It's rare for a 31-point win to be immediately followed by a postgame film session.
But considering the Blue Devils' quick turnaround between games and what they called an underwhelming 80-49 victory over Presbyterian Monday in Cameron Indoor Stadium, head coach Mike Krzyzewski felt it necessary to go over four offensive plays representative of what Duke did wrong on opening night-and many of them had a common theme.
"We just didn't make the extra pass," Krzyzewski said. "I'm a big basketball gods guy, and I think sometimes you get punished and you miss layups, and you don't see that open guy."
Even as the No. 8 Blue Devils (1-0) dominated the Blue Hose (0-1) statistically in the first round of the 2K Sports Classic, they were clearly not in midseason form offensively. Duke had just a six-point lead more than 11 minutes into the contest. It reeled off the next 19 points, but even then, the team was not playing as well as it could have.
The Blue Devils missed open men on several of the plays in that run, Krzyzewski said.
"It didn't feel like a 19-0 run," said junior guard Jon Scheyer, who scored 12 first-half points. "We were just dragging a little bit in the first half with our offense, and it wasn't a typical run that we feel like we can have. We felt like it could've been a 30-0 run with the way we could've played, and we just didn't make those plays that we usually do."
That was the story all night for Duke, which never let Presbyterian back in the game but also never put together a smooth offensive stretch. The Blue Devils struggled to complete passes the entire contest, turning the ball over 21 times-including eight turnovers by the starting frontcourt of Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Miles Plumlee.
Duke's defense, however, kept the Blue Hose from pulling closer after that 19-0 run in the first half. Presbyterian shot 30 percent from the field, and Duke turned 28 Blue Hose turnovers into 35 points.
"Our defense was excellent," Krzyzewski said. "We played really hard, or else we wouldn't have forced 28 turnovers. It didn't translate to just being fluid on the offensive end."
Four Blue Devils had double-digit points-led by Singler, who registered a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds-but the team believes it has a long way to go before it becomes the well-oiled offensive machine it wants to be.
And the process of improvement starts with fixing the most glaring problem against Presbyterian: making the extra pass.
"We had a few plays where we threw the ball just to air," Scheyer said. "We also didn't hit open people and make the extra pass like we usually do. That's a big thing for us in our offense, and when we play like that, we're a tough team to beat and we can go on a lot of runs. But tonight we didn't do that for some reason. It's disappointing."
Duke doesn't have to wait long to try to correct its mistakes. The Blue Devils face Georgia Southern (1-0) at 9 p.m. Tuesday in Cameron in the second round of the 2K Sports Classic. The Eagles defeated Houston 65-63 Monday afternoon.
That quick turnaround was part of the reason why Krzyzewski held his 10-minute film session immediately after the game.
And after struggling against the Blue Hose-the other, more obvious, reason for a film session after a 31-point win-Duke would like nothing more than to get back on the court and prove that its offense is better than it showed Monday night.
"It was an ugly win, but we got the win, and we're going to the next game," sophomore guard Nolan Smith said. "Everybody's really anxious to play now after that game, realizing the mistakes that we made and the little plays that we could've made to make this game an even bigger win than it was. Tomorrow will be an even better game."
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