Thijs de Ridder hit an open three at the 17:02 mark, his second basket in the opening three minutes.
We didn’t know it at the time, but Virginia’s next bucket wouldn’t come for another seven and a half minutes.
A Chance Mallory three on a fast break got the ‘Hoos to within 19-12 with 7:52 to go, but three Duke threes – by Darren Harris and Dame Sarr – in the next two minutes pushed the lead to 16, and the rout was on.
Virginia, which came into the game on a nine-game winning streak, never got closer than 12 the rest of the way – basically never got off the deck after taking the series of body blows.
The final score was Duke 77, Virginia 51.
It didn’t feel that close, if that’s possible.
Punched in the nose
“You’re gonna take punches. This is a competitive sport, and you know, we punch people, they punch us. They punched us a lot more than we punched them today, and that’s what it is,” UVA coach Ryan Odom told reporters after the thorough beating handed to his team.
Duke (27-2, 15-1 ACC) held Virginia (25-4, 13-3 ACC), averaging 82.3 points per game coming in, to a season-low 51.
The ‘Hoos shot 29.1 percent from the floor, and 7-of-35 from three – that’s 20.0 percent.
It’s also a lot of threes, relative to the pace of the game – UVA had 57 possessions on the afternoon.
The game plan couldn’t have been, give up when Duke cuts off dribble penetration, just pass the ball around the perimeter, shoot contested threes, but that was what the offense was.
Which was frustrating to watch, and more frustrating: no adjustments in terms of the x’s and o’s from the staff.
ICYMI
“Their guards did a great job, you know, of applying pressure, you know, to our guards, without getting beat off the bounce regularly,” Odom said. “They did a great job of just keeping us in front of them. And when we did get in there, there was help, and you have to make shots, you know, when you get in that situation, when the balls kick back out, you know. We had some open ones that did not go down that maybe would have given us a little bit more confidence.”
On the other end, I just told you that the game was played at a slow, slow tempo – Duke had 58 offensive possessions.
So, 77 points on 58 possessions, that’s doing what you want, when you want it.
Podcast
Isaiah Evans had 14 of Duke’s first 18 points – on 5-of-7 shooting; on his fifth make, a three at the 9:42 mark, Duke as a team was shooting 6-of-16.
He finished with 19 points, but his early scoring was obviously important.
Cameron Boozer didn’t make a shot from the field until the second half, but he had 11 in the first half on gifts from the zebras that got him to the line.
He finished with 18 points on 3-of-9 shooting from the floor.
Duke rode its hot shooting from the perimeter in the first half – 8-of-13 from three – to a 41-26 halftime lead.
The box was odd: Duke didn’t make a shot from the rim in the opening 20 minutes, and had just four points in the paint.
It was threes and Boozer making 11 free throws, and what they did on D to stifle Virginia, which was 8-of-25 from the floor, 4-of-17 from three, and had six turnovers in the first half.
No response
The ‘Hoos never threatened in the second half, which was surprising, and disappointing, to see – considering how this team had played so tough on the road, 8-1 on the season coming in, rallying from 19 down at Notre Dame, nine down late at FSU, beating NCAA Tournament locks NC State, Louisville and SMU on their floors.
De Ridder was the only double-digit scorer, finishing with 16 points – 5-of-11 FG, 2-of-4 3FG, 4-of-4 FT in 20 minutes of floor time.
Dallin Hall had six points (2-of 4 3FG) and four assists (vs. one turnover) in 29 minutes, and a plus/minus at -5, which, that should stand out.
Johann Grunloh had four points (2-of-4 FG), somehow didn’t get a rebound – the kid is a seven-footer – and had two blocks in 20 minutes, and a plus/minus at -1.
The #2s at their positions, Chance Mallory and Ugonna Onyenso, had awful plus/minuses.
Mallory had decent counting numbers – nine points (3-of-7 FG, 1-of-4 3FG, 2-of-2 FT) in 22 minutes, but his plus/minus was -23.
Onyenso had two points and five boards (yay!) in 17 minutes; his plus/minus was -25.
Duke exploited Mallory on defensive switches; Onyenso’s issue: not knowing what to do on double-teams.
Here’s what not to do: not actually double, but also drift away from your guy, leaving him open for a lob, which happened several times.
Going forward
That was a thumping, and the lesson to be learned here – if you let the other team dictate how the game is played, and the other team is as good as Duke, the other team is going to eat your lunch.
One other lesson: this one only counts as one.
“They’re really good. They’re where they are at this particular point in the season for a reason, and we’re where we are,” Odom said. “We don’t need to cry about, you know, being 25-4, you know, at this point. We got beat today, and we’ve got to go back, and we’ve got two more games left, and we got to get ready for those to finish strong.”
This will be a new experience for this group; the other three losses this season were tight ones, games that either went into the final minute or OT.
Today felt like Duke exposed some things about this Virginia group – though as I write that, it does occur to me that there aren’t many teams out there that can do what Duke did to Virginia today.
“It’s not the first time I’ve ever lost a game by a significant margin. You know, we lost to Albany one time. I was telling the team after the game, it was like 80-some to 40-something, and you know, that team went on to do something pretty special,” Odom said, referring to his 2018 UMBC team, which actually lost a January game to Albany by an 83-39 final score, and then went on to pull the first 16-1 upset in NCAA Tournament history.
Don’t have a problem telling his kids about that, but maybe don’t talk about that one publicly, considering who was on the other end of that there upset.
It will never not be “too soon” on that, Coach.
“I’m not worried about one game, you know, I’m worried about, you know, the mindset of our team,” Odom said. “We can’t lose our confidence, because we just lost to a really good basketball team. We’ve got to get back, you know, to work and get ready to play and get ready to compete, you know, in our conference, which we know every night, you know, is going to be a tough matchup. And Wake Forest is going to come to JPJ ready to play.”
Later in his postgame, Odom stressed that he isn’t worried about the mental makeup of his squad.
“I’m really confident in this group and the leadership that we have. The connectivity that we have within the locker room, the connection between the coaches and the players is really strong. You have a chance for success, you know, when you do that,” Odom said.
“We’re not going to lose our confidence, you know, because of one game, but we are going to learn from it,” Odom said.
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Chris Graham
