In the third round of the ACC tournament Duke squared off against Notre Dame. The Blue Devils led by 16 points early in the second half but that was not enough to put the Fighting Irish away. The Irish finished the game on a 36-15 run to advance to the semifinals.
5 things Duke needs to do to have success in the NCAA tourney:
1. Make their shots
Duke needs to make their threes in order to stay in the game. They play with one big man who's first reaction on an offensive rebound is to kick it out for a three. If they do not make their threes they could be heading for an early exit.
2. Stay out of foul trouble
Duke is playing with a 2-man bench. If significant players get into foul trouble early and have to sit the majority of the first half they do not have anyone to turn to. Duke needs to stay out of foul trouble in order to play a full game with their best five players.
3. Finish games
Having a short bench means that some players are being counted on to give 30-35 min a game. The Blue Devils broke down against Notre Dame allowing them to come back, they are going to need to keep their endurance up if they want to go far into the tournament.
4. Rebound
Duke needs to attack the boards especially defensively. They give up way too many second chance points defensively. In their recent loss to UNC (76-72) UNC had 27 offensive rebounds to Dukes 29 defensive rebounds. It is hard to win games when you allow teams that many second chances.
5. Free Throws
Dukes players need to stay consistent on making their free throws. Marshall Plumlee is the only player who struggles from the line for Duke. Plumlee is shooting under 60% on the year and went 0-4 from the line in the loss to Notre Dame. If Plumlee is able to connect on one of those maybe Duke wins the game 71-70 in regulation instead of losing 84-79 in OT.
No comments:
Post a Comment