Duke Downed by the Seminoles

As we called after the MD game Duke not only had problems figuring out the Florida State defense, they were annihilated by it. FSU defended with ferocity on nearly every possession and forced Duke into bad shots, and turnovers. But as well as FSU played Duke did nothing to help themselves. There was no post presence in this game whatsoever, and guard play honestly wasn’t much better. I saw lots of passing the ball around the perimeter and  not much else. Granted FSU is long and athletic but Duke should have at very least matched their intensity, there was no spark to the team, and the youth really showed, but it’s one loss, and to those writing Duke off as you saw last year, that’s a dangerous thing to do.

This, despite being a team with 2 seniors, is still a young team. It’s hard to build the kind of consistency with freshmen and sophomores and Duke is finding that out in the last couple of games. In addition to being a young team, it’s a team that had to put the halt on how it was playing in the first part of the season. The loss of Kyrie Irving has caused this team to have to switch up how the offense is run. This is a team in flux, and as we have seen in past seasons the ship will be righted, it will take time for that to happen. This team will have to grow up in a hurry.

I would hope that Duke Nation understands that the coaching staff sitting on that bench realizes what needs to be done and has a wealth of experience and teaching ability. No one assumed for a minute (accept maybe ESPN) that this team or any team was going to go undefeated. It isn’t a shocking loss, the writing was on the wall after the MD game, and credit goes to Florida State for striking while the iron was hot. Hopefully unlike FSU teams in the past they can capitalize on the win and make something of their season, my guess is that this game was about as good as it’s going to get for them. Duke clearly isn’t as bad as this loss looked nor are they as good as they seemed a few games ago, but they are a good team and will improve. Next up UVA.