The Blue Devils come into the next round of the Pre-season NIT tournament in Madison Square Garden off the heels of a dreadful performance against the Vermont Catamounts. Duke barely escaped by one point and were beyond fortunate to come out of that game with a win. Their performance led Coach K to proclaim his team, “didn’t respect the game of basketball” and you can expect those comments to stick with this young team.
You’d expect Duke to address their awful defensive effort against Vermont in practice but there’s been very little time to address those concerns as the team used Monday to travel to Madison Square Garden. MSG has been kind to Duke in the past and remains the site where Coach K became the all-time winningest Division I men’s basketball coach in 2011 with a win over Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans.
Duke will face a 3-1 Alabama Crimson Tide team led by former Duke spoiler, Anthony Grant. In 2007’s NCAA tournament, Grant led his VCU team to an upset of 6th seeded Duke in the first round. Don’t think either coach has forgotten this. Alabama’s wins have come over Texas Tech, Stillman, and Georgia State all at home, while losing to respectable Oklahoma on a neutral floor.
The Crimson Tide are led by 6 foot senior point guard Trevor Releford who is averaging 18 points per game this season and looking for his second All-SEC and All-Defensive team selection. He’s joined in the backcourt by 6’ 1” inch sophomore shooting guard, Retin Obasohan who is currently second on the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg. Guards essentially dominate this team which follows along Grant’s traditional coaching recipe. The Crimson Tide has a few big bodies with both Shannon Hale and Nick Jacobs checking in at 6’ 8” , freshman Jimmie Taylor at 6’ 10”, and Carl Engstrom at 7’1”. The big bodies however aren’t getting a lot of playing time with Jacobs getting most of the minutes between the big men at 20 minutes per game this season.
The Blue Devils have had no problems with offense this year averaging 93 ppg so far led by an incredibly talented tandem of Rodney Hood (21.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and super-freshman Jabari Parker (23 ppg, 8.8 rpg). Quinn Cook has shown an outstanding ability of finding his teammates averaging 7.2 assists per game and some clutch shooting / drive-scoring at 12.8 ppg. Nonetheless, expect defense to be the focus of the Blue Devils against the Crimson Tide.
This game should be interesting given the games Duke has already played this season. Teams have figured out how to play the Blue Devils so far as Duke’s struggles (at home) against East Carolina and Vermont have shown. Will Alabama follow the same blue print and will these previous games give the Crimson Tide added confidence against the #6 ranked Blue Devils in the spotlight of Madison Square Garden?
Expect to see some small lineup changes as Coach K will be searching for guys who are willing to play all out on defense. Andre Dawkins in particular looks like he’s evolved his defense from past years and has become pesky on the perimeter which will be necessary for the guard dominated Crimson Tide.
I think Duke’s recent struggles come to an end tonight and their experience in the spotlight of high-end neutral courts will lead them to a dominant victory against a team that Duke matches up with very well.
DUKE 91, ALABAMA 76
Chip Slate @chipslate
You’d expect Duke to address their awful defensive effort against Vermont in practice but there’s been very little time to address those concerns as the team used Monday to travel to Madison Square Garden. MSG has been kind to Duke in the past and remains the site where Coach K became the all-time winningest Division I men’s basketball coach in 2011 with a win over Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans.
Duke will face a 3-1 Alabama Crimson Tide team led by former Duke spoiler, Anthony Grant. In 2007’s NCAA tournament, Grant led his VCU team to an upset of 6th seeded Duke in the first round. Don’t think either coach has forgotten this. Alabama’s wins have come over Texas Tech, Stillman, and Georgia State all at home, while losing to respectable Oklahoma on a neutral floor.
The Crimson Tide are led by 6 foot senior point guard Trevor Releford who is averaging 18 points per game this season and looking for his second All-SEC and All-Defensive team selection. He’s joined in the backcourt by 6’ 1” inch sophomore shooting guard, Retin Obasohan who is currently second on the team in scoring at 15.5 ppg. Guards essentially dominate this team which follows along Grant’s traditional coaching recipe. The Crimson Tide has a few big bodies with both Shannon Hale and Nick Jacobs checking in at 6’ 8” , freshman Jimmie Taylor at 6’ 10”, and Carl Engstrom at 7’1”. The big bodies however aren’t getting a lot of playing time with Jacobs getting most of the minutes between the big men at 20 minutes per game this season.
The Blue Devils have had no problems with offense this year averaging 93 ppg so far led by an incredibly talented tandem of Rodney Hood (21.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and super-freshman Jabari Parker (23 ppg, 8.8 rpg). Quinn Cook has shown an outstanding ability of finding his teammates averaging 7.2 assists per game and some clutch shooting / drive-scoring at 12.8 ppg. Nonetheless, expect defense to be the focus of the Blue Devils against the Crimson Tide.
This game should be interesting given the games Duke has already played this season. Teams have figured out how to play the Blue Devils so far as Duke’s struggles (at home) against East Carolina and Vermont have shown. Will Alabama follow the same blue print and will these previous games give the Crimson Tide added confidence against the #6 ranked Blue Devils in the spotlight of Madison Square Garden?
Expect to see some small lineup changes as Coach K will be searching for guys who are willing to play all out on defense. Andre Dawkins in particular looks like he’s evolved his defense from past years and has become pesky on the perimeter which will be necessary for the guard dominated Crimson Tide.
I think Duke’s recent struggles come to an end tonight and their experience in the spotlight of high-end neutral courts will lead them to a dominant victory against a team that Duke matches up with very well.
DUKE 91, ALABAMA 76
Chip Slate @chipslate
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