Duke MBB: How to Overcome Recent Struggles
Pretty odd to say that the 9-0, number one ranked Duke Blue Devils are struggling isn’t it? Well it’s true, in five of their last six games the Blue Devils have found themselves fighting back late in the second half. They have won each of those five games, but how do they avoid going down late in the second?
It’s pretty impressive that Duke is 9-0 seeing that against Texas they were down 16 in the second half, and against Florida they were down 17 in the second half and 10 with 4:38 left in the game. Unfortunately sooner or later the Blue Devils will not be able to overcome huge deficits in the second half, so how do they fix this problem?
A big problem for the Blue Devils has been their bench productivity. Against Indiana yesterday the bench combined for a total of five points in about 26 minutes. Against Florida on Sunday the bench combined for 11 points in 33 minutes, so you may be able to spot the trend here.
In order to keep their undefeated season alive Duke needs to figure out a way to keep games competitive and to not go down by double digits late in the second half. One way to accomplish this is bench production, another is the defensive play.
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When Duke plays zone it seems to work but when they play man they get carved up. If they want to keep their streak alive the Blue Devils need to play more zone rather than man. If the Blue Devils are going to keep their status as number one in the country they need to switch away from man defense and take advantage of their height in a zone format.
The final key to keeping their undefeated season alive is the foul trouble. Duke put Indiana in the bonus early in the second half which almost hurt them in such a hostile environment. In two of the last three games Duke has had a player foul out which has hurt them quite a bit.
During the game against Texas Grayson Allen fouled out with only a few minutes left in the second half after three first half fouls. In last night’s game against the Hoosiers Wendell Carter Jr. fouled out late in the second half which was a big loss for the Blue Devils.
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If Duke wants to keep winning they can’t continue to put the opponent on the free throw line. One way to accomplish this is to have the front court stand their ground and not float out to the perimeter. When the bigs float out to the perimeter the back court has to cover their ground down near the basket and that’s when fouls occur.
If the front court can stay down towards the basket the back court won’t have to cover down low. In doing so we won’t see the opponent go to the free throw line nearly as much.