Taking a quick look at Dukes schedule shows that a whopping 28 out of their 31 games are on national television this year. I mean that is insane. We Muskie fans are feeling pretty good about the fact that this is the first season ever that every Xavier game will be televised. I hope Duke fans don’t take the television access for granted because that is a privilege they should feel very lucky about.
But that is what is so odd about coming up against Duke. I feel like I always see them play the most outside of Xavier by virtue of how many times they are on television throughout the season. Therefore, it’s not unrealistic for me to say I know enough about the team and what to expect from each player they’ll trot onto the court. We also know what to expect from Duke as far as their style of play is concerned as well.
They play a very high pressure man-to-man defense. The purpose of it is to speed up the opponents offense, which forces them into uncharacteristic turnovers and poor possessions. Obviously, ball control and shot selection will be even more important than they already are for us come 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Dante and Terrell will need to be spot on in terms of decision making and execution for running the offense. One of our advantages should be the size difference. After Zoubek and Singler, Duke does not possess much in terms of the front court. It is this writer’s opinion that we need to control the glass from start to finish if we are to get the desired result. Also, defending the three ball will be of paramount importance because of Duke’s affinity for that particular shot. They seem to be a team where everyone is either hot or not with no in between. Nolan Smith is their best three ball shooter at 40% with now back-up pg Greg Paulus next best at 34%.
Duke has three players that scare me. Kyle Singler will play in the league. At 6′8″ he is very versatile and obviously their best player. I would assume our main man Derrick Brown will get the majority of that assignment. Nolan Smith is obviously the better option at the point for Duke and from what I’ve seen a very solid and gifted player. He scares me more from an offensive perspective because he will be in Dante’s grill from the word go. The other kid that scares me is John Scheyer. He’s just one of those guys that gets on your nerves but always seems to burn you one way or another. It probably has more to do with the fact that he’s so damn skinny and doesn’t appear to have much basketball skill upon first glance. I know Gerald Henderson is a damn good player as well, but I’ve got faith in BJ to corral him.
One thing about Duke that peeves more than a few people is the theory that Duke gets way more calls than any other team. Well, it’s by design. Just like their defense wants you to speed up your offense to cause turnovers, the offense is designed to draw fouls to get the opponent into foul trouble. You do this by relentlessly attacking the basket. And when you have the kind of players Duke has had the past twenty years, you will tend to get the lion’s share of the calls. Now obviously we got screwed with A Myles back in 2004, but all I’m trying to say is that Duke gets a lot of calls because they attack the basket and force the refs into some kind of call.
One of our calling cards this year has been our ability to get to the line at a very high rate. Luckily, the free throw shooting got much better against UC with an 80% effort from the stripe. It will most likely need to stay there if victory is to be had tomorrow.
It’s good to know the team is staying at an even keel emotionally. Derrick Brown’s facebook status earlier in the week was, “you can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.” Those words are music to this Muskie fan’s ears! And you just know CJ is gonna bring it tomorrow as well. He is such a big game guy. I love it!
Let’s go X!
