“Live by the three, die by the three.”
I’m not sure anyone knows who first uttered these words, but they seem to come into play every year around this time. A team that blows its way through the regular season by shooting lights-out from the perimeter inevitably encounters important games down the stretch when the shots just won’t fall. Unfortunately for the Duke Blue Devils, they provide 2008’s best example of how any team can lose a basketball game if they rely too much on the outside shot. But the number three in this story does not solely refer to Duke’s inability to hit the outside shot. Rather, the outside shot is one of three reasons why Duke failed to advance.
1) Shooting: The only reason that Duke got to a #2 seed in the first place was through great outside shooting. DeMarcus Nelson, Greg Paulus, Jon Scheyer, and Kyle Singler proved to be more than capable from beyond the arc. But somewhere in February, the Blue Devils lost their touch from outside. 8-28 against Wake Forest. 2-15 vs. Georgia Tech. 6-26 in the loss to Clemson in the ACC Tournament. And finally, an abysmal 11-43 performance in the two NCAA games, capped off with a stretch in which Duke missed 15 threes in a row in a 6-pt loss to West Virginia.
2) No Inside Game: You can survive poor shooting nights by making sure you get the ball to your inside presence. Sounds simple enough, so what was the problem for the Blue Devils? They didn’t have one! Lance Thomas is a fair offensive rebounder, but can’t score. Singler can drive to the basket and hold his own in the paint, but still settles for the outside shot most of the time. And I don’t like to be harsh, but Brian Zoubek is just about useless. He reminds me of a less talented (if that’s possible) Serge Zwikker. This is good news for Zwikker, since the former Tarheel now has company in the “Worst Center in ACC History Whose Name Starts With The Letter Z” club. Duke has had some strong big men in the past. Carlos Boozer and Shelden Williams immediately spring to mind. Coach K will need to find one on the recruiting trail, because the inside void can’t be filled by anyone currently on Duke’s roster.
3) Stamina: Duke’s season came to an end early for the 2nd straight season in eerily similar fashion. I don’t know if it’s bad conditioning, or strenuous classes, or having to negotiate through all those goofy tents around Krzyzewskiville, but in any event, Duke appears exhausted. They wore down late in the regular season finale against UNC, couldn’t hold Clemson in the ACC Semifinals, and looked extremely tired while blowing a significant second-half lead to West Virginia. Coach K looked tired too, but he had the flu. The players can’t use that excuse. Again, I’m not sure what the culprit is, but it’s been a common theme the last few years. The Blue Devils wear down, can’t hit their outside shots, and have no inside game to make up for it. It should be an interesting offseason for Coach K. He’s going to need to find time outside of coaching the US Olympic team to find answers to these three issues. If he can’t, next year Duke will be afflicted with another three- the number of consecutive years the Devils get bounced on the NCAA’s opening weekend.
