Duke beats Baylor, but Blue Devils look very beatable with WVU up next!

Posted by By Sports Session at 29 March, at 06 : 30 AM Print

Duke is in the Final Four, and all their fans are rejoicing at the Blue Devils finally making it back to a place where they lived seemingly ever year from 1986 – 2004.  They downed Baylor in a hard fought game 78 – 71 on Sunday.

I think Duke Fans should be concerned though, this game was far from a dominating performance by the Blue Devils.  They did not pull away until about two minutes left in the game, and Baylor actually had the lead at halftime.

Watching this game Duke had one saving grace which was their ability to rebound; their shooting was not like Duke Teams of the past that would kill you with their shooting.  The Blue Devils only shot 36 percent from the field, and their 22 offensive rebounds are what kept them in the game until they could put some distance between them and the Bears on the scoreboard.

As I watched the game the sequences seemed to go like this Duke would come down fail to get the ball inside to Zoubek (as if it would have mattered, more on that later).  Duke would chuck up a three pointer from Scheyer, Smith, or Singler and they would miss, but unlike past years they would get the rebound and kick it back out.

After multiple outside shots one would go in for them.  Kyle Singler was 0 -10 from the field on the day, and all the other Blue Devils other than Nolan Smith had horrible days from the field.  Baylor is not known as a three point shooting team, and they kept attempting them to the tune of 27.8% which helped Duke eventually win.

Going into the next round against West Virginia the Blue Devils will have to shoot better, the Mountaineers are more than comfortable playing a half court game.  Brian Zoubek is not really what you would call a dominant center; he merely takes up space and grabs rebounds.  He has no post moves, and does not score that much.

With that being said West Virginia simply needs to step out on Duke’s shooters and make them drive the ball, and force them away from shooting three pointers.  That is really the only weapon Duke has, and West Virginia has already proven they can rebound with a bigger team.

Contrary to what Duke Fans might think, the Blue Devils have had an easy road so far in the tournament, Baylor was a test and they almost lost.  They have three people who can score, and with the defensive minded Mountaineers next on the schedule it is going to be hard for Duke to execute the same game plan they did on Sunday.

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