With 3:54 left in the second half, an errant free throw fell kindly to Dereck Lively II, who missed the catch and shinned it out of bounds.
The following play put N.C. State up 29.
So often basketball is about the little moments, whether it be a fingertip ever so slightly deflecting a shot or a player diving for a loose ball. Over 40 minutes, however, all those minuscule moments, all those split-second decisions, add up.
Every team is warranted a bad game or two—it’s part of the reason that undefeated seasons are exceedingly rare and as eternally impressive—but Wednesday’s game was not just a bad one for Duke. It was an embarrassing loss.
No. 16 Duke scored zero points in nearly eight minutes to start Wednesday night’s 84-60 loss to N.C. State. It was on the wrong end of a 20-2 run to open the first half. It surrendered the ball 21 times for 30 opposing points. It lost by 24 to a conference rival. Most shockingly, in spite of all these figures, nobody seemed able or willing to turn it around.
“Unfortunately, there's some moments I've been through as a player, as a coach, where you have a night like this, and it's not okay,” head coach Jon Scheyer said after the game. “It's not okay to have a night like this.”
It would be foolish to expect Scheyer to immediately fill the gargantuan shoes of his predecessor, to achieve the same accolades at the uppermost echelon of the college game right away or oversee a first year free of turbulence. Similarly, it would be negligent to discount the adjustment period for a team with just two returners and an immensely difficult schedule.
Regardless, the Blue Devils losing by 24 to the Triangle’s college basketball outcast of recent years borders on inexcusable.
Just before Christmas, Duke faced Wake Forest on the road and was outclassed from buzzer to buzzer there, too. Against Purdue in the Phil Knight Legacy in November 2022, a standout performance from freshman guard Tyrese Proctor was not enough to stem the tide of a ruthless beatdown. Faced with reigning national champion Kansas in Indianapolis, the Blue Devils crumbled under their own weight in the dying moments, fumbling a potential marquee win into a demoralizing defeat.
The point is reiterated: Every team has a bad game or two, but when those games are sloppy or one-sided in the same vein the loss to N.C. State was, it feels like we might need to alter our perceptions of this group a bit.
“It's hard to have great perspective right now when you're in the moment and you're disappointed to say the least with the loss,” Scheyer said. “But it's a long year. And unfortunately, I knew this when I took the job, there's gonna be some moments like this where people can doubt you, they can doubt us as a team. And sometimes the best way to learn is to experience it.”
All those little moments mentioned earlier? The Wolfpack did them better by securing rebounds, hustling out of bounds, limiting unnecessary turnovers, not forcing shots and refraining from frustration fouls. N.C. State out-shot Duke 70-48, blocked nine shots to the Blue Devils’ two and stole the ball with double the frequency of the visitors. The Wolfpack simply looked more cohesive and more dangerous throughout the game, while Duke seemed to lack confidence and struggled to execute the mechanics and tactics at which it so regularly excels.
Nowhere was this clearer than with N.C. State’s trio of Terquavion Smith, Jarkel Joiner and DJ Burns Jr., who put up 24, 21 and 18 points, respectively, committed just five combined turnovers, registered five combined steals and shot a combined 23-of-47 from the floor. Additionally, Smith and Joiner both shot 50% from downtown, Joiner logged nine assists and Burns worked his magic from the bench. On Duke’s end, Ryan Young, Kyle Filipowski and Dariq Whitehead, who all hit double digits in scoring, gave the ball away nine times between them and accounted for 37 points to the Wolfpack trio’s 63.
For a Duke team that was open about its intent from day one—to challenge for a national title—this is surprising. Moreover, when the pressure has been there this season, these Blue Devils have not looked wholly convincing and when games have been testy, they have been shaky. Staring down another rigorous ACC gauntlet that will doubtless be filled with more pressure-filled contests, these tendencies have to change.
“We have to grow and change,” Scheyer said. “I take responsibility for that as a coach and it's a disappointing night, but credit to [N.C. State]. 2-2 and 16 games left in the ACC, there's a long way to go. We have to learn from this, though.”
This may just be a liminal phase, a blip in the transition from one era to another. However, the rout by N.C. State, the loss to Wake Forest before that and the earlier humiliation by Purdue indicate that these games are not customary bad games.
For the Blue Devils to put themselves back on track for their preseason objective, there is only one clear choice: Go all in and play with the required intensity when playing from behind to reverse this worrying trend. Otherwise, they might as well be folding their hand.
Either way, N.C. State just called Duke’s bluff.
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Andrew Long is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.