History says the driving force behind the Duke basketball team’s signature wins to date could be a forgotten tool by March.
Through a 9-1 start to the 2019-20 Duke basketball campaign, 10 Blue Devils are averaging at least 13 minutes. If Mike Krzyzewski distributes minutes to the same degree through the final game, then the double-digit number of guys seeing the above minimum playing time would represent at least two more than did so for any of his previous teams.
But here’s the thing: the 40th-year Duke basketball coach has always begun seasons far more generous to his bench than after Christmas. As soon as ACC play kicks into high gear each year, the number of players he routinely trusts begins to dwindle.
That said, in preseason press conferences and seemingly after every game thus far, Coach K has tagged his current group as genuinely unique in regards to depth. He’s all but promised a continued display of a wide array of lineups — even during tight games.
And all one has to do is replay Duke’s 77-63 victory at Virginia Tech from Friday night to see that the deep-bench strategy eventually paid dividends.
Not only did Coach K wisely opt for his smaller, quicker combinations during the second half in order to counteract the clever screening and decisive driving that led to the Hokies’ 39-38 halftime lead, but he also consistently ordered fresh legs to the scoring table across both halves to combat the contest’s idiosyncrasy:
Rare stoppage of play.
Note that not even the combined six first-half fouls between Duke and Virginia Tech would have been enough to reach a one-and-one bonus. Add to that these facts: the Hokies didn’t reach the bonus in either half, the Blue Devils only did so with seven drawn fouls after the break, and the total number of fouls between both sides for the game was 17.
As a result, and also due to Duke turning the ball over only seven times and both teams rarely committing out-of-bounds turnovers, media timeouts — chances to stop and take a breath — often arrived way behind schedule. The first didn’t come until the 13:45 mark, the second was 84 seconds late, and the under-eight timeout might not have happened at all had Coach K not finally called one of his own with 4:52 on the clock.
Therefore, one could argue the difference in the game — it took only about an hour and 40 minutes to complete — was Duke’s nine-to-seven advantage over Virginia Tech in players with double-digit minutes. After all, the Blue Devils outscored the Hokies in the second half, 39-22, in large part due to sinking all eight of their attempts from the charity stripe — a sign their fuel gauges never neared “E.”
Now, some would say the hallmark of these Blue Devils is their relentless, smart, cohesive defense. They wouldn’t exactly be wrong — considering Duke now ranks among the nation’s top 12 in total blocks (65), steals (95), and forced turnovers (178). However, intense defense requires the level of energy most humans can only maintain with frequent breaks.
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And even though inhuman sophomore Tre Jones has logged at least 36 minutes in seven games, Coach K’s simultaneous use of junior combo guard Jordan Goldwire at times has allowed Jones to take semi-breathers via Goldwire occasionally acting as the primary ballhandler and defending opponents’ point guards.
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All in all, the spread of minutes has been the key to now-No. 10 Duke’s two wins over ranked opponents and several other impressive outings. No surprise, then, the box score from the Nov. 26 overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin — snapped the program’s 150-game non-conference home win streak that dated back nearly 20 years — shows a season-low six Blue Devils with double-digit minutes.
The pieces are there. Except during the loss, the willingness to play all the pieces has also been there. So in summary, this Duke basketball bunch’s best chance to avoid a low-note ending is for Coach K to refrain from trashing his current 10-deep blueprint somewhere along the way.
Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more updates, analyses, opinions, and predictions regarding the 2019-20 Duke basketball season.