Well the first game is over and there is quite a bit to talk about. Firstly the win, Duke got it, 74-55. The outcome was never in question, but that’s not what this game was about. The first half Duke wasn’t particularly efficient on either end of the floor. A turnover prone first half kept Georgia State in the game. Duke was also spread out on defense giving up the middle on several plays. Georgia State was scrappy and opportunistic. Clearly the scouted Duke well and knew what to do to keep themselves in the game. Dukes offense clearly was not ready to face a zone and there was confusion in the back-court as errant passes and bad decisions were the story. Duke uses hot shooting from 3 and hustle plays to keep ahead of the Panthers. Duke shot 42% from 3, much better than expected after the 1 of 17 performance in the previous game. Duke took good shots and as the half closed seemed to click better on offense.
In the second half the coaches clearly stressed ways to break the zone and Duke came out hot. Duke was able to find the seams in the Georgia States zone, finding the open man and stepped into good shots, coupling that with feeding the post getting Mason Plumlee good shots at the rim. Plumlee was Dukes best player scoring 19 points off of 8 of 12 shooting and also pulling down 14 rebounds. Mason also had 2 assists to 3 turnovers and 4 blocks. I think Duke to be successful will have to get Plumlee even more shots, good things seem to happen when the offense runs through him, Mason had great passes from the post, triggering good shots for teammates. The surprise of the night besides the DNP from Alex Murphy was the play of Tyler Thornton who scored 13 points and went 3 of 6 from 3 point range. Tyler stepped into shots confidently. Duke got 15 from senior Seth Curry who seemed to rediscover his mojo against the Panthers.
Duke will need more from Ryan Kelly if it’s going to have a successful year, Kelly didn’t shot well but added 4 assists and was the best Duke passer on the floor tonight. A player as versatile as Kelly was the perfect remedy for Georgia States 1-3-1 zone, Coach K will tell you that sometimes its what you do when you don’t hit shots that matter more, Kelly was key to the offense even if he didn’t score at a high clip.
Duke is still a work on progress and a lot will be discussed in the film room about what needs to be improved. Duke will need more fluidity on offense, also shoring up the sloppiness will be important going into a match-up with Kentucky. Defensively Duke will need to be a much better job protecting the paint and rebounding.
As far as the Alex Murphy situation hopefully its much ado about nothing, hopefully it’s just a matter of coaches wanting to send Murphy a message. He is an important cog in this years Duke machinery, and sometimes a weak practice or two can get you a seat at the end of the bench but I cannot imagine Murphy not being ready to roll against Kentucky. Coach K eluded that Marshall Plumlee is close to returning and Florida Gulf Coast game a week from Sunday is not a stretch. #GODUKE.
Official Basketball Box Score
Georgia State vs Duke
11-9-12 7:02 pm at Durham, N.C. (Cameron Indoor Stadium)
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VISITORS: Georgia State 0-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
23 Manny Atkins........ f 2-9 0-1 1-2 2 0 2 1 5 0 4 0 1 33
45 Denny Burguillos.... f 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 3 0 0 1 0 0 7
12 Devonta White....... g 6-13 3-5 4-5 1 1 2 4 19 1 6 0 3 38
22 R.J. Hunter......... g 4-11 2-6 4-4 0 10 10 2 14 0 1 0 1 35
25 Rashaad Richardson.. g 0-3 0-2 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 17
20 David Travers....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
21 Cameron Solomon..... 2-3 0-0 1-2 0 2 2 1 5 0 1 0 0 16
31 T.J. Shipes......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4
33 Markus Crider....... 1-6 0-0 2-4 2 3 5 4 4 2 1 0 0 21
50 James Vincent....... 4-5 0-0 0-0 2 3 5 4 8 0 2 0 2 28
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 19-51 5-14 12-17 10 23 33 21 55 4 16 0 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-25 32.0% 2nd Half: 11-26 42.3% Game: 37.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-8 12.5% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% Game: 35.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-6 83.3% 2nd Half: 7-11 63.6% Game: 70.6% 2
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HOME TEAM: Duke 1-0
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 Mason Plumlee....... f 8-12 0-0 3-7 3 11 14 3 19 2 3 4 1 35
34 Ryan Kelly.......... f 2-6 1-3 3-4 0 3 3 1 8 4 1 1 0 33
03 Tyler Thornton...... g 4-7 3-6 2-2 0 4 4 2 13 3 4 0 2 30
14 Rasheed Sulaimon.... g 2-5 2-3 0-0 0 4 4 3 6 4 1 0 0 30
30 Seth Curry.......... g 5-10 3-7 2-3 0 0 0 4 15 1 3 1 0 30
02 Quinn Cook.......... 2-4 2-4 2-2 1 1 2 3 8 2 2 0 0 21
15 Josh Hairston....... 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 3 0 0 1 0 0 8
21 Amile Jefferson..... 1-1 0-0 3-5 1 1 2 0 5 1 0 0 1 13
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 24-47 11-24 15-23 6 25 31 19 74 17 15 6 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-20 45.0% 2nd Half: 15-27 55.6% Game: 51.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 8-17 47.1% Game: 45.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 11-15 73.3% 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 65.2% 2
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Officials: Brian Dorsey, Dwayne Gladden, Jeffrey Anderson
Technical fouls: Georgia State-Devonta White. Duke-None.
Attendance: 9314
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Georgia State................. 22 33 - 55
Duke.......................... 32 42 - 74
Points in the paint-GSU 24,DU 20. Points off turnovers-GSU 10,DU 16.
2nd chance points-GSU 7,DU 8. Fast break points-GSU 6,DU 6.
Bench points-GSU 17,DU 13. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-1 time.
Last FG-GSU 2nd-03:41, DU 2nd-01:54.
Largest lead-GSU by 2 1st-19:47, DU by 22 2nd-13:19.
