Duke Basketball: Back-to-Back Scares Expose Struggling Defense for Blue Devils

For all of the exciting plays by players like Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, the Duke Blue Devils are seriously struggling defensively, and it has shown in their last two games against East Carolina and Vermont.

While the Blue Devils are currently 5-1, they're also coming off of two very close games against weaker opponents, including a 91-90 win Sunday over Vermont.  Not only did the Catamounts score 90 points, but they also shot an incredible 64.8 percent from the floor as a team, with Hector Harold and Clancy Rugg scoring 24 and 20 points respectively on a combined 18-of-23 shooting.

This has been a problem all season, but because star players like Parker, Hood, Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon keep putting up big numbers, few seem eager to talk about it.  However, if the Blue Devils want to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament at the end of the year, they're going to need to turn things around.

Through six games, the numbers are quite embarrassing.  The Blue Devils are allowing 75.7 points per game and are letting opponents shoot 45.2 percent from the field.  As you can see from the table below, they rank near the bottom of the country in a number of these categories.

	Points/Game	FG%	Off. Rebounds/Game	Turnovers/Game
Opponent	75.7	45.2	11.7	11.7
Rank	248th	240th	226th	188th

Considering the only legitimate team that the Blue Devils have played so far was Kansas, those numbers are a serious concern.  Boxing out is a major concern for this team as well, as they rank 280th in rebounding, averaging just 33 per game.

The problem doesn't seem to lie with just one player.  According to Sports-Reference.com, every single player on the Duke roster that's played has a defensive rating of over 100, meaning that they allow at least an estimated 100 points per 100 possessions.  

The player with the lowest defensive rating?  Jabari Parker at 100.7.  

Looking at the top scorers, you can see that they all struggle to get back on defense.

Player	Points/Game	Defensive Rating
Jabari Parker	23.0	100.7
Rodney Hood	21.8	109.9
Quinn Cook	12.8	113.6
Andre Dawkins	9.6	111.0
Rasheed Sulaimon	8.0	108.7

To put things in perspective of how bad those ratings are, the ACC leader in defensive rating is Malcolm Brogdon of Virginia, who allows an estimated 71.5 points per 100 possessions, via Sports-Reference.com.

The Blue Devils have gotten away with sloppy defense for now, but things need to change quickly.  Two of their next four opponents are currently ranked in the AP Top 25 poll, as they'll be playing No. 22 Michigan and No. 19 UCLA. Both teams that can score quickly and shut opposing teams down.

Mike Krzyzewski is a great coach, but he needs to find a way to turn this defense around before the Blue Devils start seeing these scares translate into losses.