What went wrong on Duke basketball's final play turnover against #1 Kansas

#11 Duke fell to 4-2 on the season after a 75-72 loss against #1 Kansas last night in Las Vegas. It was a back and forth contest where both teams deserved to win the game. In the end, the Jayhawks made a few more plays to outlast the Blue Devils.

In the final ten seconds of the contest, Duke had the ball in the half court with a chance to take the lead down 73-72. Freshman Kon Knueppel received the ball at the top of the key, drove into the lane to draw two defenders, and passed into nothing to turn the ball over and end the game.

The clip on the left was the play where the Blue Devils could've taken the lead. It was well drawn up action by head coach Jon Scheyer, but relying on a freshmam went wrong for the second game against a ranked opponent for Duke, as Cooper Flagg turned the ball over in a similar situation against #9 Kentucky.

Here's what went wrong with the final play.

Freshman handling the ball

Against Kentucky, Flagg was given the ball and essentially tried to make a play himself. It made sense as Duke was really struggling in the second half offensively in that game and Flagg had been the only consistent scoring threat for the Blue Devils in the second twenty minutes, but relying on a freshman in that light, regardless of the talent level, is a difficult thing to do in the first month of the season. Flagg turned the ball over, and Knueppel did the same thing last night. It was interesting to see Tyrese Proctor give the ball off to Knueppel instead of initiating the action himself, given that he is a junior and has been in big time situations like this before. Knueppel is great at getting to the basket and is a talented passer in kick out situations, which is what I think the action was looking for, but it's tough to tell a freshman against the #1 team in the country in the sixth game of the season to make a winning play no matter how good they are. Especially since Proctor was leading the team in scoring and Knueppel wasn't having his best night, Proctor was probably better suited to handle that play.

Knueppel kept his head down through the drive

The middle of the floor opened up and Knueppel attacked it right away. The play made sense: either Knueppel was going to get a look at the basket or he was going to draw two defenders and kick it out for an open three. But, as Knueppel drove to the basket before he tried to spin off of his defender, his head was down, limiting his ability to see what the defenders were doing. Once he got into his spin and looked up to decide to pass or take a shot, Kansas's KJ Adams already had a hand in his face and a secondary defender already had his hands up to take Knueppel's vision away. Duke will probably be in a late game situation where that play could come up, and if Knueppel's head is up it could've aided him in making a quicker decision to take it straight to the rim and potentially get fouled or kick the ball out.

Sion James cutting to the basket

As Knueppel began to drive to the hoop, Duke had three shooters on the perimeter in each area of the arc. They were set up well for a kick out if Knueppel decided to do that, and it could've worked to perfection if Sion James stayed in the left corner. As Knueppel got to the basket, James cut with him, taking the kick out to James away. And based on the way Knueppel was defended, there's no way he could've gotten the ball to Flagg or Proctor on the other sides of the perimeter. James looked like he thought Knueppel was going up for a shot and charged in to have a chance at an offensive rebound, but once Knueppel finished his spin move, he looked to dump it off. It looked like Knueppel expected to see James in the corner ready to shoot a three after he noticed a second defender had come from the weak side, but Knueppel was already on his feet and had to dump it off after noticing James wasn't in his original spot, leading to the turnover.

Despite being 4-2, there's no reason to believe Duke isn't a national championship contender. They're young, have been inconsistent offensively in big games, and their two losses have come against the #1 and #9 teams in the country. The Blue Devils will have a chance to bounce back on December 4th as they will host powerhouse #4 Auburn.