Everyone / Everything
It’s always fun to try and bring a new element to ‘Stock Up, Stock Down’, well, in this case just ‘Stock Down, and there have been games we have highlighted on solely the positives and negatives of a game.
However, this game deserves everything to be clumped together.
As mentioned earlier, outside of five stellar minutes from Vernon Carey Jr. and Tre Jones to try and bring Duke back in the game, nothing went right for the Blue Devils.
Duke has no energy, passion, or desire to even play in this game and didn’t come close to matching the intensity level of North Carolina State, who was playing for its NCAA Tournament lives.
Out of the Blue Devils’ 66 points, Jones or Carey scored 44 and no one else scored more than seven for Duke.
NC State’s defense wasn’t outstanding but the Blue Devils missed countless shots around the rim, shooting just 37.7 percent and a dreadful 23.5 percent from 3-point range, not to mention the 45.5 percent from the foul line.
Duke committed 13 turnovers on the night, which felt like a very low number compared to the flow of the game at PNC Arena and were out-rebounded, 51-43, against a below average rebounding team.
To add something on top of all that, Duke was credited with just six assists on its 26 made baskets.
Aside from the five-minute spurt from Jones and Carey Jr. the only positive was that Duke never found itself in foul trouble, which is really digging to find some positives in this game.
Duke will have another shot at NC State in the regular season on March 4 in Cameron Indoor Satin but the Blue Devils must pick up the pieces as they host Virginia Tech, who is coming off a 3OT game, on Saturday night at 8:00pm EST on ESPN2.