UVA scored the opening basket 2:18 in Saturday night, on a tip-in by Darion Atkins. Before the Hoo Crew showered the stands with orange and blue streamers, Duke guard Quin Cook had already answered, four seconds later, with a driving layup.
The push was indicative of a strategy that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski would employ all night to try to get his Blue Devils out ahead of the Virginia Pack-Line defense, and you’d have to say that it worked. Virginia had given up just 31 transition points in its 19-0 start, but Duke was able to get 14 points in transition Saturday night.
And though the game was still played largely at UVA’s pace, with each team getting 59 possessions – according to KenPom.com, Duke averages 68.0 possessions per game, Virginia 58.2 – Duke was able by and large to play this game on its terms.
The fast-break points were one indication of that. Another: points in the paint. Would you believe 44? Yeah, wow. Duke scored 44 points in the paint, and no, it wasn’t all Jahlil Okafor, who had just 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting. The double-teams in the Pack-Line essentially neutered Okafor as an impact player, but the Blue Devils still shot over 50 percent from the field, largely because Duke’s perimeter players were able to get into the lane consistently, attacking the Pack-Line on the front lines, to get to the rim, get open mid-range jumpers, and late, during the 22-7 flurry in the final 5:08 that turned a nine-point deficit into a six-point win, get open looks for three-point shooters.
The attack-the-paint strategy also worked well early as Duke built a 22-13 lead 14 minutes in with Justise Winslow getting to the rim almost at will.
It was Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory who was asked to muse after a recent beatdown at the hands of the Cavs on the kind of team that could give Virginia troubles. He answered by providing imagery of a team that had multiple guards who could attack the lane without need for screens, basically describing Duke, with Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook at guard and Winslow at small forward able to get past defenders without need for any kind of freeing action to get them there.
There aren’t a lot of teams that have the kind of talent on the perimeter that Duke does, but Kentucky, and its dribble-drive-motion offense, comes to mind. North Carolina on Monday night could be a challenge in that respect, though the Cavs can put a lot of their focus on Marcus Paige.
Look for Roy Williams to borrow from Coach K’s strategy to try to get the ball to Paige either off defensive rebounds or even made baskets to get up the court ahead of the Pack-Line to get ahead of the Pack-Line.
No doubt Tony Bennett has spent as much time as he has had available to him since late Saturday night devising a fix to the long outlet passes and the dribble drives. The weak point right now may be point guard London Perrantes, who shows flashes of brilliance as an on-ball defender, but still has a ways to go to match the consistent output of Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson, and even freshman guard Marial Shayok, who has shown himself to be a quick study in defending on-ball and off screens.
Against teams with at most one guy that you need to game-plan to keep out of the lane, Perrantes can be shifted to D up a two-guard off-ball, with Brogdon and Anderson checking the point. But as we saw Saturday night, a team like Duke with multiple guys to check can give Virginia problems.
Not sure what this means for North Carolina, probably not much. But there is work to be done to get things shored up for March. Maybe it’s a good thing to know this now rather than later. Meaning there’s plenty of time to get it fixed.
– Column by Chris Graham
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