Duke Takes Barton Apart, 105-44
Duke won the game against Barton with relative ease, but for the first 10 minutes or so, Barton brought to mind Apollo Creed’s trainer in Rocky, when he got Creed in the corner after his fighter took a beating and said of Rocky: “he don’t know it’s a damn joke!” For the first ten minutes, Barton played like champions, like they didn’t know they were supposed to lose. Then the wheels came off.
At the 10-33 mark, Barton led 16-11 and was doing a reasonable impersonation of Princeton at it’s finest. As much as Duke wanted to press and run, Barton refused to participate and played at a slower speed, making Duke pay for mistakes and passing and cutting through the defense for layups.
It didn’t help that Duke was missing a ton of shots and not getting any offensive rebounds to speak of in the early part of the game.
But it didn’t last. Duke turned up the pressure and started to take the ball away from Barton and though Barton showed a lot of heart, they recognized reality and bowed to it, something which head coach Ron Lievense said as a coach he couldn’t tolerate. His team lost the desire to compete as Duke found theirs, and the results were predictable: Duke became predatory on defense, swooping in for steal after steal (at one point, Duke stole the ball three straight times and Barton turned it over a fourth time after that.
By the end of the game, Duke was fully in control, and was like a big cat playing with a mouse. They ended up forcing 36 turnovers. Barton was more competitive than Shaw, but Duke forced more turnovers in this game than the 34 they forced against the Bears.
On an individual level, Kyle Singler had the best night by far. Singler ended up with 27 points on 10-12 shooting and grabbed 10 boards as well. In the first half, he went 5-6 from the floor and 6-6 from the line.
The neat thing about Singler is that even while he has been the scoring leader in both exhibition games, no one could ever say that he forced anything or was anything remotely approaching selfish. He’s scoring entirely within the offense and the closest he’s come to forcing anything was a missed outside shot in the Shaw game, and that’s not exactly forcing anything.
It’s only the exhibition season, but he’s living up to everything everyone has said about him. He understands the game exceptionally well.
In the beginning of the game, Gerald Henderson wasn’t particularly effective, but he ended up with 16 points on 5-8 shooting. Seeing him three times now, we feel safe in saying that he’s not at all the same player he was last year. He’s able to shoot from anywhere from the three point line on in, and he jumps well enough to score over most players down low.
His athleticism, in fact, is not that far behind Cory Maggette’s, and Maggette is the best pure athletic talent Duke has ever had.
Nolan Smith also had an outstanding game. He ended up with 18 points, six assists and four boards, and two steals and continues to play tough defense.
Duke ended up with 23 steals and six of them went to DeMarcus Nelson, who obviously was a disruptive presence.
Jon Scheyer shot 4-11, not that much different than Nelson’s 3-9, but like Nelson found other ways to contribute. He had four steals and five boards and a solid floor game.
The other guy who has played well thus far is Marty Pocius, who is an improved defender and has been a reliable three point shooter. After the game, Coach K said that the increased emphasis on speed has to an extent hurt three point shooting as the players aren’t getting squared up before shooting. That’s not a problem for Pocius, who has been a reliable outside presence and an emotional sparkplug.
David McClure made a brief return, but it’s clear that he’s not anywhere near game shape yet. But it’s good to see him play. He’s an immensely smart basketball player, and he’ll be a big asset when healthy.
It’s also becoming clear that Brian Zoubek’s injury has really set him back. He’s never going to be the most agile player in the world, but last season he was vastly more mobile. He seems at times reluctant to jump, and is defending and rebounding (and at times shooting) without leaving the floor. He’ll get better, but right now, his mobility is still limited.
Greg Paulus ended up with two points on free throws and didn’t have his greatest game. He did get two steals and played well defensively.
Lance Thomas finished with two points and four rebounds and wasn’t overly effective.
Taylor King finished with five points and seven boards in sixteen minutes.
Despite the slow start, it was a solid performance by Duke, with lots to build on. Kyle Singler is rapidly emerging as a superb player, a guy who coaches and discerning fans are going to love. It’s unusual to have a freshman this advanced, but there he is.
The slow start however underscored something important for Duke: this team could be very, very good by the end of the year. Keep in mind that in the two exhibition games it’s forced an average of 35 turnovers and scored at a blistering rate of 119.5 per game.
Will that continue? No. As the opposition stiffens, those numbers will return to earth. But there are two things to keep in mind here: first, last year’s team wouldn’t have scored 100 points in either exhibition. They simply didn’t have the firepower to do it.
And secondly, Duke is doing this despite shooting 13-55 from behind the line thus far. That’ll change, too. As Coach K suggested, they’re not getting set for the shot, which has become a trademark for Duke. If they had been hitting that, they could have scored 20 more points in each game.
The scoring has to a large extent come off of the defense which at times in the second half against Barton was simply dazzling, and we can understand why Barton might have felt like giving up, because Duke was just taking it away at will. When the offense matches the defense, this team has the potential to be just brilliant.
But the corollary to that is that in order to reach that potential, they’re going to have to bring great intensity to every game. If they play with the sort of intensity they had for most of the game, they can play with anyone. If they don’t, well, they’ll get a lot of stretches like the first ten minutes.