Duke Basketball: Keys to Finishing the Regular Season Successfully

The Duke Blue Devils just finished up one of the most emotional stretches in team history. After a comeback win over St. John’s for head coach Mike Krzyzewski's 1000th career victory, the team blew a double-digit lead to Notre Dame, said an unexpected goodbye to the dismissed Rasheed Sulaimon, then had another thrilling comeback win against second-ranked Virginia.

Many fans (and maybe the players) expected to finally breathe a sigh of relief against the ACC’s last-place Georgia Tech on February 4 but instead got an extremely hard-fought game in which Duke never led by more than seven in the second half. The Devils finished up their tough run of games by blowing out Notre Dame, 90-60.

Despite being ranked in the AP Top 10 the entire year, Duke has been a tough team to figure out. It is not the disaster it was last year, but it's also not the overpowering, best non-Kentucky team it appeared to be when starting 14-0.

Duke arguably has the best set of wins in the country (Wisconsin, Louisville and Virginia, all on the road) but were also beaten easily by NC State and Miami, two teams who are on the bubble (at best) at this point.

Duke’s only remaining games against ranked opponents are its two battles with North Carolina. Even though the toughest part of the schedule is over, this team has proved that any game could spell trouble. Duke will need to continue to do a few of the things that have helped it pull out games in order to end the regular season with success.

Follow Quinn Cook's Lead

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Cook is finishing up one of the oddest careers in program history on a very high note.

He entered Duke as a McDonald's All-American but barely played his freshmen season. He exploded onto the scene his sophomore year when he won the MVP of the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis tournament and was named third-team All-ACC. He started his junior year off well, but his production fell off the cliff in conference play, and he took a lot of the blame for the team's struggles.

With Tyus Jones coming on this year, many believed Cook would spend his senior season as a backup. Instead he has easily transitioned to shooting guard and is averaging 14.5 points per game while providing excellent leadership.

Last year if he had gone 1-of-8 from beyond the arc in a game he would have been unable to find a way to help the team win, but against The Yellow Jackets he put his shooting woes behind him and scored 17 points in the second half.

As the player with by far the most experience on the team, the rest of the roster needs to continue to trust and empower Cook as team leader. He has made a ton of big shots lately and will need to look to score often to make up for Sulaimon’s lost productivity. With such a thin roster, it’s hard to imagine Duke being able to find success without Cook’s production and leadership.

Who would have guessed this is how things would have turned out for a team whose freshman stars garner all the attention?

Keep Up the In-Game Adjustments

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Coach K has done an excellent job this season of utilizing different defensive strategies and lineups based on what is working during the game. He had the team switch every screen against Wisconsin, play zone against Louisville and gave extended minutes to Marshall Plumlee and Matt Jones during the comeback against St. John’s.

Duke is not a team full of shutdown defenders, and the younger players have shown some inconsistency. So for the team to continue to win, Duke will have to find whatever lineup or strategy is working during each game.

The players all seem to have bought in, so they will understand if they receive less playing time in one game than they are accustomed to. They are also a smart team, and the players have shown they are capable of soundly playing multiple defenses within games.

It will be fun to see what schemes Coach K comes up with for the rest of the year. Expect more on-the-go adjustments as Duke enters the home stretch of the season.

Avoid Foul Trouble and the Injury Bug

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Duke is facing a troublesome lack of depth with only eight scholarship players left on the roster. The shortage of players will make it very difficult for Duke to make up for foul trouble or an injured player. So far the players have done a good job of avoiding foul trouble and have avoided missed time due to injury.

Obviously, avoiding injuries is mostly luck, but Duke will have to focus on defending effectively without fouling.

Justise Winslow has been Duke’s best defensive player all season, but unfortunately he is the most prone to foul trouble and injury. He is already nursing a couple of nagging ailments and has been in foul trouble a couple of times. Winslow’s versatility is a big reason the team has been able to toy with different types of lineups.

If he misses games or hits the bench with foul trouble, the team becomes much less athletic and more one dimensional.

Winslow has been playing well the past couple of games, and the team will be relying on his production the rest of the season.

Compsure Late in Games

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During an up-and-down start to conference play, Duke performed on both ends of the spectrum in crunch time. Duke was rock-solid putting away Wake Forest and red hot down the stretch against Virginia. Unfortunately, they completely fell apart against both N.C. State and Miami and scored only eight points in the final minutes against Notre Dame.

A common thread in the collapses has been a lack of touches for center Jahlil Okafor. In all three games, the guards were forcing shot after shot while Okafor was left simply trying to get offensive rebounds. Getting the ball in the post can be a tough task at times, and Duke’s guards will need to continue to stay disciplined as the game starts to wind down and get the ball inside.

Cook and both Matt and Tyus Jones have already made a lot of big shots, so it’s easy to understand them having so much confidence late in games. That confidence is great, but Okafor is always the team’s best offensive option and is such a good passer there will be plenty of open threes to go around.

It would be nice if Duke could win a couple of games handily, but almost every game is a battle now—it’s always the opponent’s Final Four—and the team will have to play smart in order to avoid painful losses.