Recap and Recovery: 5 Reasons Duke Lost to Lehigh

The Duke Blue Devils became the second two-seed team of the day to lose to a 15-seed when they fell to Lehigh, 75-70.

The "Madness" of March is certainly in full swing.

Duke was reeling at the end of the season, but most college basketball fans didn't see this one coming. The Blue Devils hit an all-time low with this loss. 

Here's a quick look at why the game went the way it did.

Note: This is from a Duke perspective. Obviously, explosive guard C.J. McCollum is a big reason why this upset happened, but that's why Lehigh won, not why Duke lost. Make sense? Kind of?

Perimeter Defense

One of Lehigh's biggest strengths is the quickness of its guards. C.J. McCollum and Mackey McKnight are lightning fast when getting to the hoop, but Duke absolutely had to do a better job staying in front.

McCollum got to the hoop with ease all night, and not only did it lead to baskets and free throws, it led to foul trouble for the Blue Devils.

Lehigh was far from on fire from outside (6-of-19 from deep), but Duke continued to pressure outside the three-point line and continued to get beat off the dribble.

What's more, Lehigh didn't have a whole lot of offense coming from the inside, and its only chance was to get a ton of production from McCollum and McKnight.

Duke unintelligently pressured too far out and gave the Mountain Hawks that chance. 

Stagnant Offense

When Austin Rivers can't get in a groove (19 points on 5-of-14 shooting), there's really no other reliable threat on this offense. 

The Blue Devils love to shoot threes and can sometimes get by with the long ball, but they were just 6-of-26 from range against Lehigh. Seth Curry had a horrible night shooting, and Andre Dawkins is incredibly inconsistent.

That leaves Mason and Miles Plumlee on the inside as the only other offense. Mason Plumlee may have had 21 points, but those were mostly on open looks, and he doesn't have much of a back-to-the-basket game.

When you only have one reliable threat and your offense doesn't move that much, it's way too easy to be stagnant and way too easy to not score points. 

Ryan Kelly

This builds off the last slide because Ryan Kelly obviously would have helped the offense.

With Kelly, Duke is able to spread the offense and add another jump shooter while not suffering from a lack of size on the defensive end and on the glass. 

Kelly has a similar game to Josh Hairston, but he's much more reliable and provides much more versatility for Duke.

It wasn't the be-all-end-all reason Duke lost, but there's no question Kelly would have helped the Blue Devils. 

Lack of Ability to Control the Pace

Lehigh is very good when they are able to get in transition, and they really turned the game into a fast-paced one, at least in the first half.

The Mountain Hawks did a good job at getting out on the break early in the game, and it became clear the Blue Devils were going to make a conscious effort to stop it.

But it came at a price.

Duke stopped crashing the offensive boards in order to get back on defense, and as a result, they only ended up with 11 offensive 'boards. 

Most of those came near the end of the game when they finally started sending people to the glass, but it was too late. 

No Toughness or Energy

If you were watching college basketball for the first time this year, you would have thought Lehigh was the better-seeded team than Duke. 

It just seemed that Lehigh was diving for more loose balls, getting up into their defenders and generally playing with more confidence and swagger than Duke. 

The Mountain Hawks just had more I-can-score-on-this-guy-anytime-I-want moments. They were constantly getting the crowd into the guy and really built off momentum.

Duke, on the other hand, only had the crowd in the game a few times during the game and hardly built on those moments.

They made small runs, but could never turn it into anything.