Barry Jacobs Breaks Down Duke Scoring!

Duke’s offensive struggles so far this season, clearly visible in a win over a solid but generally unthreatening Penn squad, arise from a variety of factors. Among them is the absence of a third reliable scorer. “That’s something we have to get,” Mike Krzyzewski says. “DeMarcus should be that, and sometimes our leading scorer.”

DeMarcus Nelson figured to emerge as a scoring threat this year, but was lost for perhaps two months when he broke his ankle on Nov. 23 against Drexel. Commentators tend to ignore the loss of Nelson, who already had established his credentials as a rebounder and as the team’s best perimeter defender.

With Nelson sidelined, the Devils have only two double-figure scorers in the lineup for the first time since 1982, Krzyzewski’s second season at Durham.

J.J. Redick leads the ACC with 22.9 points per game, and Shelden Williams is fifth at 18.5. Redick and S. Williams virtually match the most heavily relied upon pair of scorers during Krzyzewski’s tenure, Jason Williams (21.6) and Shane Battier (19.9) of the national championship squad of 2001. This year’s pair combine for 41.4 points per game. Their ’01 counterparts chipped in 41.5, but had three other double-figure teammates to carry the burden.

Duke’s current No.3 scorer is Sean Dockery, who followed a career-best 19 points against Virginia Tech with 11 against the Quakers. That’s only the second time the senior produced consecutive double-figure efforts. (The other came early in 2003-04). Dockery now averages 7.6 points. The gap between his output and the second-highest on the team, supplied by Williams, is the largest of Krzyzewski’s tenure. Senior Lee
Melchionni is hitting 36.5 percent of his shots, and sporadically assertive freshman Josh McRoberts chips in a bit more than seven points per outing.

The lack of additional scoring threats allows opposing defenses to double-team Williams and Redick, or at least to cheat a second man in their direction, without much danger of being punished for the stratagem. Handling so much defensive attention is sure to be wearing on body and spirit, particularly as the season stretches across months.

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