RALEIGH—Before Saturday, the Blue Devils were snowballing down every major poll in the nation and skidding out of ACC title contention.
Throw in the team’s recent history at PNC Arena—Duke had not beaten N.C. State on the road since 2011 and lost to Mercer at the venue in the first round of the 2014 NCAA tournament—and the Blue Devils' current three-game slide, and Saturday's game against the Wolfpack suddenly felt like a pivotal moment in the course of Duke's season.
But with an improved tenacity and fight for the ball than it had displayed during losses against Clemson, Notre Dame and Syracuse, No. 20 Duke froze talks of its impending spiral with a gritty 88-78 victory against the Wolfpack to remain above .500 in conference play, preventing its first four-game losing streak since the 2006-07 season.
“We found out last three games that one play can change the game,” junior Matt Jones said. “[In the] last couple games, we haven’t rebounded, and when we rebound we have enough players to where we can make things happen. Rebounding was a big key for us.”
The Tigers, Fighting Irish and Orange rode to victories by dominating the Blue Devils on the glass, outrebounding Duke by a total of 123-99—including a 52-33 disparity on the offensive end—leading head coach Mike Krzyzewski to lament his team’s inability to just grab the ball and protect it.
Against the Wolfpack, though, graduate student Marshall Plumlee led the charge for the Blue Devils, corralling eight of the team’s 31 total rebounds, outrebounding a conference foe for the first time since Jan. 9, an 82-58 blowout against Virginia Tech. Six of Plumlee's rebounds came on the offensive end, outmuscling the physical N.C. State duo of BeeJay Anya and Abdul-Malik Abu.
But Plumlee did not have to carry the load on his own, and instead rallied his troops with his efforts. Sophomore Grayson Allen and freshman Brandon Ingram both snagged seven rebounds of their own, repelling the stingy N.C. State frontcourt from the boards.
“Tonight, I think we came up with a lot of loose balls, a lot of rebounds—a lot of those rebounds were getting tipped up into the air and we came up with a lot of them,” Allen said. “That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to do all the little things, and I think we talked a lot better today.”
Duke could have very easily given in and lost its tenacity against the Wolfpack early on, though. As the Blue Devils connected on just 15 of their 35 shots in the first half—including a 3-for-14 showing from beyond the arc—N.C. State drained 17-of-30 attempts from the floor in the first 20 minutes, including six straight 3-pointers.
But Duke’s frigid shooting struggles did not last, as the Blue Devils came storming out of the locker room to nail 17-of-24 shots in the second half, sparked by their ability to convert second-chance opportunities. The Tigers, Fighting Irish and Orange scored 45 points on second-chance opportunities to Duke’s 23—Saturday, the Blue Devils bested N.C. State 12-11.
“We knew every time that we come out in the second half, we come out flat,” Ingram said. “So we knew we didn’t want to come out flat, knock some shots down, stay aggressive and get after it defensively. The key for this game was to rebound the ball, so we rebounded well and got after it.”
The gritty play did not stop there. With Krzyzewski utilizing a seven-man rotation at an increasing rate since the loss of senior forward Amile Jefferson in nonconference play, the Blue Devils had been bodied up in the paint by deeper, more aggressive foes.
Against Notre Dame, Duke was outscored in the paint 50-26, accounting for much of the 104-72 deficit in its three conference losses. Although Krzyzewski essentially played a six-man rotation against the Wolfpack—redshirt sophomore Sean Obi only played one minute at the end of the first half as the second man off the bench—the Blue Devils were able to fight down low and outscore N.C. State 36-34.
“When it comes to stats like [rebounds, second-chance points and points in the paint], honing in on a single stat is an overall mindset that allows the little things to slip through the cracks like that,” Plumlee said. “We’ve got to be in love with doing dirty work, whether that be getting rebounds or getting a stop, and that’s an adjustment we’re making.”
With another short turnaround before facing No. 15 Miami Monday, Duke will have to fight to maintain its tenacity and grit to score its first top-25 victory of the season. If the Hurricanes are able to outhustle the Blue Devils to the ball and bang on the boards, it could be a long day for Duke in the Sunshine State.
“We had a week to prepare for this game, we only have a day to prepare for Miami, so even more we just have to prepare and use our experience—take what we learned from the three losses and just keep chipping away,” Jones said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.