Although classes weren't in session, Elton Brand learned a lot of things this winter break.
In games against Michigan and North Carolina A&T, the struggling Brand watched the opening tip from an unfamiliar vantage point. Losing his starting job for the first time this season, the preseason All-American learned the rituals of the Duke bench. For instance, he had never realized that the entire Duke bench remains standing until the Blue Devils score their first point.
Apparently, Brand's benching taught him a few other things as well.
Since returning to the starting lineup, the center has certainly shown his coach what he wants to see, averaging 22 points on 73.8-percent shooting while grabbing 10.2 rebounds and blocking 2.8 shots per game.
"[Coach benching me] was not just a message to me," Brand said. "It was a message to the whole team. No one's spot is secure. You have to show you want it."
Brand turned in two monster games in leading Duke to huge wins against top-five opponents Kentucky and Maryland. These two wins highlighted a winter break in which Duke went 6-0, outscoring its opponents by an average of 33 points per game. Brand was the Blue Devils' leading scorer in five of the six contests and his efforts earned him his first two career ACC Player of the Week honors.
"I'm in the flow of things more," Brand said. "My explosiveness is back, and I'm getting open a lot more and the guards are finding me. The coaches have helped me find little things I can do to improve myself and the team."
In the Blue Devils' 71-60 win over No. 3 Kentucky, the big man pounded the Wildcats down low, grabbing eight boards and scoring 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Brand, who scored just four points in last year's 86-84 NCAA loss to Kentucky, simply outmuscled his Kentucky counterparts.
But equally important to Duke's win was its stifling defense throughout. Duke held Kentucky to just 35-percent shooting from the floor, and just 27.3 percent in the second half. The Blue Devils' perimeter defense held a usually sharp-shooting team to just 3-of-16 behind the three-point arc.
Will Avery dished out seven assists in leading the Blue Devil offense, but more importantly, he shut down senior Wayne Turner, who almost single-handedly took apart Duke's defense in last year's showdown. This time, the Blue Devils held Turner to just 11 points, one assist and four turnovers.
The Blue Devils held a five-point advantage at halftime but opened up the second half with an 11-0 run to take a 50-34 lead. Kentucky wouldn't go away, twice cutting the lead to eight. But unlike last year, when Duke blew a 17-point lead with under 10 minutes to play, the Blue Devils maintained their aggressiveness.
"We thought about [their comeback last year]" Avery said. "We said, 'Don't let it happen like it did last time. Don't let up. Keep attacking.'"
That attack mode stayed with the Blue Devils when they traveled to College Park to take on red-hot Maryland. Although tied at the half, Duke began the second with a 15-2 run. The fourth-ranked Terps missed nine of their first 10 shots and committed eight turnovers in the half's first eight minutes as the Blue Devils blew the game wide open en route to a 82-64 rout.
In that second half, junior college transfer Steve Francis was held to just one point. Chris Carrawell and company did an outstanding job defending the heralded Francis, holding him to just 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting on the afternoon. Francis' teammates had equally little success, shooting just 37 percent from the floor and scoring just 27 points in the second half.
Offensively, the Blue Devils were once again led by Brand, who scored 19 points to go along with his 13 rebounds and four blocks. Brand followed that effort with another double-double in a 41-point win over Georgia Tech and poured in a career-high 33 points Sunday against Virginia.
"[Brand's] really good, but he needs to be taught more and learn more," said Krzyzewski after the Kentucky game in reference to his decision to bench his star. "If he doesn't do that, he's probably not going to become a great player. But he has a huge learning curve. And we have to keep on him."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.