Duke Basketball: Biggest Takeaways from Crucial Win over Louisville

Apparently the sky isn’t falling.

Fresh off two consecutive double-digit losses to North Carolina State and Miami (FL), the Duke basketball team walked into Louisville and handled the Cardinals with ease, eventually winning, 63-52. The game wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated because Louisville closed the gap in the final minutes. 

From the switch to a zone defense to the domination down low, there were a number of things that jumped out about the Blue Devils’ performance. Read on to find out what they were.

Duke’s Frontcourt Can Play with Anyone

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Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell is a future NBA player. In fact, he is likely a future NBA lottery pick and has dominated a number of impressive opponents down low on both ends of the floor.

While Harrell still managed to get his Saturday with 10 points and 14 rebounds, the Duke frontcourt was not intimidated and put up impressive numbers of its own. Jahlil Okafor, who may know a thing or two about playing with the expectations of a being a future lottery pick on his shoulders, finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, but it was Amile Jefferson who turned in the best game.

Jefferson scored 19 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 7-of-9 shooting from the free-throw line and grabbed seven rebounds.

Okafor is a star and can handle anyone, but Jefferson's turning in a formidable performance against a Louisville squad that trotted out Harrell and Mangok Mathiang highlighted just how effective of a one-two punch the Blue Devils now have down low.

Jefferson started to come into his own as a legitimate post presence down the stretch of last season, but he is thriving alongside Okafor because of all the extra attention the future NBA star draws every night. ESPN’s Dana O’Neil suggested as much during the game:

If the Blue Devils’ tandem of bigs can dominate the game in Louisville, they can play with anyone in the country.

Get Used to a Lack of Bench Production in Big Games

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Krzyzewski has established a reputation as someone who shrinks his bench as the season progresses and the stakes get higher. That’s why there were some cautioning back in November against the Duke fans who wanted this team to go as many as 10-deep this season.

Now, most notably after Semi Ojeleye transferred to SMU, the bench only went three-deep in one of the most important games of the season to date, and those three guys didn’t even see a lot of playing time. Rasheed Sulaimon played for 16 minutes off the bench and is someone who will be on the floor this season because of his experience, veteran leadership and ability to stretch the floor from three-point range.

However, Marshall Plumlee only saw six minutes of action, and Matt Jones played a whopping eight.

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Krzyzewski knew how much his team needed this win for confidence purposes and to stay in the thick of the ACC race with teams such as Virginia and Notre Dame dominating their games. He trusts the starters (and Sulaimon) more than anyone else on the bench and responded accordingly with the substitution pattern. 

With a number of marquee games coming up, including showdowns with Virginia, Notre Dame and archrival North Carolina, Krzyzewski will likely go back to a similar rotation in those ones. With players such as Okafor, Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook, Amile Jefferson and Justise Winslow, it is hard to fault him.

The Zone Will Be Back at Some Point

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Duke playing zone defense under Krzyzewski simply never happens, which is why it was so surprising when the Blue Devils came out that way Saturday.

Duke needed a spark, and that is exactly what it got when Louisville finished 4-of-25 from three-point range and 18-of-61 from the field. Credit the defense some, but Louisville is not an effective bunch of shooters. In fact, Louisville entered the game shooting 43.5 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from downtown. Even the percentage from the line (66.2) was nothing to write home about.

Cook discussed the need for a change, via Dana O’Neil of ESPN.com: "The beginning of season we had a chip on our shoulder. We got tired of hearing about certain teams. We got tired of hearing about certain players, and thought we had something to prove. But with the success that came, winning all those games, we lost that edge."

Playing zone against a poor shooting team is not exactly re-inventing the wheel, even if Krzyzewski almost never does it. Still, it was so successful that it’s difficult to see him just shelf the zone defense for the rest of the year, especially if the Blue Devils need another spark when the schedule bogs down in February.

Don’t expect Duke to become Syracuse South and play zone exclusively just because it worked once, but the Blue Devils will be back in it at some point this year. 

Krzyzewski is too smart of a coach to ignore something that worked.

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