Duke Basketball: Bench play is not a detriment to Blue Devils’ title hopes

A quick glance at point totals is not adequate in assessing the recent job performance of the Duke basketball reserves.

Never judge a book by its cover. All that is gold does not glitter.  Looks are deceiving. And the Duke basketball bench is no exception to these expressions.

The No. 2 Blue Devils (20-2; 8-1 ACC) won their sixth straight on Tuesday night — 80-55 at home over Boston College — despite their bench only contributing four points. As a result of this single stat, Twitter coaches diagnosed the backups’ recent lack of offense — a combined average of 4.9 points across the past six games — as a potential roadblock to future success.

Believe it or not, the Twitter coaches may be wrong.

See, the sixth straight win also marked the sixth straight game that an opposing bench has outscored Duke’s bench. Stated another way, the bench’s last time outscoring an opponent’s bench (28-13 against Syracuse) coincided with the Blue Devils’ last loss.

Simply put, the Duke starters don’t need help putting the ball in the basket.

After all, freshmen starters R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson are the ACC’s two leading scorers (23.0 and 22.0 points per game, respectively). Also, fellow freshman starter Cam Reddish, who had a game-high 24 points against the Eagles, is now averaging 13.5 points per game for the season and seems to have found his confidence on offense as of late.

And at least three of the starting five — which also includes able-scorers Tre Jones (8.5 points per game) and Marques Bolden (5.7 points per game) — are almost always on the floor as long as the outcome of a game is still in doubt.

So what does Duke need from its bench?

Boosts in the form of intense efforts and heady plays on defense — such as the block by Jack White of the ACC’s third-leading scorer, Boston College guard Ky Bowman:

Across the past 10 games — since ACC play began — opponents’ benches have combined to outscore the Blue Devils’ bench, 169-106; however, during this stretch, other stats suggest Duke may actually have won a majority of the battles between benches:

• A combined 25-to-14 advantage in blocks by Duke’s bench
• A combined 21-to-14 advantage in steals by Duke’s bench
• A total of 24 turnovers for Duke’s bench compared to 33 for opponents’ benches

The Blue Devils’ four most-used reserves — junior forwards White and Javin DeLaurier plus sophomore guards Alex O’Connell and Jordan Goldwire — appear to be embracing their roles as sparkplug defenders while leaving the scoring opportunities to the far more potent starters.

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Sure, it would be nice to see White snap his streak of 19 attempts from beyond the arc without a single make (ouch).

Sure, it would be nice to see DeLaurier develop a post move (not sure that’s possible).

Sure, it would be nice to see O’Connell make fewer boneheaded mistakes and benefit from a few more shots from deep (his 3-ball accuracy, 36.7 percent, is the best of any Blue Devil in the regular rotation).

Sure, it would be nice to see Goldwire at least partially improve upon his 17.9 field goal percentage for the season (another ouch).

But it would also be sweet just to see countless more dunks and swishes from the starters while the bench sticks to doing what it does best, which already seems to be enough to keep the Blue Devils’ dream of cutting down nets intact.

The next test for the Blue Devils is arguably its toughest of the season to date — at No. 3 Virginia on Saturday at 6 p.m. (on ESPN). And it should be noted that during the last meeting between the two teams — Duke’s 72-70 win in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 19 — the Cavaliers’ bench outscored that of the Blue Devils, 17-0.

But that one stat obviously didn’t keep Duke from being victorious. And it certainly didn’t tell the whole story (the Blue Devils’ bench only logged a total of 12 minutes during that contest).

In other words, never judge a bench solely by its point total.