CHARLOTTE - When fans view the final score of last night's 94-61 Duke victory over the Davidson Wildcats at Charlotte Coliseum, they will probably be reminded of the Blue Devils' opening victory over Fairfield, 98-66. The results were similar, but it was a tale of two different games.
Davidson, like Fairfield, is well-coached, but unlike Fairfield, the Wildcats won their conference last year and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. On top of that, they returned four starters from last year's championship squad. Davidson was taller than Fairfield and just as athletic. The Wildcats were also more aggressive and polished offensively than the Stags, and similarly aggressive defensively.
"I definitely think that this was an improvement from the Fairfield game," forward Shane Battier said. "Davidson is a better team than Fairfield. They were a tournament team last year, they're probably going to win their conference and go back to the tournament this year."
Several differences were notable between Duke's first two games. First was the play of post players aside from Elton Brand. Brand carried the team at times against Fairfield, scoring 20 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. Against Fairfield, Brand was limited to 10 points and eight boards in 29 minutes of work.
Battier and Chris Burgess stepped in for Duke, combining for 21 points and eight rebounds in a combined 40 minutes and providing a very strong presence at both ends of the court.
In addition, Trajan Langdon showed that Brand was not the only person capable of shouldering the load for Duke, scoring 19 points in the first half when Davidson went on several mini-spurts in an attempt to keep the game close.
"I just wanted to be strong with the ball," Langdon said. "That's all I try to do is just get us going in some way on the offensive end."
Will Avery is continuing his evolution as a ballplayer and as a spark on the offensive end. Despite shooting just 4-of-11 from the field, Avery had an assist-to-turnover ratio of eight to two and swiped the ball from Davidson point guard Ali Ton four times.
"Will doesn't have to shoot," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He needs to initiate the offense and the defense. I really think he played like a point guard tonight, and I really felt that he had a terrific game."
Although the Blue Devils' effort was much improved last night, there are still weaknesses to be addressed. Duke committed 21 turnovers to just 19 assists, and often times looked unnerved by Davidson's full- and half-court presses.
"One of the reasons that we were so low in turnovers last year was because we had a little Polish kid handling the ball," Krzyzewski said. "Some of those deficiencies we had handling the ball were hidden. We have to work on those deficiencies this year."
The margins of victory in the Davidson and Fairfield games were almost identical, but the games that were played were not. Improved effort and greater balance provided Blue Devil fans with a much greater reason to be confident yesterday then they were just four days ago.
"We feel very proud of our effort tonight," Krzyzewski said. "We know we beat a very fine Davidson team."
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