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Notre Dame 77 Duke 73

Free throws...

By JD King
Jan 28, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Duke Blue Devils center Jahlil Okafor (15) shoots as Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Zach Auguste (30) defends in the first half at the Purcell Pavilion.
Jan 28, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Duke Blue Devils center Jahlil Okafor (15) shoots as Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Zach Auguste (30) defends in the first half at the Purcell Pavilion.
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

So what to make of Duke's loss at Notre Dame? Well here's our take.

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No one likes to lose, but not all losses are terrible.

Duke took a very young team on the road to play a very experienced #8 team nationally and took them to the wire.

It's a learning loss, in other words, and look at how different it was from Duke's previous two losses: Duke was in the game from beginning to end despite its youth and despite playing with a limited Justise Winslow.

The game was on the 28th, just 17 days after the Miami meltdown and 19 after the State stunner.

Since Miami, Duke has won on the road at Louisville, beaten Pitt at home and taken out a tough St. John's team in the Garden.

So losing to Notre Dame is okay? No big deal?

No, we wouldn't say that, but we would say keep some perspective and give this group some time to grow.

There was some significant adversity to overcome.

Duke needs to toughen up some more, to grow up, and we expect they'll get there.

In the meantime, the ACC is nothing if not brutal and young players will have to grow up if they would like to succeed.

Notre Dame is a serious challenge. It's a small team, but pretty quick, plays together with purpose and shoots very well.

And it's experienced.

Duke has a lot of things going for it, but it's still a young team, and that showed at times in South Bend.

Whether it was just basic things like errant passes or more critical errors like missed free throws late or hurried shots, it was a key difference in this game.

On the bright side, Duke played hard and defended a smaller, quick team fairly well, certainly much better than we saw earlier against State or Miami.

And Jahlil Okafor again had a solid game, with 22 points and 17 rebounds.

Tyus Jones had 14 and Quinn Cook 15, both on 5-11 shooting. And Justise Winslow had 13, which is more than we've seen from him lately.

He really hasn't been the Winslow we saw earlier since, oh, BC or Wake Forest. When's the last time you saw his explosiveness? It's not his fault, but it just hasn't been there.

He did have 10 against State, but then against Miami he had two, against Louisville three, Pitt seven, then bottoming out against St. John's with no points in ten minutes.

That's just offense of course. It's a lot harder to measure defense with straightforward stats.

Between the notorious concept of a freshman hitting the wall and injuries to his shoulder and ribs, Winslow's biggest absence has been on defense.

If he were 100 %, we think you could reasonably assume that someone for Notre Dame, say Pat Connaughton, could have been neutralized.

His re-emergence is good news for Duke though, and he appeared to get through this game without any further aggravation of his injuries, which is great news.

So all in all, we'd put this one down as a learning experience, a game that Duke could have won but which should help down the road when other tough situations arise.

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