Three points: Strong start, elite ball movement will power Duke men's basketball past Georgia Tech

After opening 2024 with three straight wins, No. 11 Duke men’s basketball returns home Saturday evening for a rematch with Georgia Tech. Before the matchup, the Blue Zone breaks down three keys to a Blue Devil victory:

A strong start

After emphatically defeating Pittsburgh 75-53 Tuesday and extending its win streak to seven games, Duke heads back to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a clash against Georgia Tech, the team it last lost to over a month ago. The 72-68 defeat to the Yellow Jackets was a devastating one for the Blue Devils, who were not only trounced by a seemingly inferior opponent but also lost starting guard Tyrese Proctor to injury before falling 15 spots in the AP poll. 

To get revenge against its ACC rival, Duke will need to avoid the plethora of mistakes it committed on that dark December day, many of which were caused or worsened by the team’s remarkably slow start. In the last encounter between these two teams, Georgia Tech jumped out to an early 14-3 lead, which it held until late in the fourth quarter. Time and again this season, the Blue Devils have struggled to come from behind against tough opposition. In each of the team’s three losses, Duke trailed at halftime and was down by at least eight points at some point in the game.

The Blue Devils possess some of the most talented individual players in college basketball. However, Duke’s collection of talent can sometimes act like a double-edged sword. Often, when the Blue Devils are trailing, stars begin to force shots and attempt to single-handedly carry the team on their backs, abandoning the offensive game plan and making Duke’s attack more predictable. This time around, a rapid start by the Blue Devils should allow them to easily exact their revenge on the Yellow Jackets, largely by encouraging Duke’s players to employ the team’s next key to victory.

Keep up the ball movement

Another problem for the Blue Devils in their first encounter with Georgia Tech was the team’s lack of ball movement, resulting in a significant amount of isolation play. Against the Yellow Jackets, Duke’s assist total amounted to only 12. Compare that figure with the 19 amassed in both of the team’s dominant performances against Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and one can begin to see how ball movement is key to the Blue Devils’ success.

While some may argue that Duke’s low assist figure against Georgia Tech was a result of Proctor’s injury early in the first half, this simple stat proves otherwise. While the Blue Devils averaged 16.6 assists per game before Proctor’s injury, they have amassed 17.6 per game since their contest against the Yellow Jackets, during which time the Sydney native was sidelined and coming off the bench. Evidently, though Proctor is one of the best facilitators in the ACC, the rest of Duke’s squad is also capable of playing effective team basketball and sharing the rock. Moreover, the Blue Devils are at their best when, rather than relying on its stars to make great individual plays, the team works as a unit and capitalizes on extensive ball movement to create space which its big-time players can more easily exploit.