Jeff Allen wonders if Coach K and the Dukies can right the ship ???
Heading into Tuesday’s road game at Georgia Tech, the Duke Blue Devils find themselves in the unusual position of being
in a fight for their NCAA tournament lives. At 15-6 overall, 4-4 in the ACC, losers of four of their last five and out of the AP Top
25 for the first time in 167 weeks … the Dukies are in very real danger of missing the Big Dance. Further piling on, the Blue
Devils face the toughest part of the conference schedule down the stretch.
The Blue Devils problems are obvious. The team is young, not very athletic, doesn’t play defense and doesn’t rebound. In
fact, the team is 10th in the ACC on defense and ranks No.78 nationally. If you saw the last Monday’s 80-69 loss at Miami.
you would have seen the Canes run a clinic of backdoor sets and dribble penetration by the guards that resulted in kick out
wide open looks. When Miami missed, they owned the offensive glass and that has been the theme for the first half of Duke’s
ACC schedule.
To be fair, Coach K never expected to be in this position. Jahlil Okafor, Quinn Cook, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones and Amile
Jefferson were the Devils top five scorers from last year and all are gone except for Jefferson, a 6’9″ senior PF who has played
just nine games and is out indefinitely with a foot injury. PG Grayson Allen (20.3) made his name by getting hot in last year’
tournament and seems to go invisible in big games and then padding his numbers against the weaker links. Brandon Ingram
(14.9) is a 6’9″ freshman swing man who is arguably the best Duke player on the floor and is often left on an island defensively.
Georgia Tech is just 2-6 in ACC play and 12-9 overall but not an easy touch by any means at Hank McCamish Arena. After that
Duke plays a very dangerous North Carolina State team that just waxed Miami on Saturday, has home and homes with Louisville
(17-4, 6-2), North Carolina 19-2 (8-0) plus single games with Virginia (17-4), Pitt (17-4), Florida State (14-7) and Wake Forest.
Ken Palm has Duke 20-11 (9-9) as his best scenario and Jeff Allen has Duke as a sub-.500 in conference. A one and done in the
ACC tournament could have the Blue Devils NIT bound.
It’s amazing how much better and smarter coaches are when they have players. A true testament of a coach is to see how well they
do when they don’t have players. This is as average a bunch as Mike Krzyzewski has had since the beginning of his tenure at Duke.
It will take one of the best coaching jobs of his storied career to have this team “dancing” in March.