Stock up, stock down from the Duke basketball win over Colorado State
Javin DeLaurier
As a senior captain, a lot is expected out of Javin DeLaurier and while he certainly hasn’t had a bad start to his 2019-20 season, it also hasn’t been great.
DeLaurier struggled against the size and length of Kansas and did the same against Colorado State.
He finished with five points and five rebounds, which is good in 17 minutes, but for a player who gets a good number of his shots near the rim, he was only 1-of-4, something that has to improve.
On Friday night, DeLaurier and Jack White ran into each other, White the majority of the impact, but thankfully both players were fine, but it could have been a much different situation.
Free-Throw Shooting
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Duke has struggled from the foul line so far in this short season.
It was ultimately the charity stripe that cost the Blue Devils this year, and while Tre Jones was able to salt away the victory at the free throw line against Kansas, but Duke only made 14-of-23 (60.9%).
Things didn’t get better on Friday against Colorado State as the Blue Devils just made 11-of-18 (61.1%).
Free throws might not win you a game, but they sure can lose a game and if Duke doesn’t improve, they could be looking at a situation very much like last season.
light. Trending. Predicted scores for every Duke basketball game this season
3-Point Shooting
The sport of basketball has developed into a chuck it and hope it goes in mentality, primarily due to the success of Stephen Curry and his 3-point shot.
Unfortunately while that has been going on, Duke has been making less and less of their attempts and it could have a lasting impact.
Duke isn’t a 3-point shooting team, with the exception of a couple players, namely Alex O’Connell and Matthew Hurt.
Those were the only two players who made a 3-pointer against Colorado State as the Blue Devils shot 4-of-22 (18.2%) and against Kansas the Blue Devils were 8-of-24 (33.3%).
It’s completely fine that Duke isn’t a 3-point shooting team once again this season, but the Blue Devils must stop letting the 3-ball fly and force the ball into the big men in the paint or to find the slashers, like Stanley for an easy bucket.