It was not easy, but the Duke Blue Devils were the second team in March Madness to officially punch its ticket into the Sweet 16. The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament had its issues with No. 16 Siena in the Round of 64, as well as at times vs. No. 9 TCU in the Round of 32. However, Jon Scheyer's team was able to work some things out advance anyway by winning 71-65 over Siena, and 81-58 over TCU.
While Duke awaits the winner of No. 4 Kansas vs. No. 5 St. John's in the Sweet 16, the Blue Devils have to realize either the Jayhawks or the Red Storm will be a noticeable mark up in terms of overall competition. Scheyer will have to flex his coaching muscles over an all-timer in this Sweet 16 matchup. Whether it be Rick Pitino or Bill Self remains to be seen. Does Scheyer have it in him to win?
So what we are going to do today is take a look at what Duke has done so far in the NCAA Tournament and find three key areas where the Blue Devils have to be better with the Sweet 16 on deck. Pitino and Self have won multiple national titles apiece in their illustrious coaching careers. Scheyer is trying to win his first in year four leading his alma mater. It is possible, but will not be easy...
Let's start with the elelphant in the room when it comes to Duke, hoping to find any sort of solution...
3. Duke needs to get some productivity from the bench, even amid injury
A pair of untimely injuries to Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngonba II have severely limited Duke's rotation. Cayden Boozer has been forced into the starting lineup in Foster's absence. Although Scheyer has some optimism about Foster's potential return this season, let's not count on it just yet. Even though Ngongba was on a minutes restriction vs. TCU, he was still able to make some level of an impact...
But to be totally transparent, Scheyer has only gotten a combined 13 points over two games from his bench. Only Nikolas Khamenia and Darren Harris came off the bench vs. Siena. While Ngongba did make a positive impact in Saturday's win over TCU, the only other players to see any action for Duke off the bench so far in the tournament are Jack Scott and Cameron Sheffield, but only four minutes...
The further Duke gets into this tournament, the more and more likely its weak bench will be exposed.
2. Duke has to find ways to get off to a hot start vs. better competition
It is not everything, but it is something. While Duke has been able to close it out in the end vs. lesser competition, it may not be able to afford getting into a huge hole vs. whoever they play the rest of the way. Even if either Kansas or St. John's cannot take advantage of Duke getting off to a slow start, somebody will. Siena and TCU gave Duke their best shots right out of the gate in their first halves.
Duke was down 43-32 entering halftime vs. Siena in their first-round game. TCU was only down 38-34 after the first frame of their Round of 32 date with Duke. Granted, Duke may just be one of those teams that plays its best basketball when it matters the most under Scheyer. It is one of their greatest overall attributes as a team. However, to what degree is this team really built to win big from behind?
Again, it may not catch up to them in the Sweet 16, but it could be a reason why they do not win it all.
1. Duke will need to take much better care of the basketball to advance
If there is one thing Scheyer can preach to his guys over the course of this week, it is to take better care of the basketball. While they only turned the ball over eight teams vs. Siena, there were still negative-two in terms of turnover differential. Siena's commitment to ball security played a huge part in them almost pulling off the monumental upset. Yes, it got much, much worse when taking on TCU...
Duke gave the ball back to the Horned Frogs a staggering 17 times. Yes, TCU did cough it up 12 times, but we are talking about the Blue Devils being at minus-five in the turnover department in this one. During their two games over the weekend, Duke was at a turnover deficit of seven. You cannot have anything close to that vs. high-end competition moving forward if you want to keep on dancing.
Cameron Boozer may be the team's best player, but he is a turnover machine with 10 in the tourney...