Stock Up, Stock Down: Total team effort lifts Duke basketball to road win

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SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 01: Elijah Hughes #33 of the Syracuse Orange drives to the basket during the second half of an NCAA basketball game against the Duke Blue Devils at the Carrier Dome on February 01, 2020 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images) /

Turnovers

In a nine point victory on the road in a tough environment, this was an excellent win for Duke, despite almost blowing the game, but nonetheless we head to ‘Stock Down’ and the first is the significant turnover issue the Blue Devils had.

Duke committed 19 turnovers with Wendell Moore leading the way with five and point guard Tre Jones committed four.

Vernon Carey Jr. and Cassius Stanley turned the ball over three times while Matthew Hurt, Jordan Goldwire, and Alex O’Connell each committed one turnover.

It’s amazing to think Duke turned the ball over 19 times, on the road, and still scored 97 points and won a basketball game but the Blue Devils cannot bank on that going forward and need to value the basketball much better.

Defense/Fouling

When you look at the score and see that Duke gave up 88 points to Syracuse, that definitely doesn’t sit well, but looking at the stats, it’s very strange.

Duke held the Orange to 38.6 percent shooting from the field (27-of-70) and 23.1 percent from 3-point range (6-of-26) but still surrendered 88 points.

Twenty of those points came at the free throw line and Duke committed 29 team fouls.

Cassius Stanley, Javin DeLaurier, and Wendell Moore all fouled out while Vernon Carey Jr. picked up four fouls as Tre Jones, Matthew Hurt, and Alex O’Connell all picked up three fouls.

If Syracuse was shooting the ball better, Duke could have been in serious trouble with how many times the Blue Devils put the Orange on the charity stripe and it’s something to monitor going forward, whether this becomes a trend of Duke just got a tough whistle on Saturday night.

Joey Baker

Joey Baker registering a DNP on Saturday is a major head-scratcher.

Going into the game the assumption was Baker could be in line for a breakout game due to his shooting ability against the Syracuse zone defense.

Could it have been an illness or an injury? Maybe.

But Baker was sitting on the bench with his warmup off and appeared fully engaged in the game.

It certainty was a strange situation, especially with the return of Wendell Moore, but with a chance to get back on the court on Tuesday night against Boston College, it’ll be interesting to see if Coach Krzyzewski plays his sophomore shooter.

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