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They knocked us back. And you can try to practice that, but you don’t practice against Singleton and Kitchen and James.”
Florida State did a fantastic job throughout the game in keeping the Blue Devils out of the interior. None of Duke’s forwards were able to drive the lane or get open looks down low.
Consequently, Duke was relegated to the perimeter—the Blue Devils launched 35 3-pointers in the contest, sinking 11.
Nolan Smith repeatedly brought the ball up and dished it to another guard on the outside who would either have an open look, or pass to another guard with a shot. And normally this would be fine with the sharp-shooting Blue Devils. Before the loss to Florida State, Duke was shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 42.8 percent from three-point range.
However, against the Seminoles, these percentages dropped significantly, to 31.1 percent and 31.4 percent, respectively.
On the defensive side, the Blue Devils also struggled. Although Mason Plumlee was a force down low, the Seminoles were able to tally more defensive rebounds.
“Up until this point in the season we really haven’t gotten many second chance points.” Seminole forward Bernard James said. “That was just really huge for us tonight that we could do that. That was the reason why we were even in the game. If we didn’t get any second chance points, [Duke would have won] hands down.”
Last night, apart from Singler and Smith, Duke’s shooters were cold. If the Blue Devils have any more inconsistent shooting nights this season, they will have no choice but to better develop their post game.
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