On a Saturday full of big games, seemingly none would be bigger than Duke’s trip to Virginia. The first meeting between the two was all we could want; would the second one be the same?
Well, not exactly. It wasn’t bad, or a blowout, but it was pretty decisive. And it told us something about the victorious Blue Devils when they walked out of there with an 81-71 win, with the 81 points being the most Virginia has allowed all season.
This game tells you how locked in the Blue Devils are right now. They are 9-1 in ACC play, having won eight in a row since losing to Syracuse. In that streak, only the first win over Virginia that got it started came by single digits; two have come by 25 points or more. Interestingly, this is their third straight win in Charlottesville.
Duke started by making seven of their first eight from long range as part of a 10-14 start, and that set a tone. They are averaging almost 87 points per game, shooting just under 49 percent from the field, so the offense is on another planet right now. While they were scorching hot from deep on Saturday, that might be the one area offensively in which they haven’t always been stellar, as they are shooting 32 percent on three-pointers on the season.
With the odds makers installing Duke as clear favorites the rest of the way, we have to throw a caution flag as well in the interest of not getting ahead of ourselves. The ceilings of freshman-driven teams like this have tended to depend on upperclassmen, and Duke has a question mark there. Their top four scorers are all freshmen, while no seniors play significant minutes. A sophomore (Alex O’Connell) and three juniors (Javin DeLaurier, Marques Bolden and Jack White) are the only others who play significant minutes.
Do any of them have the intangibles that veteran leaders of championship teams have? We’re about to find out. A couple of notable championship teams led by freshmen had some forgotten key players.
When Kentucky won the national championship in 2011-12, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist got a lot of attention, and deservedly so, and Marquis Teague was a key being the team’s point guard, but that team also had a senior in Darius Miller who started 11 games and played over 26 minutes a game, as well as sophomores in Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones who played key roles. When Duke won it all four years ago in a season where Kentucky flirted with going undefeated thanks to a number of players returning to school, the Blue Devils were far more than ballyhooed freshmen Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow – senior Quinn Cook was a starter and their second-leading scorer and assist man, and junior Amile Jefferson was another upperclassman who was a leader. Other freshman-dominated teams that have come up short, like the Kentucky team of 2013-14, had a lot of growing pains without the kind of veteran leaders championship teams had.
Even with some reason for caution, Duke is playing the best basketball of anyone right now, and with all their talent, it’s easy to understand why they are looked at as favorites the rest of the way. They look like the unquestioned best team in the ACC, establishing that with much clarity on Saturday evening.
Side Dishes
For a look at game action on the busy Saturday, please see the Saturday Notes.
The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee revealed its initial top 16 seeds on Saturday. With over a month to play, much remains to be decided, but this is a valuable exercise early on as many speculate about bubble teams and who the top seeds will be. Of note, committee chair Bernard Muir said that “really, in the committee’s mind, it was 1A and 1B” regarding the top two teams. The seeds, from 1 to 16, are:
1. Duke
2. Tennesse
3. Virginia
4. Gonzaga
5. Kentucky
6. Michigan
7. North Carolina
8. Michigan State
9. Purdue
10. Kansas
11. Houston
12. Marquette
13. Iowa State
14. Nevada
15. Louisville
16. Wisconsin
It’s not all good news in Durham at the moment, however, as Duke announced on Saturday that they are investigating an allegation of sexual assault made against a former player. Meredith Watson, one of the accusers of Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax, has also alleged a Duke basketball player raped her in 1999, a year before Fairfax allegedly sexually assaulted her. Duke distributed a statement about it to media after the game, noting, “Duke first learned of the allegations involving a student-athlete last night when they were reported by the media. Coach Krzyzewski confirms that he had no knowledge of the alleged conduct from 1999. The university is looking into the matter and will have no further comment at this time.” Watson has alleged that she reported this to a Dean at the school, who discouraged her from pursuing any further action.
Gonzaga had to go without Killian Tillie for the non-conference slate, and now they will have to go without him for at least the remainder of the regular season. The junior forward suffered a partially torn ligament in his right foot on Thursday night against San Francisco, and he missed the first 15 games of the season due to an ankle injury. It’s a blow to the Bulldogs’ frontcourt depth, which isn’t as good as their perimeter.
As his seat heats up in light of recent on-court struggles and off-court issues, Sean Miller has received the dreaded vote of confidence from Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke. While speaking to reporters at halftime of the Wildcats’ loss to Washington State on Saturday night, their fifth straight setback, Heeke said, “We’re fully supportive of the coaching staff, the leadership of the basketball program.” The Wildcats were not the national power of past years last season, then got blown out by Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and will only get to the Big Dance this year with a Pac-12 Tournament title at this point. In addition, former assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson, who followed Miller to Tucson from Xavier, was part of the FBI investigation into corruption, and Mark Phelps was terminated in recent days due to an academic transcript issue with former signee Shareef O’Neal. While Miller might still have a job after this season, anytime someone higher up than the coach comes out and voices this support, it is often a sign that the seat is hotter than imagined.
Tonight’s Menu
The slate is much lighter and features a couple of games where first place in a conference is on the line.
- An important game in the Big Ten gets it all going as Indiana tries to bounce back from another loss with Ohio State in town having won three of four after losing five straight (1 p.m.), while Iowa hosts Northwestern later on (6:30 p.m.)
- A game of surprising importance comes up early in the Atlantic 10 as surging La Salle visits George Mason (2 p.m.)
- A showdown in the MAAC is on tap as Siena visits Rider (2 p.m.)
- The big game of the day is in the American Athletic Conference as Houston hosts Cincinnati (4 p.m.)
- A lot is on the line in the Missouri Valley games of the day as Loyola-Chicago visits Valparaiso and Missouri State hosts Illinois State (4 p.m.)
- The last game of the day is out west as Oregon hosts Stanford (8 p.m.)
