Perhaps Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski summed up Wednesday's 90-63 loss to No. 25 Miami best.
"They were men, we were boys," Coach K said.
The No. 1 Blue Devils return to action at 1 p.m. this afternoon against Maryland at Cameron Indoor Stadium, looking to avoid a second consecutive loss.
Read: A quick look at Maryland, which has yet to be outrebounded in a game all season.
Here are your three keys to the Duke-Maryland action:
Plumlee vs. Len and the battle on the boards
Averaging 43.0 rebounds per game, Maryland ranks second in the nation in rebounds per game and has yet to be outrebounded in a game yet all season. Leading that effort is 7-foot-1 center Alex Len, who has vastly improved this season and is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2013 NBA Draft should he forego his junior and senior seasons. But he'll face a tough test in fellow lottery hopeful Mason Plumlee, who is a National Player of the Year candidate. Plumlee's overall statline—17.3 PPG, 11.4 RPG, 57.1 FG%—is quite impressive, but he has been less effective without his frontcourt mate Ryan Kelly. Plumlee has double-doubles in his last two games but has made just 34% of his field goals and turned it over 4.5 times in those two contests. The Len-Plumlee battle should be exciting to watch, a rare treat getting to see two of the best post players in the country.
Will Duke's guards bounce back?
Plumlee's play against Miami wasn't necessarily pretty but the backcourt play was even uglier. The raw field goal stats: Seth Curry went 0-for-10, Tyler Thornton went 0-for-7, Quinn Cook went 1-for-12 and Rasheed Sulaimon went 4-for-9. Sulaimon was the "savior" so to speak, leading the team with 16 points, but Curry, Cook and Thornton couldn't buy a bucket. The Blue Devils can't win if they don't improve their shot selection and make the shots they're supposed to hit.
The one bright spot, though, from the destruction at Miami might have been the play of redshirt freshman Alex Murphy. Listed as a forward, Murphy can be a dangerous wing player at 6-foot-8, and he showed his versatility in the game with a career-high 11 points. He did so on 5-of-8 shooting, hitting 1-of-3 3-pointers. The energy he brought in that game was for naught—given that seemingly nobody else brought that same sort of focus—but he could see increased minutes because of his play.
It's 'Sheed's time to shine
With Ryan Kelly sidelined, Duke's offense has often looked stale without their senior captain opening up the floor at the power forward position, challenging defenses with his ability to score from deep. The one player who might really have the chance to help open up the offense is Rasheed Sulaimon, who owns the potential to be Duke's most dynamic scorer. We saw that when the Blue Devils came back in Cameron against Ohio State with 'Sheed scoring all 17 of his points in the Duke rally.
'Sheed hit a major five game slump recently, averaging 6.4 PPG in five games from Dec. 29-Jan. 12. But he appears to have bounced back with 15- and 16-point performances against Georgia Tech and Miami. Coaches, players on the team and others call 'Sheed Duke's best breakdown player—like Austin Rivers last year, he has the skills to break down a defense, hitting a shot or beating a defender off the dribble. He needs to step up for Duke to prove dangerous in the long run with Kelly sidelined.
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