There isn't a whole lot to say about the loss to Georgetown. When your opponent shoots 71.7% from the game - they fell off to 66.7% for the second half - and you clock in at 37.1%, you have to make it up somewhere. Unfortunately, Duke didn't do that.
This game reminded us to an extent of the '90 Vegas game, where the Rebels basically used two hot runs to put it away. It wasn't exactly like that - Georgetown was great throughout - but there were two big runs, one in each half, including 10 straight baskets in the first half. Duke tried to cut into the lead in the second, and did for awhile, but the Hoyas pushed it out to 20 and there wasn't much of an answer from the Devils.
When you toss out Jerrelle Benimon's 0-3 performance, take a look at the shooting performance: Greg Monroe shot 7-11, and Austin Freeman was 8-11.
No one else missed more than a single shot.
For Duke, only Mason Plumlee and Lance Thomas hit at least 50%, with Plumlee going 2-3 and Thomas 3-6. Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer, and Kyle Singler combined to go 15-43.
It's not the same offense, but watching Georgetown heat up like this reminds one somewhat of John Beilein's offense at Michigan. It was a devastating performance and a brilliant one, too.
There were some positives for Duke, although they were hard to recognize right after the game. First, Duke grabbed 17 offensive rebounds while Georgetown only had two - but of course they only missed 13 shots. The Devils also shot 22-26 from the foul line. And Andre Dawkins and Mason Plumlee both got meaningful minutes which is a good thing, particularly in the case of Dawkins, who will eventually make a difference in games like this: imagine if he had gotten going and reeled off three or four three pointers in a row. He can do that, or will begin to do that, at some point in his career.
But like the rest of his teams, he couldn't get it done this time. After the game, Coach K said "[w]e could never match their emotion. The place was electric. Their team was electric. And they played that way for 40 minutes. We haven't had a team shoot 72 percent against us since I don't know when."
Making things that much more intense was the presence of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who were courtside, with Obama even providing a bit of commentary along with the CBS crew.
In short, the afternoon provided everything you would expect in a big-game atmosphere, except for Duke playing at a high level.
Not much to do now except put it away and move on to Georgia Tech, as the Yellow Jackets show up on Thursday.
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