How the Duke Blue Devils Lost a Game Before the Season Even Started

"Another trap! And I intend to walk right into it." - Batman, 1966

In the NBA, there is a curious practice that takes place in the preseason as fans and followers of each franchise research their respective team schedules in search of the dreaded "Trap Game."

A Trap Game, for the unenlightened, is a game in which one team is forced to deal with several variables that could conceivably impact their performance in a negative way while the team they are playing is faced with relatively few obstacles to optimum performance.

For example, if Team A played the night before and had to cross two time zones in order to play at Team B's arena the day after an off day for Team B, Team A would be facing a true Trap Game. For a better example of a Trap Game, look at Duke's matchup versus Georgetown on Saturday afternoon.

Coming into Saturday's matchup, Duke and Georgetown were both playing their third game in just one week. However, closer inspection reveals just how different these three game experiences were for each team.

On Saturday, January 23, Georgetown coasted in a home game against a Rutgers team that had lost seven straight. On that same night, Duke was featured on college gameday fighting for a tough conference win on the road at Clemson.

Two days later on Monday, January 25, Georgetown lost on the road to a very solid Syracuse team whose zone defense is the ideal counter attack to a cutting princeton style offense.

On Wednesday, January 27, Duke successfully defended their home floor against a tall and physical Florida State team for their ACC-leading fifth conference win. Given that Duke did not tip-off until 9pm est, they were not able to begin their travel to the Washington DC area until after 1am est on Thursday, January 28th.

By the time Duke would leave Durham, Georgetown would have already enjoyed two full days of rest and preparation for their upcoming game with Duke.

All the dates and start times aside, Georgetown clearly had advantages in recovery time, preparation time, easier games leading up to this match up and let's not forget that they did not have to travel and had the advantage of playing in front of an excellent and excited home crowd featuring an appearance by President Barack Obama whose presence seemed to electrify and energize both the crowd and the hometown Hoyas.

Throughout the television broadcast, Clark Kellog and Verne Lundquist commented that Georgetown seemed to be playing with "more energy." The easy response to that is, they were.

This is actually Duke's second exposure this month to the dreaded Trap Game. Between January '03 and January '09, Duke played three games in the span of six days. Duke opened that series of games with a home win versus Clemson followed by an impressive road win at Iowa State only to appear flat and low energy in a road loss at Georgia Tech.

For Duke fans, it is difficult to understand why Coach K would expose his team to the terrors of the Trap Game, not once, but twice in the month of January. Surely, the Chicago homecoming versus Iowa State could have been scheduled prior to the start of ACC play.

Although the Georgetown vs Duke series is largely influenced by television contracts, it seems obvious that both programs would have benefited from playing this game in December when both Georgetown and Duke had full weeks where they didn't touch the court for a game.

What may be more difficult for Duke fans to endure is the judgement that most "experts" are rushing to following this unbalanced contest. This is not an accurate predictor of Duke's tournament fate.

Last time I checked, tournament games are played on neutral courts with equal amounts of preparation and rest given to both teams. No, this is not like Duke teams of years gone by. In fact, if we look at how Duke responded after their last experience with the Trap Game, we can see some very positive signs.

After losing to Georgia Tech on January 09, Duke went on to win four out of their next five games with their only loss coming on the road at NC State. Duke's next five games are all ACC foes with the most daunting teams (GT, MD) having to come to the cozy confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

If Duke can win (again) versus Boston College, handle a suddenly human UNC squad and successfully navigate a road trip to last place Miami, Duke will escape this latest trap with a 10-2 record in the ACC and full control of their destiny going forward.

Fans who are unaware of the Trap Game phenomena may look at Saturday's disappointing effort and see dark days ahead for the Dukies. Those in the know and fans who have followed Duke closely this year can look ahead and see the light that just may lead Duke out of the trap and on to an ACC Championship.