With everyone watching to see if Duke could win a road game in the ACC, Duke mailed it in and was thoroughly beaten by N.C. State. There was nothing good to say about this game. The defense was completely awful, the offense wasn’t really any better. It’s rare for Duke to give up two 20pt scores but that is exactly what happened. State scored at will, and was able to stop Duke whenever it needed to.
There is no doubt that State is an up and coming team, but Duke did its part to make State look unbeatable. State applied pressure that most teams would easily beat, yet Duke had issues. Turning the ball over on the simplest of plays. This was one of the worst games I have seen Jon Scheyer play offensively, continually driving to the basket and lobbing the ball toward the backboard, not sure if those were shots or attempted alley oops but it looked awkward and unimpressive.
One player showed for this game, and that was Nolan Smith. He had a great night shooting unlike the other members of the big three. Duke going forward will need production from not only the big three but the bench as well, and if the frontcourt players are not going provide good defense on top of not putting the ball in the basket Duke will continue to struggle and could have a third ACC loss in less than a week.
Ugly, ugly game for Duke…and the frustrations were written all over Coach K’s expression.
We will try to discern more from this loss later, time to separate emotion from my reaction.
