The Blue Devils fall at home to the Arizona Wildcats 78-73 in their first big test of the season. In a game that felt like it was a Final Four atmosphere both teams swung mightily at each other. The game saw 6 lead changes and 7 ties with neither team managing a scoring run of over 6 – but each run felt like a haymaker. Duke, however, was never able to scratch for more than a 2 point lead. The Wildcats were a balanced team on offense with 5 players scoring in double figures but only 14 points for the high scorer Keshad Johnson. The Blue Devils were the opposite only managing to get double figure offensive outputs from Kyle Filipowski (25) and captain Jeremy Roach (17) in a game where Duke needed someone else to step up.
The Blue Devils were unable to find a rhythm offensively resorting mostly to isolation basketball. A good amount of that credit goes to Arizona’s pressure, they hounded the Blue Devils on the perimeter making it difficult to for the Blue Devils to get into their offense. Neither team was fluid offensively but Arizona’s defense and rebounding was the difference in the game. The Blue Devils struggled mightily in the first half to rebound the basketball, getting nearly doubled up by the Wildcats in the first half – granted the Blue Devils did acquit themselves better in the second half winning the battle by 2. Had that effort been there the entire game perhaps the outcome is different especially with the difference in score being 5, the exact different in second chance points in favor of Arizona. The entire night it was very clear that AZ was the scrappier team, the team playing like this game was do or die. The Blue Devils will have learn very quickly that intensity is non negotiable. Winning 50-50 balls is non negotiable, diving for loose balls is non-negotiable and that effort on the glass is non-negotiable.
There’s clearly a lot for the Blue Devils to clean up but this is exactly the reason you schedule games like this early in the season. The Blue Devils found out very early in the season what their weakness are and what they need to address and it comes with very little consequence to the rest of their season. The question that we ask ourselves is can the Blue Devils overcome these weaknesses quickly enough with more big time games approaching. Michigan State will be chomping at the bit to right their ship after an opening night loss. The Blue Devils will have to be the hungrier, smarter team – a team they were not on Friday night.
DUKE HEAD COACH JON SCHEYER
Opening Statement:
“First of all, congrats to Arizona. They’re very talented. They’re gonna have a great season. They’re really good, well coached, and you gotta give them credit. They’re a very good team. I thought they were more aggressive in the first half, and I didn’t think we played our best. Despite that, we’re right there. At the end of the game, it comes down to one or two plays. I think the biggest thing for me – we didn’t play together, and that’s hard for me to swallow. That’s not okay for us. We didn’t play Duke basketball and I take full responsibility for that. There’s too many plays where we just, zero-pass, one-pass possessions. We’re just giving the ball up and that’s on me, and that’s something we’re going to get back to working on tomorrow, Sunday, Monday, as we prepare for Michigan State and move forward. I think the thing about this game though, you learn so much more about yourself playing in it. And it’s a great reality check. I’m sure even if we won this game, there’s a lot that we have to clean up and do better. So for me, never going to enjoy losing. For me, as long as I’m coaching and as long as I’m competing, I will always hate losing. That’s me as a competitor. But I also know that I’m thankful for this opportunity. Playing a team like Arizona, playing them this early in the year, I think it’s a great thing for our program. I would hope or would think Tommy [Lloyd] would say the same, and for us, it’s back to it, just like if the outcome was any different.”
On lack of ball movement and whether it impacted shooting:
“No question. The difference of, we made them work on defense and the shot quality that we got, versus when we just came down right away and tried to make it happen. And I don’t know – I have to take some time to watch the film and think about our group, and I don’t know what went into that. I would hope it’s coming from the right place of wanting it so badly. But it’s not winning basketball. That’s the bottom line. That’s not how we’re gonna win games and we have too good of players, we have too much firepower that we can have on the court, just to go one-on-one, and you’re just not gonna be able to do it against really good teams, and they are a really good team. They have guards that can defend the ball. They have rim protection inside. And too many wasted possessions, bad shots, turnovers. I thought not only do you not score, but it leads to early run outs for them. So the swings, just starting the first half were so drastic, and it really started with our offense.”
On playing three guards and doing better on the board:
“Rebounding, if you’re smaller, bigger, whatever, it’s still about effort, still about blocking out and pursuing the ball. We’re gonna find a few times tonight where we stood and watched, and it’s just a mindset. That’s something our guards tonight, now I need them to rebound more, no question, but also, there wasn’t every play where five guys were blocking out. Again, we have three guards. It’s not like we’re small either. Mark [Mitchell]’s 6’8”, Flip [Kyle Filipowski] is 6’11”. Our guards are bigger. It’s all about effort. It’s all about mindset. And again, I think it shows that we’re thinking about offense. And we have to flip that.”
On preparing for Tuesday’s matchup with Michigan State:
“We have to move on quickly. We knew, no matter what, with this schedule we have win or lose, you have to move on quickly. And Michigan State, I haven’t had a chance to watch them yet but I know for them, they’re hungry coming off a loss as well. So you’re going to see a hungry team and I felt going into the year, they could be as good as anybody and I still feel that way. I haven’t studied them, of course, but we’re going to get after it, is what we’re going to do. We’re going to get ready for the next game and then, look, it’s a long season, a long way to go, but there’s a lot we have to correct; a lot we have to improve on.”
SENIOR GUARD JEREMY ROACH
“I think in the first half we kind of just let them off the hook a lot. We put ourselves in that position. We didn’t deserve to win this one. It’s all good – it’s a learning experience and it’s early, so you’ve got to just learn from it. Just have to play smart, value the ball, value possessions. It comes down to just one or two possessions in the game – that’s just the biggest thing. But we’re going to learn from it, get back to work tomorrow, and get ready for Michigan State on Tuesday.”
When asked if he felt like Arizona was more physical than Duke was:
“I feel like we matched their physicality in some possessions. In some instances, maybe they were looking more physical than us. In the first half, they definitely outplayed us and they out-toughed us for sure, but I think throughout the game we kind of matched their physicality.” “I’m just used to these kind of games. I love these kind of games. These are the games I work for. It’s just kind of tough to lose like this, when it’s kind of a back-and-forth battle, we’re down eight at halftime, we come back, we’re up two, go back down six, go back up two with a minute left and we just can’t get one stop. We’ve just got to learn from it.”
SOPHOMORE CENTER KYLE FILIPOWSKI
When asked if this game was a wakeup call for Duke:
“I think it just depends. For me personally, no, I knew this was going to be a battle coming into this game. I’m sure a few of the other guys with more experience thought so as well. It definitely gives our freshmen a taste of what’s to come. No matter how much we say it, there’s no better way to see it than when you go through it.”
On what Duke can learn from a game like this:
“I think it’s just all-around effort. Some guys were battling pretty tough. Some were a little streaky. So I think it’s just about being more consistent as a group overall. I think we played a much better second half than first half. There’s still those little things we’ve got to clean up, like the last-second shot [just before] halftime. Things like that. Trying to be an optimist here, there were definitely a lot of little things we could’ve done better. Obviously, we knew the rebounding was going to be more of a big challenge this year for us. There’s not really much where I saw a big weakness for our team, just little things, like switching on screens or blocking out. There’s not really a big vulnerable place for us. I think that’s something to feel good about, but obviously, we’ve still got to clean up the other stuff because other teams are going to find different places to hit us.”
