CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Sometimes there’s such a thing as too much preparation and apparently that was the case for Jahlil Okafor Saturday night.
The dominant freshman center practiced all week against hard double teams in preparation for No. 4 Duke’s contest at No. 2 Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena that once the game tipped off, the Blue Devils’ most talented player did something he hadn’t yet in his college career—go the first 16:57 without attempting a shot.
“A lot if it was me—[I had a lot of] dumb turnovers,” Okafor said. “I was anticipating double teams a lot of the time [and] was too eager to make my move. You’ve got to make quick moves to beat the double team. A lot of it was anticipating the double team that wasn’t coming—they just threw different looks at me.”
The Cavaliers definitely played a role with quick, physical double teams every time the Chicago native touched the ball, but in the second half Okafor adjusted thanks to some timely tips and a new mentality focused on posting closer to the basket and re-posting after swinging the ball back outside.
“[Associate head coach] Jeff Capel said some really good things at halftime to get him going. [And] he responded really well,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
The 6-foot-11, 270-pound center did not get there immediately, though. Okafor had two travels early in the second half after shuffling his feet twice in the first half, meaning that for a significant portion of the second period he had more travels than field goal attempts.
But with his team in danger of suffering a double-digit loss and its second defeat in four days, the Chicago native persevered by being a little less critical of himself as he battled the nation’s top-ranked scoring defense.
“Coach was just telling me that I’m my own worst enemy—I was being too hard on myself,” Okafor said “They know if I’m not helping my team out, I can be hard on myself and it will affect me the next couple of plays. They told me the last eight minutes [to] forget everything that happened in the past.”
Whatever advice Okafor got, it worked. The ACC’s leading scorer scored six points the final eight minutes as the Blue Devils used a dramatic comeback to push past the Cavaliers, 69-63. Okafor had a key put-back that was part of Duke’s game-ending 22-7 run and also finished with six offensive rebounds. The Preseason AP Player of the Year was cited by Krzyzewski and his teammates as a reason why the Blue Devils got better looks from long range late and converted, as he finally started getting position down low and matching Virginia’s physicality.
Okafor added three assists, taking advantage when the Cavaliers were not crisp in rotations off double teams, and showed he could still be effective in a four-guard lineup in which he might not always need to have the ball.
Okafor’s updated mentality was still a big reason Duke finally found success against the pack-line defense and had faith in Okafor’s teammates to make enough plays to win. And if they missed, at least the Preseason AP Player of the Year provided a decent contingency plan.
“That’s what I try to do every day—just letting my guards know they’re free to shoot and if they miss, I’m going to do my best to offensive rebound,” Okafor said.
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