After pulling away in the second half in an 80-61 victory against Yale Wednesday, the Blue Devils will look to extend their winning streak to four games when they host Utah State Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The Aggies are undefeated through four games, with their best win coming in their season opener at Weber State. Here are three keys to a Duke victory against Utah State:
Get off to a strong start
The Blue Devils have come out flat and trailed for most of the first half in each of their last four games. The Bulldogs scored the first nine points of Wednesday night’s contest, and Duke spent the rest of the period playing catch-up to stumble into the locker room with just a two-point lead. Against Utah State, the Blue Devils need to seize an early lead and keep building on it for the entire game. After all, the longer an underdog stays in the game, the more confidence brews that an upset may be in the making.
Like every opponent that comes into Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Aggies will certainly come out with a lot of energy and expect to compete. Duke needs to match their intensity from the opening tip and get the crowd in the game early. The Blue Devils could probably recover from another bad start Sunday and win the game—just as they did against VCU, Georgetown and Yale—but they need to show that they can sustain a high level of energy for 40 minutes.
Play good man-to-man defense
One of the reasons for the recent slow starts has been Duke’s poor man-to-man defense, which has forced head coach Mike Krzyzewski to adjust and use the 1-3-1 zone predominantly. Although this defense was very effective in containing Georgetown and Yale, teams are going to scout and find holes in the zone at some point, and the Blue Devils will have to string together stops in man-to-man.
Duke will almost surely start Sunday’s contest playing man-to-man, and it must avoid the lapses that have allowed its recent opponents to get so many easy layups against this defense. The Blue Devils’ guards have to keep Utah State’s ball handlers in front of them on the perimeter, and the help defense has to step up and challenge the Aggies when they do make it into the paint. Duke has also been victimized by the backdoor-pass all season and will need to improve in this area by playing better defense off the ball.
Stay out of foul trouble
One of the Blue Devils’ biggest weaknesses is their lack of depth—especially in the frontcourt—and this problem is magnified when Duke’s big men get into foul trouble. Amile Jefferson and Marshall Plumlee have each been whistled for two or more fouls in the first halves of multiple games so far this season, sending them to the bench for a few minutes and causing the Blue Devils to lose both a valuable post presence and rebounder.
These experienced big men have done a good job of playing with a few fouls down the stretch so far, and freshman Chase Jeter is already developing into a solid role player off the bench in the front court. But Plumlee and Jefferson still have to start limiting unnecessary fouls in order to stay on the floor. Plumlee was whistled for two charges while backing his defender down against Yale, and both often pick up fouls away from the basket. Foul trouble has not resulted in disaster yet, though at this rate it is only a matter of time before Duke loses one of its best post players with several minutes to go in a close game.
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