Duke opened its season out of the national championship picture. As the season has progressed, however, this picture has changed. The Blue Devils, currently No. 3 in the nation, have reached the top of the AP poll and have emerged as a contender for that coveted title.
All the team’s success bodes well heading into March, but without improvements to its half-court offense, Monique Currie and the stifling defense will not be able to carry the team to its NCAA Championship goal.
In Thursday night’s win over last-place Clemson, Duke’s offense struggled against a much smaller and less-experienced team. With just under eight minutes to play, the Blue Devils held a mere five-point advantage—a far cry from the expected Duke blow out.
This offensive struggle revolved around the perpetual passing woes that have prevented the Blue Devils from getting good looks in the post.
With tall post players, including Mistie Williams, Alison Bales and Chante Black, the Blue Devils should be dominant in the paint. To this point in the season, however, this dominance has not been apparent. The only real post scoring threat has been Williams. Bales and Black have primarily been rebounders, scoring mostly junk baskets after offensive rebounds.
Duke’s saving grace thus far in the season has been the outside shooting of Jessica Foley, Wanisha Smith, Currie, and to some extent, Bales. Bales, who has said she is not comfortable playing with her back to the hoop, has shown surprising skill at hitting the outside jumper.
In last night’s victory over Clemson, Bales and Black dominated the boards, combining for 24 rebounds, but only tallied nine points for the Blue Devils. With Currie playing on a stress-fractured left foot, Foley stepped up for Duke, hitting 3-of-5 from behind the arc en route to a team-high 21 points.
Duke has struggled all season to integrate its great outside shooting with its potential on the inside, stemming from the Blue Devil post players having a major size advantage over almost every team.
Duke’s post problem is not simply the big players’ fault. Some of the blame should be placed on the guards, who do not get open and present a passing option if there is not a clean look at the basket.
“We’re trying to find our happy medium,” head coach Gail Goestenkors said. “We've been working so hard on getting the ball inside to our post players.”
Early in the first half against Clemson, Smith got the ball inside on numerous occasions, as the forwards were drawing Lady Tiger fouls. As soon as the double-teaming began, Duke’s offense halted, and Clemson managed to keep itself in the game much longer than it should have been able to.
“They started double-teaming, and I think we continued to look inside,” Goestenkors said. “Sometimes we become stagnant when we pass it in and then we just watch our post players.”
Duke has many ways of fixing its post dilemma—some coming at the player level.
Bales has been the most prolific shot-blocker in Duke history this season because of her improved conditioning, but she still lacks the pure athleticism to be a true scorer. In order to be an effective player, however, she needs the option to kick the ball out to a guard when she is in trouble, instead of forcing an awkward layup.
Early in the season, Black seemed to be on her way to being a dominant scorer and rebounder, but the freshman injured her ankle and has only recently been playing at full-strength. It will be up to Black to become Duke’s second go-to player in the post behind Williams and give Duke the threat down low that it needs for a balanced attack.
Although Currie’s injury will ultimately determine the Blue Devils’ fate this year, the half-court offense is the only aspect of the game within Duke’s control. If Bales can pass out of double-teams to open Blue Devil guards and Black can improve her scoring ability, then Duke will have the inside-outside attack it will need in March.
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