Why Duke Is Going To Come Up Short Yet Again

The Duke Blue Devils took the court yesterday against the #7 ranked Georgetown Hoyas.  This game was once again more proof to the rest of the college basketball nation as to why the Blue Devils are going to fall come March yet again. Duke lost their matchup against the Hoyas in Georgetown by a final score of 77-89.  Although Duke outscored the Hoyas in the second half 44-43, the Hoyas crushed Duke in the first half by going into the locker room with a 46-33 lead over Duke. 

Duke now has a 17-4 overall record on the season; all of those losses have been suffered on the road. Although they play "ok" on neutral grounds, they still are not at home with their Cameron Crazies. This being the case, it is clear that Duke is still unable to compete at that top level of play like they need to so that they can even have a chance in March.

The reason that Duke will once again be knocked out of the March Madness tournament early for yet another year is simple; and yesterday against the Georgetown Hoyas they showed us all exactly why. When Duke is down, they begin to struggle with penetrating down low and getting close looks at the basket. So when they can't get close looks, they are forced to take the perimeter shot.  And as we were shown, against Georgetown, they clearly are not capable of hitting the clutch shot in key situations. The Blue Devils shot a terrible 37.1% throughout the game against the Hoyas. 

The reason that Duke will once again get knocked out in the second or third rounds is because they have no absolute big man who can take control down low, and when either John Scheyer or Kyle Singler are off, the other of the two tries to pick up the loose slack and from there they just start the snowball effect. In their matchup against Georgetown, Singler struggled all throughout the second half. And because of his struggles, Scheyer and the rest of the Duke roster felt the need to step up. It was at this point when shot after shot was being taken from behind the arch, and multiple shots were rushed and were careless towards the end of the game. 

If Duke wants to be a different team this March than they have been over the past 5-10 years, then I suggest that they start figuring some things out. They do not have the raw talent to fall behind and be able to catch up against these tougher teams. The Georgetown Hoyas proved once again why it is a safe bet for a person to have Duke getting knocked out early in the tournament in either rounds 1, 2 or possibly in the sweet 16.