Aspects of the Duke basketball team which were duds against Gardner-Webb:
Rebounding
One thing that has hurt the Blue Devils in the early part of the season has been their work on the backboards.
Duke lost the rebounding battle against Kentucky, 44-35, and surrendered 15 offensive rebounds against Campbell and seven against Gardner-Webb.
As much better rebounding teams await the Blue Devils in the coming weeks, Duke will need Mark Williams, Paolo Banchero, Theo John, and company to crash the glass and limit its opponents to one shot down the floor.
Slow Starts
It was a crawling start for the Blue Devils on Tuesday night, starting 1-of-7 from the floor.
Luckily for Duke, Gardner-Webb started, and finished, just as slow as the five-time National Champions, but Mike Krzyzewski cannot expect his team to start that poorly against better competition and have the same success.
Granted, after the first media timeout, Duke was off and running against the Runnin’ Bulldogs, and the team never looked back.
The Blue Devils will return to Coach K Court on Friday, November 19 against Lafayette (0-3) .