Xavier Rathan-Mayes knew he had it going when he let go of the third 3-pointer.
It was about six feet beyond the 3-point line, right around the "t" in the BankUnited Center logo in front of the Florida State bench, so far away that his coaches were closer to him than the nearest Miami defender.
It didn't matter.
"I’ve never had a zone I was in like that. The gym was kind of quiet, it was like I was in there by myself," Rathan-Mayes said at ACC media day in October. "It was just a surreal feeling. It felt like everything I put up was going to go in."
Rathan-Mayes scored 30 points in the final 4:39 of an 81-77 loss to the Hurricanes, single-handedly turning a 62-44 deficit in an all-but-decided game into a tight contest. He poured in six 3-pointers, made eight free throws and finished a pair of nifty lay-ups.
And it all happened exactly a year ago today.
Rathan-Mayes and his explosive scoring ability will step inside Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time Thursday as No. 15 Duke welcomes Florida State at 7 p.m., trying to shake off Saturday's loss at Louisville and build another winning streak as the regular season nears its close. The Seminoles have lost four straight games, but boast three of the most electric scorers in the ACC in Rathan-Mayes and freshmen Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon, providing the Blue Devils with yet another difficult defensive assignment.
Luckily for Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils (20-7, 9-5 in the ACC) are expecting both Matt Jones and Derryck Thornton—two of their best on-ball defenders—to play Thursday, after each dealt with a potentially serious injury in the last week. Jones missed Saturday's game at Louisville after spraining his ankle in Duke's win against North Carolina, and Thornton fell awkwardly on his shoulder in the second half against the Cardinals and had to leave before returning late in the game.
With Jones and Thornton back on the court, their teammates can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that there will be at least some semblance of a rest available Thursday night.
"It would take something very serious to knock one of our kids down for the count," graduate student center Marshall Plumlee said. “Whenever I have bumps and bruises, Matt will catch me rubbing my knee or my ankle and he’ll say ‘Marshall, suck it up, right now.’ It’s kind of a collective toughness we’ve built.”
That toughness has built itself up throughout the course of the season, most of it without the services of senior Amile Jefferson, who continues to work his way back from a fractured right foot suffered in practice Dec. 12. Jefferson is back on the practice court, but still not 100 percent, Plumlee said.
But even with the Philadelphia native expected to watch from the sidelines for the 19th straight game Thursday, Jefferson has continued to provide the Blue Devils with an emotional lift.
“He’s one of our enthusiasm guys—he brings it every day, and he’s battling with us, he’s right there with us. Some guys could be into their own stuff, [thinking] ‘When am I going to be back?’” freshman Luke Kennard said. “He’s worried about that, but he’s really focused on the team right now. That shows the kind of leader that he is. He’s practicing with us, still feeling some pain, but we’re hoping he can be back soon.”
Duke’s rotation has been trimmed to six or seven players in Jefferson’s absence, taxing the Blue Devils’ legs and helping them develop their identity as a physically tough team. For Brandon Ingram, though, Thursday’s game will be an exercise in mental toughness as well, as the freshman tries to bounce back from one of the roughest outings of his Blue Devil career.
Logging 38 or more minutes for the fourth time in 13 days, Ingram shot 3-of-10 from the floor against the Cardinals—1-of-8 after the game’s first two minutes—and committed a career-high 10 turnovers, kept off-balance and uncomfortable by Louisville’s ball pressure.
“I thought just human nature just caught up with him. I said, ‘Could you ever imagine that when you put your foot on the gas pedal, that the car wouldn’t go?’” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said during the ACC’s weekly teleconference Monday. “I told him, ‘It shows you’re human—just forget it and let’s get refreshed as much as we can.’ I think it’s one of those things you flush.”
If they could, the Seminoles (16-11, 6-9) might prefer to flush the last four games as well. Losses to Syracuse, Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech abruptly halted Florida State’s momentum from a four-game winning streak and derailed the NCAA tournament dreams of head coach Leonard Hamilton’s squad. For all his shooting prowess, Rathan-Mayes is shooting just 39.6 percent from the floor—29.0 percent from downtown—and ranks third on the team in scoring with 11.8 points per game, but leads the Seminoles with 4.7 assists per game.
But although the sophomore has taken on more of a facilitating role this season while flanked by sharp-shooters Beasley and Bacon, Rathan-Mayes will have no qualms with calling his own number if he starts heating up with Jones, Thornton, or any other Blue Devil checking him.
Duke held Rathan-Mayes to just five points in last year’s win in Tallahassee, Fla., and will have to keep close tabs on him again Thursday to prevent him from finding himself in one of those “surreal” zones yet again. Cameron Indoor Stadium can get as loud as any gym in the country—but if Rathan-Mayes gets on a roll, he might not hear it.
Sameer Pandhare contributed reporting.
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