Justise Winslow went to the Final Four in Houston in 2011 and watched Connecticut cut down the nets. With two more wins in his hometown, the freshman can advance to Indianapolis for the opportunity to do the same.
Top-seeded Duke can move one step closer the Final Four with a win against fifth-seeded Utah at 9:45 p.m. Friday at NRG Stadium in Houston. The winner will face either No. 2 seed Gonzaga or No. 11 seed UCLA Sunday for the South region championship.
Winslow said Tuesday that he is looking forward to playing in front of friends and family, but knows the trip has a much greater purpose.
“We won the first two games, took care of that business, and now I get to go home to Houston, my hometown, so I’m very excited about that,” Winslow said. “But at the end of the day, it’s a business trip. It’s about getting Duke two more wins.”
The play of the 6-foot-6 swingman helped Duke (31-4) stifle runs by Robert Morris and San Diego State in its first two NCAA tournament games last weekend in Charlotte, N.C. After the Colonials cut a 20-point Blue Devil lead to 10 in the second half, it was Winslow who had a hand in eight straight points to regain control of the game. Against the Aztecs, the freshman posted 13 points and 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season and added a few more highlight-reel rejections to his growing collection.
With Winslow locked in on both ends of the floor and freshman center Jahlil Okafor dominating the paint, the Blue Devil cruised to a pair of lopsided victories. The freshmen have ramped up their energy and communication in the postseason at the urging of teammates and coaches alike.
“I’ve been trying to put myself on another level since the tournament started,” Okafor said. “Coach pulled me to the side during our shootaround [before the San Diego State game] and showed me some film of when I’ve been great this season. He told me to bring the emotion back because it gets my teammates going. He showed me some clips from like the North Carolina game, clips from the St. John’s game. Some of it is natural—I have a lot of emotion going into the game—and some of it is trying to get my teammates going.”
Although the school’s basketball nickname is the Runnin’ Utes, Utah (26-8) picks its spots on when it wants to run—head coach Larry Krystkowiak’s squad did not have any transition points in its first-round win against Stephen F. Austin. Utah ranks 332nd in basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo statistic, but the Runnin’ Ute backcourt will provide a stiff challenge for the Duke tandem of Quinn Cook and Tyus Jones.
“Utah is solid. They’re one of the top 15 teams in the country and have been the entire season,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “They have two guys who, if everybody went early and there was a draft, they have two first-round picks.”
One of those players—point guard Delon Wright—has the keys to Krystkowiak’s offense. The senior does a little bit of everything, leading Utah in scoring, assists, steals and free throws made and ranking second in rebounding and blocks. At 6-foot-5, Wright is a matchup nightmare in the pick-and-roll game, able to drive and finish at the rim but also able to see over smaller defenders to set up his teammates.
Duke struggled to stop ball-screens—a major part of the Utah offense—in January losses to N.C. State and Miami but has tightened the screws defensively since then. If the Blue Devils pay too much attention to Wright, though, his teammates will make Duke pay. The Runnin’ Utes led the Pac-12 in three-point shooting this season at 40.8 percent. Guards Brandon Taylor and Jordan Loveridge join Wright as double-figure scorers, and each shoots better than 43 percent from beyond the arc.
With his size, vision and play-making ability, Wright’s skillset parallels that of another player the Blue Devils have already seen three times this season—Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant. The senior exploded for 23 points and 12 assists in the Fighting Irish’s 77-73 win Jan. 28, but was held to just seven points by Cook Feb. 7 in Durham.
In the rubber match in the ACC tournament semifinals, the Blue Devils again keyed on Grant, and although the senior didn’t carry his team to victory, he chipped in 13 points and seven rebounds in the Notre Dame win. Having game-planned for Grant’s size and role in ball-screens three times—Cook gave up three inches to his high school teammate—Duke may be able to apply some of the same principles to Wright come Friday.
“It helps us a lot. Both of them are great players and All-Americans in their own right,” sophomore Matt Jones said. “It definitely gave us a look at how we might possibly be able to defend the ball-screens and things like that. Delon’s very good with the ball, and he likes to set his teammates up a little bit more.”
After averaging 23.5 points per game during the opening weekend, Okafor should be tested by the physicality and athleticism of Utah center Jakob Poeltl. The freshman 7-footer was relatively unheralded coming out of Austria but has put together an impressive rookie campaign of 9.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per contest to go along with nearly two swats per game.
“He is a really good player now, but he’s going to be a big-time pro,” Krzyzewski said. “He runs, he’s great in the ball-screen because he rim-runs so well, he offensive-rebounds.”
Okafor has faced several highly-touted big men this season in Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas, and said Tuesday his mindset remains the same, regardless of who is lined up across from him on the block: dominate. But to hear Jones say it, there may be some added motivation after all.
“He wants to kill that matchup,” Jones said.
Should Poeltl get in foul trouble—a fate that has befallen many defenders hoping to slow down the ACC Player of the Year this season—the Runnin’ Utes have backup in senior Dallin Bachynski, another 7-footer who at 265 pounds adds another physical presence down low.
Ten of the 13 players on Utah’s roster play at least 10 minutes per contest, giving Krystkowiak—known to many as Coach K—a deep bench that could prove useful against Duke’s eight-man rotation. Only two Utes—Wright and Taylor—play more than 30 minutes per game.
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