Ever find yourself really disliking someone, say a co-worker, and wishing they were out of your hair, or maybe sometimes worse? But then they're cut down to size and you feel guilty for wishing ill on them? That's what it was like watching Maryland on Saturday.
Don't get us wrong, we enjoyed watching them take a beating, but this was a program that, not long ago, was on the verge of true greatness. The national title was impressive, but back-to-back Final Fours more so.
So seeing them all but completely impotent, losing 85-44, and not only to lose that badly but to lose their will to fight back - well, it was definitely fun, but also a bit sad. And a loss like that can have consequences for a coach.
To be clear, Duke just destroyed Maryland. They limited them to 15 first-half points, and held them to 28.1% from the floor and 16.7% from behind the line. Duke forced 17 turnovers, 11 steals and had 12 blocks. They also pounded them on the boards, outrebounding Maryland 56-38, and winning the offensive battle 21-15.
But stats can't really explain how thoroughly Duke dominated the Terps. Other than Landon Milbourne, who managed 19, no one even scored as much as five points. Duke limited their starting perimeter players - Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes and Adrian Bowie - to nine points on 4-26 shooting.
But it wasn't just the perimeter. After the game Dave Neal said "They crashed the boards extremely hard. They brought five guys every single time. [Brian] Zoubek, he's got a huge height advantage on me. I just feel like he's just so much taller and so much longer that he can reach over, and I saw them tap the ball out like five times. They just hit it as far as they could to half court. Boxing out can only do so much."
You know, shut off the perimeter, block a dozen shots, outrebound the opponents by 22 and limit them to 28% from the floor and you've pretty much broken them.
One play in particular caught our attention, and it wasn't fancy or anything, but revealing: on an-out-of-bounds play, a Maryland player got away from his defender. Nothing was said, at least that we could tell, but the switch was seamless and perfect. Coach K says he coaches offense, defense, and communication and encourages talking on the court. But when you know your teammates that well, talking isn't always necessary.
The other thing which has been a factor all season has been the fact that Duke can so successfully put bigger players on the perimeter, or vice-versa, really. So while Vasquez was yapping, pre-game, about Cameron being his house and one of his favorite places to play, it wasn't as much fun when he had Kyle Singler or Dave McClure or Lance Thomas lurking nearby if he got by one of the primary perimeter defenders.
Defensively, there's only so much you can rave about what Duke did. It was a stunning performance. You don't limit teams to 15 points in a half all that often.
If Duke has any concerns, they're on offense. Gerald Henderson has been on fire, and it continued in this game, as he shot 7-8.  But for the last several games, Duke's overall offense has had some real ups and downs, and it continued against Maryland, at least early.
Jon Scheyer has been in a bit of a slump, and while he shot 4-8 from behind the line he was only 4-13 overall. Kyle Singler was 3-9 and Nolan Smith was 2-6.  Zoubek was 4-7 and very effective (he may have had his best half at Duke in this game), but he towered over the Terps and most of his shots come from right under the basket, and he should hit those. Greg Paulus and Lance Thomas were both 3-6. Elliot Williams was 3-5.
Duke put immense pressure on Maryland early, but missed several opportunities to put the Terps away in the beginning of the game. It didn't matter much since they so thoroughly crushed them, but it could matter against a better opponent.
When Scheyer's shot is back, and with Paulus's shot returning, Duke's going to be extremely difficult to handle. Not that the offense has been terrible, but it has been erratic at times.
That'll come around. It reminds us in a way of the team in 1988, when Duke had this awkward habit of starting games ice-cold and then playing incredible defense to get back in it. We remember one game in particular, at Kansas, when Duke fell well behind and then just shut Kansas down and crawled back into it. It's not exactly the same, but it points out the value of really tough defense, something Coach K touched on after the game when he said this:
âWeâre a good defensive team, and it means we have to bring it every possession. Weâre older, and I think weâve played hard all year but in a coordinated manner on the defensive end, and thatâs a result of maturity and the ability to communicate. When you play defense, the lifeblood of your defense is talk. You have to be in good shape, play hard, but what coordinates everything is your communication and weâve had really good communication.â
Just from where we sat, at the beginning of the year, we thought that communication was probably a point of emphasis. If so, consider it emphasized.
After this performance, Duke is just about certain to be #1 and next up is the most recent #1, Wake Forest, and the Deacs are probably still in a bad mood about the Virginia Tech game. Wake has beaten Duke in Winston-Salem several times over the past few years, and they're a big, fast team. It's a compelling matchup in a lot of ways.
And Maryland? Well, this is not going over well with the fear-the-turtle crowd. There was already a perception that things were slipping and there was some dissatisfaction with the team's performance in the last few years. That's going to accelerate now. Losing to anyone like this would hurt a coach who's already seen as vulnerable, but to the school they hate more than any other? It's going to be talked about for weeks. Is it a turning point? That's too early to say. But there's nothing about this that could help.