For the first time this season, Duke isn't happy.
Sure, the Blue Devils faced some bumps in the road in their first eight games, mainly in their closest games against Michigan State, Stanford and Wisconsin, but Monday night was the first time No. 2 Duke exited the court with a sour taste in its mouth.
Despite being 33-point favorites, the Blue Devils only knocked off Elon 75-62 thanks to a season-high 25 points and freshman-record 20 boards from center Jahlil Okafor. But as head coach Mike Krzyzewski said, being happy with Duke's performance in the victory would be like "sweeping dirt under the rug—the dirt is still there [even though Okafor] was a big rug."
After starting the game on a 15-2 run in the contest's first 6:49, the Blue Devils tied a team that lost to North Florida and Charlotte and had no players bigger than 6-foot-7, 220-pound center Tony Sabato see significant action Monday. When standing next to Duke swingman Justise Winslow, who is listed at 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, Sabato's weight listing seemed quite generous.
Although the Phoenix showed they could play with tough competition when they nearly won at Northwestern and at Missouri, few people thought Elon could keep Monday's game as close as it did because of its lack of size down low.
But the Phoenix and head coach Matt Matheny found a way to keep the margin respectable at Cameron Indoor Stadium after losing by 38 to the Blue Devils last year in Greensboro, N.C.
Duke's frontcourt trio of Okafor, Winslow and junior forward Amile Jefferson combined for 50 points on 67.7 percent shooting. But the group was still frustrated by Elon's activity on the interior, coughing the ball up nine times to contribute to the Blue Devils' 17-turnover performance. Duke entered the contest averaging just 9.4 giveaways per game.
The Blue Devil big men also held the team back at the foul line, going just 7-of-18 when conversions could have extended the lead and put the game out of reach early. Duke's primary interior players are now shooting just 54.3 percent from the charity stripe this season.
The issues from the free throw line are particularly concerning for Okafor. Since his dominance in the paint is no secret, he could soon become the victim of ploys like "Hack-a-Shaq" with his 50-percent clip from the line. The Chicago native is now shooting 65.5 percent from the field after his dominant 10-of-14 showing.
The turnovers and missed free throws by the starting frontcourt were just the tip of the iceberg, though, as freshman point guard Tyus Jones had an uncharacteristic no-field-goal, four-assist, four-turnover performance, senior Quinn Cook made just one of his six 3-point attempts and Duke went just 3-of-16 from downtown as a team.
Granted, it was one game and it came after an 11-day break for final exams, but for the first time in nine games, the Blue Devils didn't measure up to the most important gauge of performance—their own.
"We did not do hard things tonight," Krzyzewski said. "Hard things would be finishes. Hard things would be strong with the ball. Hard things would be to talk. Hard things would be to dive for loose balls. We didn't do those things, which is what we've been doing [so far]."
Even Okafor's record-setting 20-rebound effort did not seem as impressive because half of the boards came on the offensive end with players four or more inches shorter and 50 or more pounds lighter fruitlessly trying to body up the dominant center.
But the straw that broke the camel's back and made sure Monday would be marked as the first disappointment for this year's Blue Devil squad came with 1:35 left in the game. With his team up by 18, junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon—who had the best game for a Duke perimeter player with 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting, three assists against no turnovers and three rebounds—shoved Elon guard Luke Eddy hard to the ground after Eddy was already on his way down following a personal foul.
The resulting scuffle between the two teams caused a major delay in play and eventually gave the Phoenix four free throws and the ball after a technical foul was assessed to Sulaimon. The fiasco for the Houston native was a fitting to end to a game that served as the first real adversity the Blue Devils will have to navigate in the young season.
It also caused the use of a word that most people had stopped using when talking about Duke—inexperience.
"All of our upperclassmen have not been on a championship level team," Krzyzewski said. "They've been on good teams, but they haven't won a championship. When you win a championship, that's different. Then you know the road. [Our upperclassmen] are still learning the road, too."
The Blue Devils' next stop on their road to try to win a championship and give upperclassmen like Cook, Sulaimon and Jefferson the title they have been seeking since they came to Durham is the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., and a battle with the defending national champion, Connecticut.
If Krzyzewski and his staff have their way before Thursday's contest, Monday's frustration will turn into motivation and energy for another marquee nonconference game,
And with the regressive performance following an enormous win at Wisconsin and some much-needed adversity before conference play begins, the man rapidly approaching 1,000 wins for his career finally has a result to refer to when imploring them to be their best every time they take the floor.
"[This] is what happens after exams and after a layoff," Krzyzewski said. "And after you've played a great game, because you're normal. In order to be really good, you can't be normal. Normal stays in the past and wants it easier."
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