November is a month in college basketball to figure out lineups, assess, and a good time to teach-to-tape. Even with victories over a tougher than advertised Texas team and Kansas, there were still questions about the Duke Blue Devils. The thought was that a turkey day matchup with John Calipari’s Arkansas team would answer a few of those questions about this iteration of the Duke Blue Devils. Being a 7-0 team tells us partially what we need to know, but how would they do facing adversity, and would Arkansas be the team to provide it?
Arkansas came into Thursday with one of the more electric backcourts in the country and an experienced front court as well. The backcourt, led by freshmen Darius Acuff Jr. and Maleek Thomas, are lightening quick and wired to score, both averaging over 17 points a game. The game began with John Calipari’s team doing exactly what they needed to do, taking advantage of a Duke team notorious for slow starts this season.
The Blue Devils turned the ball over 6 times in the first 8 minutes of the game on their way to 7 for the half – leading to 7 points off of those turnovers for the Razorbacks. Those 7 points matched the Arkansas lead, a 7-0 run by the Blue Devils capped off by an Isaiah Evans 3-pointer tied the game up at the 12:34 mark. The teams would draw even at 17, 20 and again at 22. The Blue Devils would go on another run, this time 10-0 to push to a 10 point lead. Duke would go up by as much as 13 before a 7-0 run by Arkansas ended the half with Duke up 6, 41-35.
The Razorbacks carried the momentum of their 7-0 run to end the half into a 15-6 run to begin the second half, the run continued to a 23-12 run and a 7 point lead for Jon Calipari’s team. Duke would go on an extended run over a 9:40 minute span of 27 to 11 fueled by 16 points from Cameron Boozer and 9 points from senior guard Caleb Foster. The run not only retook the lead but sealed and put the game out of reach of the Razorbacks.
As a team, the Blue Devils shot 34.8% from beyond the arc and 49.2% overall, the Razorbacks shot 33.3% from beyond the arc and 40.6% overall.
What We Learned
Cameron Boozer is the real deal, despite a slow start, Cam Boozer exploded, putting the Blue Devils on his back to the tune of 35 points and 9 rebounds. Boozer clearly learned from some heavily critiqued performances and put on a dominant one.
Caleb Foster is giving Duke all he can. There’s a narrative around Caleb Foster that he’s a sub-par guard. It’s understandable that some people look to the easiest explanation instead of the correct one. He’s a junior guard, who spent his high school career as a scoring guard and at Duke he’s had to convert himself into a point guard, arguable the hardest position to play. Has that transition been a difficult one? Sure, but in an age where it’s so much easier to run away rather than to run towards – let’s give Caleb kudos for sticking with the process and giving Duke his all. Development has never been a straight line, as hard as that is for people to believe. I, for one, am happy to have Foster on this squad, and clearly so is the coaching staff.
Duke has been less than stellar from the free throw line, and that hasn’t changed. In 4 of Duke’s 8 games, they’ve shot sub 70% from the free throw line. This is a concerning trend that has to be addressed and will be the downfall of a very talented team if continued:
Free throw percentages so far on the season:
Texas: 73.3%
W. Carolina: 75.8%
Army: 82.8%
Indiana State: 66.7%
Kansas: 65.4%
Niagara: 79.2%
Howard: 63.6%
Arkansas: 66.7%
Whether Duke won or lost this game, there was a lot of tape to teach to. The Blue Devils didn’t have the cleanest floor game, with a ton of unforced errors. Going down to the Razorbacks twice by 7 points, it would have been completely understandable, especially in the second half, to fold up shop, but Jon Scheyer’s team didn’t do that, they continually battled back and found a way to win. That might be the biggest lesson from last night’s 80-71 victory.