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The DBR Podcast is back for some sad, yet hopeful, notes about Duke’s loss to UNC last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Among the standout performances for Duke were guys who have been mostly stuck on the bench this season, like junior Joey Baker and freshman Henry Coleman. Baker had a double-figure scoring night and Coleman brought the intensity and energy that Jason, Donald, and Sam have all known was there but we hadn’t seen yet. Additionally, we saw the Duke offense sharing the ball and hunting good shots in a way that it hasn’t in a long while.
On the bad side for Duke, the defense allowed career nights for multiple Tar Heels, including freshman Caleb Love, who was key for UNC down the stretch. UNC was making threes and taking foul shots at abnormally large rates, and both of those stats will haunt Duke when they look at the tape. We also strongly suspect that this will be Matt Hurt’s worst performance this year in an otherwise standout sophomore campaign.
Looking ahead, Duke hosts Notre Dame this week, two months after their first meeting, a game when Duke won by 10. Jalen Johnson was unavailable for that game and Wendell Moore was ineffective, so the crew feels hopeful that Duke will get back on track with those guys giving even average performances. Jason highlights the extreme nature of Notre Dame’s playing style via the advanced metrics.
Stay in touch with the DBR Podcast by emailing us at dbrpodcast at gmail.com and leaving us five-star ratings wherever you find podcasts. We’ll be back after the Notre Dame game this week.