PHILADELPHIA — When Duke first faced Connecticut in late January, the Blue Devils weren’t ready for the matchup, coming away with their first loss of the season, 87-51.
“We got thumped. There was no game,” head coach Joanne P. McCallie said. “We got hit hard there.”
But two-seed Duke took the loss as a learning experience and proceeded to beat then-No. 18 Miami 82-58.
“[Connecticut] was a game where we were obviously outplayed,” senior Jasmine Thomas said. “And you learn things from that game–you watch film, you practice and you work on things to get better. You’ve got other opponents, so you can’t just think about that UConn game for the rest of the season.”
But that was almost two months ago. Tonight, when the Blue Devils step into the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, they will come out as a seasoned—albeit young—team boasting a very deep bench that has experienced one of the hardest schedules in the nation.
“This is a great opportunity for any team, and we have a great bench and terrific young players, and I’m hoping that we can get more involved in that,” McCallie said. “I think that speaks to playing 40 minutes, going beyond the way we played against DePaul and growing from there.”
Although many of the younger Blue Devils—including all five members of Duke’s freshman class—have seen significant playing time, only three of the team’s 11 members competed in the Elite Eight last year against Baylor, something McCallie sees as a weakness.
“We’re quite young relative to experience, and our seniors have done a good job trying to cover that up,” she said. “We’re still developing, and hopefully we can do that quickly and ignite those young kids because we’re going to need them.”
Two of the team’s freshmen, forward Haley Peters and guard Chelsea Gray, started in Sunday’s matchup against the Blue Demons, contributing a combined 20 points and seven rebounds. But the freshman class will have to step up even more if Duke is looking to upset the one-seed Huskies, who boast only one loss for the season as well as top player Maya Moore.
“I don’t think I can expand on anything except to say that [Moore] is the best women’s basketball player in the world,” McCallie said. “I think she obviously has a tremendous work ethic, plays really hard, has a smooth jump shot... and she will just absolutely get you on the boards.”
To combat this, the Blue Devils will rely on better rebounding and a stronger presence in the post, as well as an aggressive attitude on both sides of the court.
“Rebounding is always a critical component of every game, and being able to control the glass allows you to dictate the tempo on the offensive and defensive end,” said forward Karima Christmas, who will be one of Moore’s primary matchups during the game. “That’s something we’ll be working on—to allow ourselves more than one shot on the offensive end and to allow UConn only one shot at the basket.”
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