The Blue Devils took a 9-point lead into the half against the Wildcats but a lack of second half aggression from anyone not named Flagg, poor shooting and renewed effort by Kentucky on the defensive end were too much to overcome for a gassed Blue Devil team. The writing was on the wall when 2 of Duke’s 8 rotational players had to sit out, Khaman Maluach do you issues with a defender crashing into his legs, triggering cramping and shoulder injury for grad transfer Sion James that kept him out for the rest of the second half only playing 1 minute. The Blue Devils still, with the horrid shooting, the lack of two pieces they normally have to work with still had a chance to win against a ranked team with 28 second left.
Duke didn’t do a good job keeping Kentucky off the glass and allowed the Wildcats to score 20 points in the paint after holding them to just 6 in the first half. The cold shooting was a factor but even with that cold shooting Duke was for the most part in control for most of the game. But the Blue Devils didn’t find other ways to get points, they weren’t adept at getting to the rim and when they did they didn’t finish.
Duke was led by freshman Cooper Flagg who scored a game high 26 points on 9-19 shooting, coupled with 12 rebounds. Flagg scored 12 of Duke’s 26 points in the second half and it made sense why the offense went through him during the waning moments of the game. A lot of people will say Duke lost this game because Cooper went 1 on 1 for 2 straight possessions but considering the other options Duke had. The backcourt, who had to play the entire second half were 0-6 combined and Kentucky’s defense kept them from being as effective as they were in the first half. Kon Knueppel who was having a dreadful shooting game or Cooper whose efforts were the only reason Duke had any semblance of offense in the second half.
November is when you learn about your team, what you need to fix, what you need to figure out. The shooting will come for Duke. Not every night – it doesn’t come every night for anyone. The things Duke can control they’ll have to figure out.
- Can they gradually increase the play of their bench players? It would be nice to see minutes from Darren Harris, Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba but clearly it’s going to be a process. It’s going to take time
- Duke has some stuff to clean up defensively, there were still communication errors on perimeter switches and Duke went under a screens on a couple of occasion leading to open attempts.
HEAD COACH JON SCHEYER
“This is a big time college basketball game. Incredibly proud of our team. I thought we came out, played a great first half, really competed at a high level. Give Kentucky credit for the plays they made. I think they showed incredible maturity, and their experience came out in that second half, no question. For us it’s disappointing because you’re winning for 27 minutes, and our guys competed, and they played hard. This guy to my right (Cooper Flagg) at 17 years old, what he does and how he competes and how he shows up, I couldn’t be more proud of him. We’ve got a long season to go. I feel more optimistic tonight losing than I did even before, because you find out in this game the character of your team, the heart that they have, and this team’s got a lot of heart. They kept coming at us, making shots, and we had an answer. We just kept answering. Came down to one more play, and give them credit, tip your hat to them. For us, we’re going to grow and learn from this. I promise you that. We’ve got a locker room full of guys that are disappointed, heart broken. I’m with them. And we’re going to get better.”
On the plan coming out of the last timeout:
“Well, the ball in his (Cooper Flagg) hands. They knew that was happening too, and I’m okay with that. We’re going to be in these moments a lot together, and I trust his instincts. I probably could have put him in a better position, to be honest. But he’s got to touch it and trust that good things are going to happen. I wish you could say that every time it’s going to work out, and that’s not reality. I’m just so proud of him. Again, what he did in that game — he willed us in that game. He willed us. Especially down the stretch, to have 12 rebounds. Again, 26. He’d tell you he’s got more in him too. Again, I want him to touch it down the stretch.”
FRESHMAN GUARD/FORWARD COOPER FLAGG
On the difference offensively from the first half to the second half:
“I think we could have got a little stagnant at times. I think a lot of it was defense. It was a lot of miscommunications on defense that led to some easy stuff for them. Transition offense is a lot easier than playing in half-court the whole half, so I think we kind of slowed it down a little bit and that could play into that.
On what it says to have the ball in your hands late in this big matchup at the end of the game:
“Coach trusted me to go and make a play, like he said it didn’t work out. I’m glad he had that trust in me to put the ball in my hands. I’m looking for it in that moment. It didn’t work out, but I’m still going to look for it no matter what.”
On what he learned being outside Cameron and playing such a big opponent:
“Yeah, it was definitely a big experience. We started three freshmen. I know me, Kon, and Khaman learned a lot from tonight. Playing some big minutes. It was definitely a big learning experience for us. We came out, and we competed. A bunch of plays we can clean up on and get better at, but at the end of the day, it’s just basketball.”
