Boston College at Duke Game Notes

Duke vs. Boston College

Sunday, February 24, 2013 • 2:00 p.m. • ACC Network

Durham, N.C. • Cameron Indoor Stadium (9,314)

 

ACC Network

Play-by-Play: Tim Brant

Analyst: Cory Alexander

 

 

Blue Devil IMG Sports Network

Play-by-Play: Bob Harris

Analyst: John Roth

Sirius - 94; XM - 191

 

The Opening Tip

• The Blue Devils are ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll and in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duke is 105-29 all-time when ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll.

• The Blue Devils have been ranked in the AP Top 10 for 109 consecutive weeks. Duke had been ranked in the top five for 13 straight weeks prior to this week’s No. 6 ranking.

• Duke is playing its 203rd straight game as a top-10 team in the AP poll. Duke is 169-33 in that span.

• Following Thursday’s win at Virginia Tech, head coach Mike Krzyzewski moved into third place for most wins by a coach at one school with 877. He is two wins why of tying Dean Smith for second on that list.

• Duke is 13-0 in Cameron Indoor Stadium this season with three home games remaining. Duke has put together 16 undefeated seasons in Cameron, including nine under Coach K, the last of which came in 2010-11.

 

The Last Time Out

• Seth Curry hit 5-of-6 three-pointers and scored 22 points to lead Duke past Virginia Tech 88-56 in Blacksburg, Va., Thursday.

• Curry sparked a three-point shooting barrage in which Duke finished 12-of-17 from beyond the arc and five different players hit a three-pointer. The .706 three-point shooting percentage was the highest by any visiting team in Division I basketball this season.

• Mason Plumlee recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds while also dishing out five assists and blocking three shots. Rasheed Sulaimon and Josh Hairston also scored in double figures with 17 and 11 points, respectively.

• Duke had just five turnovers while dishing out 15 assists.

• The win was Duke’s largest over an ACC opponent since an 82-50 win over North Carolina on March 6, 2010.

 

Numbers Game

• Duke, ranked No. 6 in the latest AP Poll, has been ranked in the top 10 of the poll 109 consecutive weeks. The last time Duke was not ranked in the top 10 was Nov. 19, 2007.

• Duke is one of only three teams in the top 10 of the Associated Press Poll (No. 6), Coaches Poll (No. 6), NCAA RPI (No. 1) and Strength of Schedule index (No. 1). Miami and Louisville are the other two teams ranked among the top 10.

• Duke leads the ACC in three-point percentage (.414) and three-point field goals per game (7.7 3pg.). The .414 clip would rank as the third-best in school history. Duke has made 10 or more three-point field goals nine times this season.

• Head coach Mike Krzyzewski passed Adolph Rupp for the third-most career victories at one school. Krzyzewski is 877-235 (.789) all-time as Duke’s head coach. Krzyzewski is two wins shy of tying Dean Smith for second all-time at one school and 34 shy of all-time leader Jim Boeheim.

• Coach K recorded his 950th career win on Thursday at Virginia Tech. He is the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball with 40 more wins than the next closest coach.

• Duke is one of only five teams in the country with two players averaging at least 17.0 points per game. Both Mason Plumlee (17.5 ppg.) and Seth Curry (17.1 ppg.) average over 17.0 points per game.

• Duke has outscored opponents 81.0 to 61.1 at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season on the way to a perfect 13-0 home record. Duke has defeated 11 opponents by double figures in Cameron this season.

• Duke owns a 1.39:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which would best the school record of 1.32:1 set by the 2000-01 NCAA Championship team.

• Mason Plumlee needs just one more rebound to reach 1,000 for his career. Plumlee would be the eighth Blue Devil to reach that mark and the third with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 150 blocks.

• Seth Curry has scored 20+ points in eight of Duke’s 13 ACC games. He has scored in double figures in all but two of those games and averages 17.9 points per game in league play to rank third in the ACC. Curry is also tops in conference play in made three-pointers per game (3.2) and third with a .456 three-point shooting percentage.

• Josh Hairston has scored in double figures in back-to-back games while shooting 8-of-11 from the floor. Hairston has four career double-figure scoring games.

 

Duke-Boston College Series History

• Duke and Boston College have met 17 times heading into Sunday’s game with the first meeting between the two schools coming on Dec. 21, 1979.

• The Blue Devils lead the all-time series 15-2, including an 11-1 ledger since Boston College joined the ACC.

• Duke has won six straight and 14 of the last 15 games in the series.

• Mike Krzyzewski is 14-2 at Duke against the Eagles, including a 6-0 record in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

• Eight of the 12 games since Boston College joined the ACC have been decided by 10 points or less.

• In the first meeting between the teams in 2013, Duke scored six straight points in the final two minutes to win, 62-61. Duke trailed 61-56 with 1:58 remaining until Quinn Cook hit a three-pointer and Mason Plumlee hit three free throws in the final minute.

 

Preview — Duke vs. Boston College (round 2)

It was just two weeks ago that Duke braved three feet of snow to battle Boston College at their Chestnut Hill, MA home. Forced to fly to Boston the day of the game (instead of the usual day before) and to miss their game day shootaround, the Blue Devils started off a bit discombobulated and never really shook it off, edging the underdog home team by a mere point, 62-61, on a Mason Plumlee free throw with 24 seconds remaining. Boston College's return trip to Cameron comes this Sunday at 2pm.

The Eagles sprung a surprise defensive scheme on Duke, triple-teaming Mason Plumlee pretty much every RIC_1821time he touched the ball, and it seemed to throw Duke out of its offensive comfort zone. Still, Mason scored 19 points and ripped down 10 boards, hitting 7 of 10 free throws, including 3 of 4 in the last minute to bring Duke from down 2 to up 1. Seth Curry was the only other Duke player in double-figures, scoring 18. Quinn Cook had 9 points on 3 for 5 shooting from behind the arc, including a huge three-pointer with less than two minutes to play to cut a Duke deficit from 61-56 to 61-59, setting the stage for Mason's charity stripe heroics. However, Boston College also harassed Cook into 4 turnovers against only 3 assists.

For BC, the top performers were the team's best two players: 6'8" sophomore Ryan Anderson scored 17 and pulled 6 rebounds, and 6'4" freshman Olivier Hanlan scored 20 points, including 11 of 12 from the free throw line. For the season, Anderson averages 15.1 ppg and 8.4 rpg, while Hanlan scores 14.6 ppg, along with 4.1 rpg, 2.4 apg, and 1.2 steals. BC also gets 10.0 ppg from 6'2" freshman Joe Rahon and 9.8 ppg from 6'3" sophomore and long range bomber Lonnie Jackson. The rest of BC's rotation includes three more sophomores, 6'5" Patrick Heckman, 7'0" Dennis Clifford (who started against Duke), and 6'7" Eddie Odio (who had two monster dunks against Duke but didn't do much else), along with 6'10" grad student Andrew Van Nest and 6'6 junior Danny Rubin.

Since the Duke game at Chestnut Hill, Boston College has won two of three games, beating Wake Forest and Maryland at home and losing a close one at Florida State. BC's overall record is 12-14, with a 4-9 ACC record. Pomeroy rates them 108th in the country (55th on offense and 191st on defense); Sagarin has them 107th, and they're 149th in the RPI.

As is somewhat typical for such a young team, BC is a much better team at home than they are on the road. At home, Boston College has 3 wins against 4 losses, including three very close losses to upper echelon teams (they lost to Duke by 1, Miami by 1, and NC State by 5, as well as by 12 to UNC), which is pretty respectable for a team that's probably a year or two away from an NCAA bid. On the road it's a different story, however, as the Eagles are winless in six tries. Playing in Cameron Indoor will likely be a significant challenge for them.

Boston College's identity this season has more or less been defined by poor defense and shooting tons of threes, but they showed neither of these characteristics the first game against Duke. It's not clear which was more of a surprise two weeks ago, BC's smother-Mason strategy or their decision to attempt only 11 threes (making just two), instead of their usual 21 per game. Perhaps Duke played outstanding perimeter D, but Boston College scored less than 10% of its points from the bonusphere, when they usually get almost 32%. For the season, BC leads the ACC both in three-point attempts and in the percentage of their points from threes. It will be interesting to see whether they repeat their strategies or if they revert to their normal game this Sunday.

On the Duke side, the team is coming off a strong 32 point victory over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Mason Plumlee atoned for his pedestrian effort in a loss at Maryland by pulling down 12 rebounds to go with 13 points, a game-high 5 assists, and 3 blocks, along with the most inspired defense we've seen from him in weeks. Mason's first rebound against BC will give him 1000 for his career, to go with 1000+ points and 150+ blocks, joining Mike Gminski and Shelden Williams as the only Duke players to accomplish this feat (at least since they started keeping blocks as a statistic). Plumlee also made Academic All American for the 2nd consecutive season, joining Gminski and Jim Spanarkel as Duke players with that distinction.

Seth Curry is on a roll, having scored 25 against Maryland and 22 against Virginia Tech (19 in the first half). Rasheed Sulaimon scored 17 against the Hokies, and Josh Hairston scored 11 for the 2nd game in a row, and he plus Amile Jefferson (essentially Ryan Kelly's two-headed replacement), netted 15 and 8 in 38 minutes. Alex Murphy had 8 points in 11 minutes.

Quinn Cook got into early foul trouble against Virginia Tech and only had 7 points. It will be interesting to watch Quinn against BC (and beyond), because in some ways he seems to be the player most affected by Ryan Kelly's absence. Although in the first seven games without Kelly, Cook played his usual stellar floor game, dishing 43 assists against just 14 turnovers (a better than 3 to 1 ratio), in the last four games, starting with the first BC game, Quinn has been aggressively hunting his own shot more and finding his teammates less, getting only 12 assists against 16 turnovers for a subpar 0.75 a/to ratio.

After the taut, one-point game at Boston College, it's unlikely Duke will overlook the Eagles again. That plus BC's struggles on the road should add up to Duke being a strong favorite in this game.

Duke at Virginia Tech Game Notes

9aDuke at Virginia Tech

Thursday, February 21, 2013 • 9:00 p.m. • ESPN2

Blacksburg, Va. • Cassell Coliseum (9,847)

The Opening Tip

• The Blue Devils are ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll and in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duke is 104-29 all-time when ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll.

• The Blue Devils have been ranked in the AP Top 10 for 109 consecutive weeks. Duke had been ranked in the top five for 13 straight weeks prior to this week’s No. 6 ranking.

• Duke is playing its 202nd straight game as a top-10 team in the AP poll. Duke is 168-33 in that span.

• Head coach Mike Krzyzewski is tied with Adolph Rupp for the third-most wins by a coach at one school with 876.

• Duke is playing back-to-back road games – excluding neutral sites – for only the second time this season. Duke defeated Wake Forest and Florida State in consecutive road games on Jan. 30 and Feb. 2.

• Duke is 9-3 away from Cameron Indoor Stadium this season.

The Last Time Out

• Rasheed Sulaimon hit three straight free throws to tie the game at 81-81 with 16 seconds left, but Maryland freshman Seth Allen sank a pair of free throws with two seconds left to lead the Terrapins past Duke, 83-81, in the Comcast Center Wednesday.

• After going scoreless in the first half, Sulaimon scored 16 points in the second half and hit all seven free throws.

• Seth Curry scored 25 points for Duke on 11-of-17 shooting. Quinn Cook contributed 18 points, and Josh Hairston scored a season-high 11.

• Duke forced 26 Maryland turnovers, scoring 27 poinst off Terrapin miscues. The 26 turnovers tied for the most by a Duke opponent this season.

• Maryland, which ranks second nationally in rebounds per game and rebounding margin, outrebounded Duke 40-20.

Numbers Game

l Duke, ranked No. 6 in the latest AP Poll, has been ranked in the top 10 of the poll 109 consecutive weeks. The last time Duke was not ranked in the top 10 was Nov. 19, 2007.

l Duke is one of only three teams in the top 10 of the Associated Press Poll (No. 6), Coaches Poll (No. 6), NCAA RPI (No. 1) and Strength of Schedule index (No. 1). Miami and Louisville are the other two teams ranked among the top 10.

l Duke leads the ACC in three-point percentage (.408) and three-point field goals per game (7.6 3pg.). The .408 clip would rank as the third-best in school history. Duke has made 10 or more three-point field goals eight times this season.

l Head coach Mike Krzyzewski is tied with Adolph Rupp for the third-most career victories at one school. Krzyzewski is 876-235 (.789) all-time as Duke’s head coach. Krzyzewski is three wins shy of tying Dean Smith for second all-time at one school and 34 shy of all-time leader Jim Boeheim.

l Coach K needs just one more win to reach 950 for his career. He is the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball with 40 more wins than the next closest coach.

l Duke has lost back-to-back games just once since the 2009-10 season. Duke's record following a loss during that span is 16-1.

l Duke is one of only two teams in the ACC with five players averaging double-digit scoring. Mason Plumlee (17.6 ppg), Seth Curry (16.9), Ryan Kelly (13.4), Quinn Cook (12.3) and Rasheed Sulaimon (11.7) are all averaging double figures.

l Duke owns a 1.36:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which would best the school record of 1.32:1 set by the 2000-01 NCAA Championship team.

l Mason Plumlee needs just 13 more rebounds to reach 1,000 for his career. Plumlee would be the eighth Blue Devil to reach that mark and the third with 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 150 blocks.

l Seth Curry has scored 20 or more points in seven of Duke’s 12 ACC games. He has scored in double figures in all but two of those games and averages 17.6 points per game in league play to rank third in the ACC. Curry also ranks among the top five in league play in three-pointers per game (t-1st, 3.0) and free throw percentage (3rd, .825).

l In Duke’s two games following a loss this season, freshman Rasheed Sulaimon averages a team-high 20.0 points per game while shooting .750 (9-of-12) from three-point range. Seth Curry averages 18.5 ppg and Mason Plumlee 17.5 ppg in games following a loss.

Duke-Virginia Tech Series History

• Duke leads the all-time series with Virginia Tech 40-8, with a combined 20-6 record in games outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke is 9-5 against Virginia Tech on the road and 11-1 at neutral sites.

• The Duke-Virginia Tech series began on Feb. 16, 1912 when Duke won 37-32.

• Duke is 11-3 against Virginia Tech under head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

• Duke has won four straight meetings and eight of the last nine contests.

• The last two meetings have been decided by an average of 4.5 points. Duke defeated Virginia Tech 70-65 in overtime in the final meeting of the 2011-12 regular season and then pulled out a 60-56 win in the 2012 ACC Tournament.

• Duke is 11-3 against Virginia Tech since the Hokies joined the ACC in 2004-05.

Former Duke standout Phil Henderson passes

phil henderson ripDURHAM, N.C. – Former Blue Devil standout Phil Henderson passed away Sunday at his home in the Philippines. Henderson, a senior captain on Duke’s 1990 Final Four team, finished his Duke career with 1,397 points, 330 rebounds, 217 assists and 128 three-point field goals in 115 games.

 

“On behalf of the entire Duke Basketball family, we are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Phil Henderson,” said head coachMike Krzyzewski. “Our hearts go out to his mom and family. Phil was a talented player and a good man with a gentle soul. We will miss him dearly.”

 

As a senior, Henderson led the Blue Devils in scoring at 18.5 points per game while earning second team All-ACC accolades. The University Park, Ill., native was at his best in March, averaging 22.3 points per game in tournament play en route to earning ACC All-Tournament, NCAA All-East Regional and NCAA All-Final Four team honors.

 

Henderson also earned ACC All-Tournament team and All-East Regional team honors in 1989. After scoring 21 points in a tournament win over Minnesota, Henderson netted 23 points in the regional win against Georgetown. He made one of the most memorable plays in Duke history in that contest, when he drove down the lane and dunked over Alonzo Mourning. Henderson started all 36 games as a junior and averaged 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

 

Henderson, a 1990 NBA Draft second round selection by the Dallas Mavericks, went on to play overseas for several years following his Duke career.

Preview: Duke at Maryland

Ah, Duke's annual trip to College Park. The energy, the tradition, the post-game riots. With Maryland leaving for the Big 10 the year after next, this might be the very last such trip for Duke, the last installment in the not-our-rivalry.

Sumaimon for 2The often crass and vulgar Terrapin faithful had a lot to cheer about when Maryland won four of six home games against Duke from 2002 to 2007. But Duke has taken four of the last five games in College Park and third year coach Mark Turgeon has yet to beat the Blue Devils. Duke clobbered the Terps 84-64, three weeks ago in Durham.

Since that game on January 26, Maryland has beaten Wake Forest and Virginia Tech and lost to Florida State and Virginia. The Terps' rotation has looked a bit different lately than it did against Duke, as 6'8" senior James Padgett has replaced 6'9" freshman behemoth Shaquille Clear in the starting lineup. Clear started against Duke and played 16 minutes, but in Maryland's last couple games he's been the 9th or 10th man, playing only 3 minutes against Virginia Tech on February 7. Also, 6'3" junior Pe'Shon Howard has appeared to drop to eighth in the rotation (averaging fewer than 14 mpg in the last three games, and now has been suspended and will not play against Duke) after playing 21 minutes in the first Duke/Maryland game. You never know, though. Padgett only played 6 minutes against UVa after averaging 27+ mpg in the three games before that.

With either Padgett or Clear in the lineup, however, Maryland is huge. Led by 7'1 sophomore center Alex Len, the Terps' starters include 6'8" freshman Jake Layman, 6'6" sophomore Nick Faust, and 6'5" sophomore Dez Wells. Meaning Duke will give up 4 or more inches at all three perimeter spots. The terps go 10 deep, with either Clear or Padgett subbing in the frontcourt, as well as 6'8" widebody freshman Charles Mitchell, and with Howard, 6'1" frosh Seth Allen, and 6'3" graduate student (transfer from Albany) Logan Aronhalt shoring up the perimeter.

Maryland is rated #61 in the country by Pomeroy, #73 in the RPI, and #53 by Sagarin. Pomeroy likes their defense (#50) better than their offense (#96).

As one might guess with all that height and girth, Maryland is the top rebounding team in the ACC, ripping down 42.2 boards a game. Their specialty is offensive rebounding, as their offensive rebounding percentage is tops in the conference. Duke's defensive rebounding is an area of weakness (9th in the ACC), so this is a critical thing to watch on Saturday. Based on rebounding percentages, Maryland's top glass cleaners are Mitchell (24.0 def reb %; 16.0 off reb %) and Len (18.4 def reb%; 13.5 off reb %). Padgett and Clear are also more than adequate.

The Terps shoot the ball pretty well overall at 47.2% (tied with Duke for 2nd in the conference), but don't shoot many threes (their percentage of three point shots out of overall shots is 10th in the conference) and don't get to the free throw line very much (8th in the conference in free throw rate). When they do launch an outside shot or a freebie, they don't make so many (8th in the ACC in three-point pct and 9th in FT%). But their biggest weakness is turnovers, where they rate worst in the ACC, coughing up the ball more than 15 times a game. They also rate 2nd to last in the league in getting steals on defense.

In contrast, Duke has the most efficient offense in the ACC. In addition to being tied (with Maryland) for 2nd in the league in overall FG%, the Devils lead the conference in three-point percentage (40.8%) and FT% (71.7%). And Duke exploits its three-point strength, taking the 3rd highest percentage of threes in the conference. Duke's assist rate is similar to Maryland's (Maryland is 3rd in the ACC and Duke is 4th), but unlike the Terps Duke takes care of the ball. The Blue Devils' 1.36 assist to turnover ratio is tops in the league and the team only gives the ball away 11.2 times a game (2nd in the conference).

Maryland has only two double-figure scorers. Dez Wells scores 12.0 points per game, along with 4.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Len puts in 12.5 ppg and rips down 8.0 rpg, as well as 2.0 blocks. Howard is the Terps' top assist guy with 4.2 apg.

In the January 26 game at Cameron, Dez Wells scored 13 and nabbed 8 boards, but only managed a single assist against 3 turnovers. Mason Plumlee outscored Alex Len 19 to 8, although Len's 10 boards topped Mason's 7. Mason also had 3 assists and only 1 turnover. Nick Faust scored 9, along with 4 rebounds and 3 assists (4 to's), and Charles Mitchell put up 13 and 7 in only 13 minutes of play.

On Duke's side, Quinn scored 11, with 5 rebounds and 9 assists against only 2 turnovers. In recent games Quinn has been looking for his own shot and hasn't been distributing as much, but hopefully he can do both tomorrow. Rasheed Sulaimon had the highest scoring game of his young career against Maryland, netting 25 points on 9 for 13 shooting (6 for 8 from three). Amile Jefferson battled the bigger Terps for 9 rebounds to go with 11 points and 3 blocks.

One side note -- there have been some internet reports that Mason Plumlee is nursing a sore ankle but expects to play. Duke hasn't reported anything about this, so it might just be internet chatter. If Mason's ankle does hinder him, however, it could be critical, as Duke needs his size and strong play against Maryland's huge front line.

Another note: Pe'Shon Howard has been suspended and will miss the Duke game.

Ultimately, this game shapes up as a contest of size vs. skills. The Terps' superior height on the perimeter didn't bother the Devils' ballhandling (18 assist against only 4 turnovers) or shooting (52.4% from the field; 50% from three on 11 for 22 long distance shooting) in the last matchup. If Duke can can replicate that success and moderate Maryland's success on the boards, there's a pretty good probability of a Blue Devil victory. If Maryland can bother the Duke outside shooters and continue to hammer the offensive boards (17 in the last game out of 43 rebounds overall), they might have a chance at an upset in front of the rabid Maryland fans.

Post-game: Duke vs. UNC

Duke has now played nine games since Ryan Kelly went down during the Clemson game on January 8. Without Kelly the team has a very different feel, both on offense and defense, but perhaps the most important consequence of Ryan's absence is our missing his experience. Another Mason dunkWith three senior starters and two junior bench players, Duke during its first 15 games had the look of a veteran team that could adapt to any situation, calm and unruffled, a team that knew how to win and was confident it would do so, regardless of the impediments in its path. Substituting a freshman (Amile Jefferson) for a senior has disturbed that unruffled calm and made Duke vulnerable to stress and the unknown. We've seen this multiple times in the past month and once again in last night's rivalry matchup against North Carolina.

One of Duke's great strengths year in and year out has been game preparation. Coach K knows how to use practice time effectively, allowing our players to be ready for each game and to know exactly how to anticipate and combat each opponent's actions. It is perhaps a testament to Duke's strength, even without Kelly, that most of our recent opponents have felt the need to attempt to undermine that, to force our suddently younger team to deal with things for which it hadn't prepared. Can't blame them, though, can we? Because for the most part it's worked, at least at first.

Game Surprise? Result
1/12, @NCSU Just a few days after Kelly's injury, the team has precious little time to prepare for life without Ryan Duke looks lost on both sides of the ball and loses by 8
1/17, Ga Tech No real surprises Duke wins convincingly by 16
1/23, @Miami Reggie Johnson goes all Willis Reed on us, throwing our game plan out the window. Duke gets blown away by the Hurricanes, losing by 27
1/26, Maryland No real surprises Duke wins convincingly by 20
1/30, @Wake Forest Wake surprisingly decides to single-cover National POTY candidate Mason Plumlee in an attempt to stop our three point shooting. Duke has trouble adapting, beating an outmanned Wake team by just 5
2/2, @FSU No real surprises Duke wins convincingly by 19
2/7, NCSU No real surprises Duke jumps off to a 20+ point lead before coasting to a 13 pt win
2/10, @BC Snow forces Duke to fly in just hours before the game, severely disrupting Duke's pre-game routine and preparation. Then BC triple-teams Mason every time he touches the ball. Duke has difficulty adapting and only edges an inferior BC team by 1.
2/13, UNC Roy Williams unveils a new starting lineup for the first time. Duke struggles early, but manages to surge past the Tar Heels by 5.

See the trend here? When the players can work from their game preparation Duke has won handily. When they've gone through the stress of being confronted with the unexpected, they've struggled. A pattern often seen with inexperience. To Duke's credit, after a couple stumbles the team has managed to still win its last three such challenges, including yesterday evening's game against the bad guys from Chapel Hill.

Last night's Carolina curve was perhaps the least predictable of the lot. Roy Williams had started two bigs and brought PJ Hairston off the bench every single game this season. Just a few days ago he was quoted as saying it would stay that way for the forseeable future. One of his hallmarks at North Carolina has been a determination to always go 10 or 11 deep (this year, 10 UNC players average 10+ minutes a game and an 11th guy averages 8+), no matter how many UNC fans scream at him to shorten his rotation. In anticipation of these trends continuing, Coach K started Josh Hairston alongside Mason Plumlee.

But when UNC's lineup was announced, lo and behold, it was the 6'6" PJ Hairston trotting out there, giving Carolina four guards alongside forward James Michael McAdoo. Two minutes later, Amile Jefferson subbed in for Josh Hairston, and twenty five seconds after that UNC had a five point lead.

"They did a good job of kind of throwing us off a little bit in the first half," senior co-captain Seth Curry said. "We finally found a way to adjust."

Duke struggled on both offense and defense against UNC's small lineup, but managed to keep the Heels within shouting distance. The first half seemed like a ping pong match -- Duke pulled within three, 9-6, then UNC pulled ahead 17-10; Duke got it back to three again, 17-14, but then Carolina jumped to its largest lead of the game, 28-18; Duke went on a mini-run, capped by a big three by Tyler Thornton, dropping the margin to five (30-25). The half ended with Carolina holding a four point edge, 33 to 29.

The game was marred by foul trouble. Plumlee, Quinn Cook, and Seth Curry all had two at halftime. Plumlee's first half fouls were both on offense, and he picked up a third foul 28 seconds into the second half. With a minute gone in the half, McAdoo drove in and Plumlee backed away so quickly McAdoo practically airballed the layup in his surprise. A minute and half later, instead of going inside Mason launched a tentative long jumpshot, and Coach K pulled him almost before the shot clanked off the rim, with UNC enjoying a seven point lead, 38-31.

With Mason on the bench, Duke went small to match UNC's new preferred lineup. Tyler Thornton stepped up again with another huge three with 16:18 to play, and when Seth Curry hit his first three of the game two minutes later, Duke took its first lead of the night, 42-41.

Even after Mason checked back in, Duke stayed small, employing a four guard lineup for much of the second half. Duke finally felt comfortable, and it showed. Three more threes, one by Rasheed Sulaimon and another each from Thornton and Curry, gave Duke its biggest lead of the night, 59-51, with five minutes to play. After Mason Plumlee stuck a short jumper with 3:48 remaining, UNC went into foul mode and Duke held on by scoring its last 12 points from the line on 12 for 12 shooting. PJ Hairston's meaningless dunk at the buzzer made the final score 73-68.

Plumlee, Sulaimon, Curry, and Cook all ended with four fouls. Josh Hairston had two fouls in nine minutes of play. For UNC, Bullock had four and the other four starters had three each. Ironically, Amile Jefferson and Tyler Thornton, both of whom average almost five fouls per 40 minutes, only got whistled for two each in 20 and 28 minutes of playing time.

Quinn Cook has said Coach K asked him to be more aggressive looking for his own offense, and it showed as Cook scored 18 points and has averaged 16.5 points in his last four games. Unfortunately, the young point guard's scoring has come at the expense of his facilitating. Against UNC, Cook only managed a season-low two assists against five turnovers, coming on the heels (pun intended) of a three assist, four turnover game against BC. For the game, Duke turned it over 17 times against Carolina, although only six of those came in the second half.

Despite his foul trouble and his looking a bit sluggish at the outset, Mason Plumlee hit his season averages of 18 points and 11 rebounds. Mason went four for four from the line during the end game, and is 33 for 44 (75%) on free throws in his last five games. Amile Jefferson had 8 rebounds in his twenty minutes. Tyler Thornton's 9 points represented by far his highest total in ACC play (and 3rd highest of the entire season). He also added 3 rebounds as most of our guards rebounded well (Cook chipped in with 6 boards and Curry had 5). Rasheed Sulaimon was the high assist man for either team, with 5, to go along with his 13 points. Seth Curry also scored in double figures, with 11. Cook led both teams with 4 steals.

UNC hammered the offensive boards, coming away with 20, but only managed 18 defensive rebounds as Duke outrebounded the Heels, 39 to 38. PJ Hairston had a career high 23 points to go with 8 rebounds (7 offensive!), a UNC game high 3 assists, as well as 2 blocks and a steal. Reggie Bullock had 15 points and 8 boards, but did most of his damage in the first half, shooting 3 for 3 on threes in the first half but only 1 for 4 from long distance in the second half. Nobody else from UNC did much from the bonusphere, however. PJ Hairston and Leslie McDonald, both averaging near 40% from three for the season, shot 1 for 7 and 0 for 2, respectively, from behind the arc.

James Michael McAdoo also amassed most of his stats in the first half, scoring 6 of his 9 overall points and garnering 6 of his 8 overall rebounds in the opening stanza. His four baskets included three dunks and one rebound-putback. He missed all eight of his shots from more than an inch from the basket and shot 1 for 5 from the free throw line. Bullock also shot poorly from the charity stripe (1 for 4), and UNC probably could have used some of those misses. Overall, UNC hit only 13 of 23 freebies (and only 5 of 18 from three-point range), although the rest of the team besides McAdoo and Bullock hit a respectable 11 of 14 free throws.

Rookie point guard Marcus Paige played 30 minutes but only contributed 4 points and 1 assist (plus 5 rebounds). Leslie McDonald scored just 2 points in 20 minutes. 6'10", 260 pound freshman Joel James sat out the game with an injury, although since he's 9th on UNC's team in minutes per game, his absence was probably not a big factor.

Continuing on the theme of surprises, Roy Williams essentially played a six man rotation. Other than McDonald, the four players on the UNC bench combined for just 12 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Coach Williams continues with the small lineup and short rotation. The Tar Heels played better than they have for most of the season, and this might just be the jump start Carolina needs to finish the season strong and make the NCAA tournament.

As for the Blue Devils, the win over their arch-rival brings the #2 team in the country's record up to 22-2 (9-2 in ACC play), going into Saturday's contest at Maryland. For now, we'll just have to wait and see what surprises, if any, Mark Turgeon dreams up.