Category Archives: Duke Basketball

Duke Basketball

Duke Wins an OT Classic Over UNC

The Duke Blue Devils came away with a thrilling 98-96 overtime win over North Carolina in Chapel Hill early Saturday evening. Wendell Moore collected Tre Jones missed shot and rebounded the ball and put in a deuce before time ran out.

"It was an absolutely incredible game. To have an incredible game means yo have great performances by both teams and Carolina was outstanding, said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The Blue Devils were led in scoring by Tre Jones who scored 28 points with 6 assists and 3 steals. He was all over the place in the second half leading his team to a win. He earned the praise of Mike Krzyzewski saying he remained positive during moments of adversity and that helped to energize his teammates.

Jones had to miss a second free throw to help put the game into overtime and he did so as if he practices it all the time. "We talk about," said Krzyzewski. He continued, "Tre made not a good play, he made a great play, that was an amazing play."

Before the game, the UNC students cheered that Tre Jones was overrated. By night's end, everyone in the Dean Dome saw him a first-team All ACC lock.

The player who hit the winning shot, Wendell Moore Jr. grew up a lot from the experience. He ended the game with a double-double of17 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, and that last board to get to ten was a memorable one, as was his composure to sink the game winner.

Duke was set to cut into the North Carolina lead coming from ten back in the first half but a Joey Baker missed dunk seemed to sway the momentum back in the Tar Heels favor. By the time the teams headed to the locker room, the Tar Heels were shooting 60% from the field which allowed for a 9 point lead at the break.

In a year where the Tar Heels had struggled, players who had not been having banner seasons suddenly gained their confidence. Instead of going off recent scouting reports, Duke may have been better off studying the pre-season prognosis where the Tar Heels were ranked in the top ten.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski had preached rebonding and not underestimating your opponent but it was not working at the break. The Tar Heels held 22-14 edge on the board at the half.

The eventual comeback did not seem evident to start the 2nd half. Vernon Carey would foul out of the game with 18 points and then Cassius Stanley went out and there went his 22 points to the sideline. But on this night, Duke would show resilience and the final result would mean a win on the Duke Blue side. And, yes, this game was another instant classic in the Duke-UNC series.

The Blue Devils celebrated as they made their way back to the locker room but that celebration will be cut shorter than usual, The reason is that Florida State comes into Cameron on Monday.

The win pushed the Blue Devils season record to 20-3 and 10-2 in the ACC. The victory over North Carolina also means Duke has a chance to move into sole possession of 2nd place in the league.

In closing, it was an uplifting emotional win for Duke over North Carolina. And yo have to prop the Tar Heels for their best effort of the year and making Duke better moving forward.

Stay tuned for more player and coach comments from Blue Devil Nation.

Duke Basketball

Duke Coach David Cutcliffe Will Call Plays in 2020

Duke Football coach will be calling the offensive plays this season for Duke Football. The news came during today's signing day chat with the media.

Cutcliffe has long been involved as an adviser to the offensive coordinators at Duje, but he will be all in on his new role with the team. This means he will need support from other staff members to run some of the daily practice operations.

All of the classes players committed sent their LOI's in. Duke had a start to the process and only needed to add offensive lineman Addison Penn, Cutcliffe also talked about the addition of transfers Chase Brice, a former Clemson quarterback and a player who will likely start at tackle in Devery Hamilton from Stanford

Cutcliffe shared that technology would play a role in getting Brice's feet wet. In short, Duke can allow him to view spring practice as it happens while sending him a playbook to master until he arrives on campus in July.

While Cutcliffe did not go into specifics, a comment from Brice earlier said that Duke may throw downfield a bit more this season. The Blue Devils also hope to display and improved running game.

Cutcliffe said he has confidence in his staff to make the right changes to bring things together before next season. He said he had confidence in every position on the team and with their support staff. He mentioned that he felt now was the time for a change and that he may not be as accessible to media as he has in the past to concentrate on his duties.

Duke Basketball

Vernon Carey Sweeps ACC POY AND ROW Awards

Duke freshman Vernon Carey Jr. has been named ACC Player of the Week and ACC Freshman of the Week after averaging 26 points and 15 rebounds in leading the Blue Devils to conference wins over Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Carey scored 26 points in both victories, shooting 11-of-17 from the field with 13 rebounds and a career-high four assists in Tuesday night's win over Pitt. At Syracuse on Saturday night, he grabbed a career-best 17 boards and went 9-of-14 from the field and 8-of-10 at the free throw line. Carey's 17 rebounds against the Orange matched Adonal Foyle and Patrick Ewing as the most by a visiting player at the Carrier Dome.

The native of Miami, Fla., now has 10 double-doubles this season, with each having been 15-10 games and eight 20-10 efforts. The eight 20-10 performances trail only Iowa's Luka Garza (10) for the most by major conference players.

Carey currently leads the ACC in field goal percentage (.597) and is the only player ranked in the top five in the ACC in scoring (third, 17.8), rebounding (fourth, 8.9) and field goal percentage.

The honors mark the second ACC Player of the Week (11/25) and fourth Freshman of the Week (11/25, 12/9, 12/23) recognitions for Carey. Over the last six-plus seasons, Duke has had an ACC Freshman of the Week in 60 of a possible 121 weeks. Fifteen different Blue Devils have won the award at least once in that time.

The Blue Devils continue their three-game road on Tuesday, February 4, when they take on Boston College at Conte Forum at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. - Duke Sports Information

Duke Basketball

Wendell Moore Back Vs Syracuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Duke has announced that freshman Wendell Moore Jr., who has missed the last six games with a broken right hand, will play tonight when the No. 9 Blue Devils battle Syracuse at the Carrier Dome (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Moore has played in 14 games and is averaging 7.4 points and 3.9 rebounds.

The Charlotte, N.C., native suffered the injury late in the win at Miami on January 4 and has not played since.

#

Duke Basketball

Duke at Syracuse Primer

When Duke travels to Syracuse to take on the Orange it will be the first time several players on the roster have played in a [Carrier] Dome. It is not easy to adjust to the surroundings in some cases so this is something to keep an eye on.

And do not sleep on the Orange. With a 13-8 record and a 6-4 mark in the ACC, they are especially dangerous at home. After a slow start to the season the Orange; after losing to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech, Syracuse reeled off five straight wins. And that streak started with a win over Virginia in Charlottesville.

Syracuse lost their last game by a point at Clemson, but they have played a solid schedule and they are more than capable of pulling an upset over Duke which has been labeled a 6.5 point favorite.

The Orange features the ACC's leading scorer in Elijah Hughes. Another key to recent success is freshmen Joe Girard, a player you cannot leave open for a three-point attempt. If his name sounds familiar, Duke kicked the wheels on recruiting him a season ago.

Another factor is that Mike Krzyzewski will be going up against his friend Jim Boeheim. And then there is the coaches son Buddy Boeheim who is a top ten scorer in the league. With family ties and emotion strange things can happen and this is when upsets occur.

For Duke to have success they must push the aforementioned three players off the three-point stripe and make them drive. Marek Dolezag anchors the post with Bourama Sidibe in what is usually a seven-man rotation.

Duke needs the win as much as Syracuse to stay in the ACC regular season race. A loss would likely drop the Blue Devils out of the top ten and there are ten games left in the season after this matchup.

The Blue Devils are led by their most consistent players in Vernon Carey Jr. and Tre Jones. But this is a game where a third wheel needs to have a breakout game and they must adjust their shooting to the Dome in short order.

I feel like the Blue Devils will come out on top this evening, but it would be far from shocking if they lose. Duke will get every teams best shot with tournament time fast approaching.

We will learn a lot about the ACC today where key matchups are played a 12, 2, 4, 6 and then the 8:00 tip-off for the Blue Devils at the Orange.

Duke Basketball

Q & A WITH VERNON CAREY JR.

One of the key performers in the Duke win over Pittsburgh last evening was Vernon Carey Jr. The big freshman tallied a team-high 26 points to go with 13 rebounds but he also had a career-high 4 assists. Carey now has nine double-doubles this season and he has scored 20 points or more and grabbed 10 or more rebounds in eight games. Blue Devil Nation caught up to Carey for a brief post-game chat.

It seemed like they wanted to get the ball into you early and often. Was that part of the plan against Pitt?

That was our gameplan coming in, to look inside early and just kind of play through me and I feel like we did a pretty good job of that as a team.

You have come into Duke and had a good shot from day one. What kind of work did you do in the offseason and here for that to happen?

I have always worked inside-out game or post and perimeter. We just work on screens and pops and just everything really.

The team was a little sluggish early after the break and you allowed them to make a comeback in the second half.

We came out a little sluggish and they cut the lead to three and just need to be more poised and turn the ball over less and get more stops.

You get to play in that [Carrier] Dome next. Have you ever played a game in a dome before and are you looking forward to it?

No, I have not played in one yet. I am looking forward to it.