Blue Devil’s Struggle on Full Display in 2021
The Duke Blue Devils dropped their third straight contest in a 70-65 loss versus the Louisville Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center on January 23, 2021. The Cardinals emerged victorious due to the stellar play of Carlik Jones, a 6’1” senior guard transfer from Radford University. Jones led the Cardinals with 24 points, five assists, and three rebounds.
He isn’t the first player to light up the Blue Devils defense in the week, however.
Sophomore forward Justin Champagnie of the Pittsburgh Panthers torched Duke’s defense for 31 points and 14 rebounds on the way to a 79-73 victory at the Petersen Events Center on January 19th.
This is the latest disappointment in a continuing series of shortcomings by the Blue Devils men’s basketball team. Having now lost three games in a row, all by a relatively narrow margin, the team looks to shift their fortunes in the near future and push through this rough stretch of games. No one in the Duke locker room is satisfied with their recent outcomes, lamenting over the fact that they generated several good looks to conclude the game against Louisville, but could not convert a basket.
Duke’s opponents have recorded field goal and three-point percentages of 47.5% and 38% respectively over the last three games. Duke has only managed to convert on 41.3% of their shots from the field and 29.3% of their three-point attempts in this same window of time. Additionally, Duke is surrendering a nearly 2:1 free-throw ratio to their recent opponents. Over the last three games, Duke has averaged 14.3 free throw attempts while opponents have averaged 26.7 free throw attempts. This disparity can be attributed to the fact that Duke has recorded 20 fouls or more in each one of these games while their opponents have averaged about 15. Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski reflected on this very fact in the wake of the loss to Pittsburgh, stating that “we fouled a lot” on their offensive rebounds and noting how it sent the Panthers to the line repeatedly. Pittsburgh shot 37 free throws in this contest, the most Duke has allowed during their losing streak.
The streak is not entirely made up of despair and sorrow. Duke has grown during this streak, learning to face adversity head-on. When asked after the Pittsburgh game if Duke’s players should be hitting the panic button after back-to-back losses, Coach K replied that “there is no panic button” and his team just needs to “get tougher” to break the streak. This feeling was reflected in the players’ responses as well, especially after the nail-biter against Louisville. Sophomore Forward Matthew Hurt stated that the team must simply “learn from our mistakes and keep working” to break through the slump, noting that they had opportunities late in the game but simply failed to convert them. He simultaneously took account for the disappointing outcome while also reflecting on how this loss could be used as a learning experience in order to compete more effectively during future contests.
Duke (5-5, 3-3 ACC) returns to action on Tuesday, January 26th against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (7-4, 3-2 ACC) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina for a 9 pm tip-off.