Both Duke and Notre Dame have had to adjust to missing key pieces this season.
For the Fighting Irish, the departures were expected. For the Blue Devils, the loss of Amile Jefferson has forced them to adjust on the fly.
No. 9 Duke hosts Notre Dame Saturday at 2 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium, looking to bounce back from its first ACC loss of the year. The Blue Devils have played eight games without the services of Jefferson, while the Fighting Irish have been searching for an identity all season after losing All-American Jerian Grant and senior Pat Connaughton from their Elite Eight team a year ago.
“The Amile thing, we’ve been doing a great job, but it’s hitting us, especially when you get into this conference play,” Krzyzewski said after Wednesday's loss at Clemson. “It really hits you. He’s good. It just hits you. We’ve done a really good job while he’s been away to be where we're at.”
Without Jefferson, the Blue Devils (14-3, 3-1 in the ACC) have tried to weather the storm and survive with only seven players in their rotation. Although Duke has sported a 6-2 record in the captain’s absence, the team has fallen susceptible to youthful mistakes without their vocal leader.
In their 68-63 loss to the Tigers, the Blue Devils failed to protect a 12-point first-half lead and ultimately let Clemson crawl back into the game. Foul trouble played a key role, as freshman Brandon Ingram picked up a costly third personal with only 1.6 seconds remaining in the first half that limited his aggressiveness on both ends of the floor in the second half.
With the game coming down to the wire, Duke uncharacteristically struggled to hit foul shots, including a pair from sophomore Grayson Allen—who shot 85.6 percent from the line entering the contest—and a potential game-tying free-throw from junior Matt Jones.
“We could’ve made a lot smarter plays,” Allen said. “A lot of the mistakes we made out there were young mistakes."
On the opposite side of the court Saturday will be a Notre Dame squad that has already lost five games—the same number the Fighting Irish (11-5, 2-2) lost during the entire regular season a year ago. But head coach Mike Brey's squad has started to find itself in recent weeks, led by the duo of guard Demetrius Jackson and forward Zach Auguste. All five Notre Dame starters score more than 11 points per game, making Notre Dame a well-balanced offensive machine that, like Duke, does not extend very deep down its bench.
Saturday’s matchup figures to come down to which team is more aggressive taking the ball to the basket. After not hitting a free throw for more than 30 minutes against Clemson and attempting a season-low seven foul shots, the Blue Devils will need their penetration to the hoop to open up shooters on the perimeter and easy finishes for center Marshall Plumlee.
On the other side of the ball, Duke will have to prepare for a Notre Dame offense that is capable of beating opponents in multiple ways. The Fighting Irish rank second in the conference shooting 49.9 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from beyond the arc so far this season. Although Notre Dame has attempted the second-fewest free-throws in the conference, the Blue Devils must do everything possible to stay out of foul trouble, even if it means switching to a safer zone defense for portions of the contest.
“We have a very limited team,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday. “All that foul trouble and the lineups we had…you can’t practice some of the things we have to do in a game when those situations hit.”
Still a relative newcomer to the ACC, the Fighting Irish made their presence felt in a big way last season, coming away with the conference tournament title in Greensboro, N.C. Notre Dame dealt the Blue Devils two of their four losses a year ago, aided by Grant’s heroics in the teams’ regular-season matchup and a big jumper by Connaughton in the ACC tournament. Forward Bonzie Colson proved to be the difference-maker in those wins, scoring 12.5 points per game in the victories. Now a sophomore, Colson will team with Auguste to try to outmuscle Plumlee and Ingram in the paint Saturday.
Sandwiched between the two defeats was arguably Duke’s best performance of the year, as stellar 3-point shooting helped the Blue Devils thump the Fighting Irish in Durham behind a game-changing 43-7 run.
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