Miami snapped Duke's 41-game home winning streak Tuesday night. The Blue Devils are looking to start their next one Monday.
No. 5 Duke returns to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. after a successful trip to Louisville, Ky. The Blue Devils held the Cardinals to 29.5 percent shooting in an 11-point win, and another strong defensive effort Monday could put head coach Mike Krzyzewski one win shy of 1,000 for his career.
The Blue Devils unveiled a 2-3 zone Saturday against Louisville, collapsing into the paint to keep the Cardinals' guards from finding breathing room as they drove to the basket. The crowded paint forced Louisville to launch 25 shots from downtown, where the Cardinals have struggled all season long.
"We're continuing to explore it—it obviously works, especially with certain teams that maybe don't have the 3-point shooters that other programs have," assistant coach Nate James said. "We're still trying to figure it out, and hopefully we don't give up as many looks [Monday]. If they hit some, we can't get discouraged."
The same scheme could be a good move against the Panthers (13-5, 3-2 in the ACC). Pittsburgh shoots 33.9 percent from behind the arc—the 175th-ranked clip in the country—and has fizzled on offense at times without the potent shooting stroke of the departed Lamar Patterson. Guards Cameron Wright and James Robinson lack the speed of Louisville's guards, but can still be effective in ball-screen situations, which Duke hasn't defended well of late.
James said Duke—traditionally a man-to-man team—could show the zone look again at times Monday. Louisville got open shots on the perimeter but didn't knock them down; for Pittsburgh to stay close with the Blue Devils (15-2, 3-2), perimeter success will be key.
Wright—a 6-foot-5 senior—missed the Panthers' first seven games of the season with a broken left foot, but has returned to score 9.9 points per game in 11 games, during which Pittsburgh is 9-2. Head coach Jamie Dixon's floor general Robinson joins the veteran in the backcourt, teaming with forwards Jamel Artis and Michael Young—the Panther's top scorer—to form a well-balanced offense that ranks 29th in the nation in assists per game.
When Young struggles, so do the Panthers—the sophomore makes 51.7 percent of his shots but just 35.9 percent in Pittsburgh's five losses. And although the Blue Devils run their offense through freshman center Jahlil Okafor, a fresh face usually seems to rise to the occasion to provide a secondary scoring option.
Saturday, that face belonged to Amile Jefferson, as the junior captain found an offensive rhythm against Louisville's matchup zone, pouring in a career-best 19 points. After scoring 12 points total in his first three conference games, the Philadelphia native has made 13 of his 16 shots in the past two contests.
"A player with his ability should affect the game in a lot of different ways. He actually had a really good game against Miami [14 points, 12 rebounds], and it was just overshadowed by the loss," James said. "When he [plays with energy] it just gives our team an amazing boost and gets them wound up.... He's extremely intelligent and he understands how to make his opportunities count."
With Jefferson hitting his stride to provide a dangerous counterpunch to Okafor—the ACC's leading scorer at 18.9 points per game—the Blue Devil offense is looking for more consistent production from its backcourt.
Sophomore Matt Jones hit a pair of corner 3-pointers to help Duke erase a 12-6 deficit early in the first half Saturday, but for the rest of the game, Blue Devil guards shot 2-of-13 from downtown. Since the win at Wisconsin Dec. 3, Duke is shooting 33.3 percent from long range—comparable with the clips posted by Pittsburgh and Louisville throughout the entire season.
"I told this to Rasheed [Sulaimon] the other day: 'Don't get discouraged when you miss a shot,'" James said. "Most outstanding shooters are probably shooting 40-something percent. That means for every 10 shots, you're going to miss six. When you're in the game and you miss that shot, don't get discouraged because that's just one of the misses that you have to have to get to that percentage. Just believe that the next shot is going to go down."
Despite the poor perimeter shooting, the Blue Devils stretched their lead to 21 early in the second half Saturday by getting baskets off of their defense, but if Louisville had cashed in on more of their 18 offensive rebounds, the game could have been much closer. Pittsburgh averages 12.9 offensive boards per contest, so keeping aggressive Panther forwards Artis and Young off the glass will be crucial.
Young and Artis give up several inches to Duke's starting front line, but their tenacity on the glass has the Blue Devil coaching staff preaching the importance of crashing the boards, particularly if Duke reverts to the zone defense for the second game in a row. The Blue Devils were outrebounded for just the second time all season Saturday.
"We have to control the backboard. They really, really go after it, whether it be drives, jump shots, we have to be sure we box out," James said. "They're an extremely tough, well-coached team. That's why we've got to pack it in and make sure we're defending and rebounding."
After Monday's game, Duke gets the rest of the week off to prepare for a grueling road swing that begins Sunday against St. John's at Madison Square Garden in New York and includes visits to No. 12 Notre Dame and No. 2 Virginia.
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