Duke suffers first loss of the season

Posted On: January 12, 2011 By: Cliff Comments: (zero)

Playing in Tallahassee is no easy chore for the Duke Blue Devils. Once again the Seminoles knocked off Duke on their home court to give the Blue Devils their first loss of the season. The 66-61 setback dropped Duke’s record to 15-1 on the year and 2-1 in the conference. Sure wasn’t the way Coack K and the team wanted to perform in their “true” road game where they would have to deal with an opposing student section and home crowd.

If you want to pin point one thing why the team lost, you can look at the three point shooting. 11 of 35 shooting from beyond the arc will not cut it. 35 attempts is way to many when you are playing on the road in my opinion. Overall the Blue Devils shot just 31% on 19-61 shots.

So what do you do when you aren’t scoring from three point land? Drive to the basket and get some buckets from your guys down low. Duke does not have that presence as right now the Plumlee brothers aren’t stepping up and are in more foul trouble than anything. Ryan Kelly really doesn’t play down low or have post up moves so I don’t see him being an option.

A loss early in conference play isn’t the worst thing. It will give Coack K and the guys something to learn from and know that they need to bring it every time they take the court. I would expect some hard practices and for the Plumlee brothers to take the initiative and start playing better down low.

Up next will be a game against Virginia on Saturday afternoon. Look for Coach K to have the guys fired up and for the Blue Devils to get back on track.

Cliff – @justdukecom

Category: Duke Basketball, Duke Basketball Game Notes