Duke Basketball: Keys for Each Starter in Postseason

After a successful regular season, Duke was given the top seed in the South Region of the NCAA tournament, the program’s first No. 1 seed since 2011. Though it failed to finish in first place in the ACC or win the league tournament, Duke was given the top seed due to its impressive collection of big-time victories.

Duke backers will point to the team’s road wins over Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisville and UNC as evidence that the Blue Devils are the team most likely to take down Kentucky. Detractors will focus on the losses to Miami and NC State as proof that Duke will fail to advance past the first weekend.

High-profile teams always face a lot of pressure this time of year, but Duke players will be facing extra scrutiny since the program has lost in the first round in two of the last three tournaments.

The Austin Rivers-led Devils of 2012 lost to 15th-seeded Lehigh, and last year the team finished off a disappointing season by going down to 14th-seeded Mercer in Duke’s opening game.

As in most sports, depth is an important factor in getting through the trials of college basketball's regular season, but teams need their biggest stars to shine brightly in order to make a run in March.

Duke’s loss to Mercer can be attributed largely to Rodney Hood and Jabari Parker, who shot a combined 6-of-24 in the game. Fortunately, Duke is well-equipped to handle a bad game from a marquee performer, as it has four other players who can lead the team on a given night.

If Duke is to make a deep run in the tournament, it will need a couple of big individual performances each game. If the Blue Devils are to beat Kentucky, they will need everyone, especially the starters, at the top of their games.

Tyus Jones: Quickly Identify When to Take Over

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Tyus Jones has had the most memorable performances of any Duke player this season. Whether it was taking over in the win at Wisconsin, icing the Virginia game with a pull-up three or his flurry against Carolina that sent the game into overtime, Jones has shown a knack for scoring when his team needs it.

In Duke's ACC tournament loss to Notre Dame, Jones was unable to turn his scoring powers on. Duke started the game off very cold, scoring just 26 points in the first half as Notre Dame led by as many as 17. Jones shot just 4-of-13 for the game.

Jones has the quintessential point guard ability to get his teammates involved early in games and score on his own in crunch time. This has worked great at times for a Duke team with plenty of capable scorers, but in a tournament where one loss knocks you out, he may need to score earlier than he is used to.

If Duke’s other top scorers (Quinn Cook, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow) come out cold, Jones will need to start scoring early in order to help his team avoid facing a large deficit.

Duke has shown a great ability to play from behind, but as the Notre Dame game showed, sometimes a slow start can be too much to overcome.

If Jones is able to carry a poor-shooting team early in the game, his teammates will eventually come around, and Duke will still have a great shot at advancing.

Quinn Cook: Bombs Away

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

In the Big Dance, Cook simply needs to do what he has done so well this entire year: bomb three-point shots. Cook has been Duke’s best shooter all season, shooting just under 40 percent from deep on almost seven attempts per game.

Duke has fewer marksmen this year than it usually has, making Cook’s shooting even more important. Duke gets a lot of its offense from Okafor in the post and Winslow slashing to the basket.

The pressure those two put on defenses has allowed Cook to roam wide-open beyond the three-point line, and he needs to continue to knock down those shots to keep teams from clogging the lanes.

When Cook goes cold, like his 1-of-8 performance from deep against Notre Dame, Duke's sometimes-unstoppable offense becomes stuffy and can sputter.

Cook’s shooting opens up the floor for the entire offense, and he has not been shy at all this year, often getting hot late in games after cold starts. If Cook continues to put it up through hot and cold streaks, everyone on the team will benefit.

Matt Jones: 3-and-D

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Matt Jones tends to be the forgotten man of Duke’s starting lineup. While he gets lost in the hoopla and production of Duke’s four best players, he is an extremely important part of the team.

Like Cook, Jones’ ability to hit threes can help open up the floor for Duke’s playmakers. Unlike Cook, Jones sometimes hesitates to let it fly. He may still be going through some lingering low confidence due to his cold-shooting freshman season, but he is shooting 37 percent from deep this year.

When he gets opportunities, he needs to continue to shoot, even if he has missed a couple.

Jones is even more important for Duke on defense. Now that the Blue Devils are playing a small lineup, Winslow is stuck guarding power forwards, and Jones is Duke’s best remaining perimeter defender.

He has good size for his position, moves well and plays with a lot of heart defensively. Duke has struggled to stop opponents from scoring at times this year, and some Blue Devils are not built to be stoppers. Jones is not one of those players and will need to shut down his man if Duke wants to have a chance in the later rounds of the tournament.

Justise Winslow: No Bad Fouls

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Winslow has established himself as a true force in college basketball. He punishes smaller defenders and blows by big men, and his coast-to-coast layups are things of beauty.

Winslow is an intense competitor, but he sometimes fouls out with stupid or reckless plays.

There was a lot of noise around Winslow’s kick to Brice Johnson in Chapel Hill that was not called a flagrant. That debate will rage on, but what is overlooked is that Winslow turned a wide-open layup into an offensive foul. 

He tends to crash into players when he is out of position for a rebound and also picks up fouls pressuring ball-handlers more than 30 feet from the basket.

Duke does not have any other players like Winslow (few teams have even one player like him), making it very important that he stays on the court. If Winslow picks up a bad foul early, Mike Krzyzewski should sit him and make sure that he knows he cannot afford another.

Duke is a different team without him, and it is hard to imagine the Devils beating a tough opponent if Winslow is unable to contribute due to foul trouble.

Jahlil Okafor: Make Some Free Throws

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

With Duke down four points with less than two minutes left against Notre Dame in the ACC tournament, Okafor stepped to the line. Duke had fought the entire second half to make up for a poor start, and now Okafor had a chance to cut the lead to a single possession.

He promptly clanged both freebies, and Pat Connaughton put the game away with a jumper on the other end.

Over his last seven games, Okafor is just 9-of-34 from the charity stripe—that’s 26 percent! If he does not right his wrongs at the line, his shooting woes could ultimately doom Duke’s season.

College teams are unlikely to go to a true Hack-a-Shaq strategy against Okafor with each player only allowed five fouls and limited depth on college rosters, but his shooting woes could still spell big trouble.

All of his misses leave Duke with nothing to show for possessions in which it worked hard to get him the ball. He also could become passive late in games if he is worried about going to the line.

Okafor will need to prove he can hit at a respectable rate from the line if Duke is to threaten for the national title.