Last season, Duke’s lack of communication and awareness on defense forced head coach Mike Krzyzewski to switch from his usual man-to-man defense to a seemingly out of character 3-2 zone.
Because the Blue Devils could not seem to understand the concept of help defense, Krzyzewski had no choice but to hope that other teams would miss their shots and turn over the ball in a crowded paint.
While the strategy worked for a while, teams like Syracuse and Kansas exploited Duke by making their open 3-point shots, forcing the Blue Devils to rely solely on their offense to win games. This season, however, Krzyzewski reverted back to a man-to-man defensive set, which allowed for a more balanced attack against Ferris State, and provided optimism that Duke could become a defensive-minded team by continuously earning stops.
Duke’s success in man-on-man begins with freshman Tre Jones’ full-court pressure on the ball, which forced the Bulldog point guards to waste time getting the ball up the court rather than starting their offensive sets. Jones—who nearly finished with a triple-double on 10 assists, eight points and nine rebounds—notched four steals Saturday afternoon.
“We’ve got a chance to be good, especially with the ball pressure that Tre puts on,” Krzyzewski said. “He makes that ball handler have to attack him instead of running an offense. It’s simple to understand, but hard to do.”
Jones was not the only Blue Devil with active hands against Ferris State. Duke forced the Bulldogs to commit 24 turnovers, while the Blue Devils scored 39 of their 132 points off those mistakes.
Duke made it difficult for Ferris State to move the ball around, as freshmen R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish and Zion Williamson’s elite athleticism clogged passing lanes and easily turned Bulldog mistakes into breakaway dunks. The trio of rookie wings combined for five steals, demonstrating that Krzyzewski has got his young players to buy into his defensive strategy.
"Being able to play man-to-man defense is big for is this year," Jones said. "I feel like we got a real versatile team, guys are able to guard many different positions, so with us being able to play man-to-man defense, I’m able to pressure the ball up top and guys are able to take away passing lanes."
Junior Marques Bolden provided yet another reason for Blue Devil nation to be hopeful about Duke’s defensive prowess with his excellent rim protection. Bolden led the team in blocks with three, looked agile, healthy and was willing to dive on the floor or send opponents shots to the stands if necessary. Though Bolden is the best true center on the team, many questioned if he would see the court much, as his role on the team seemed unclear. Despite his poor performance in Canada, Bolden has slowly demonstrated the importance of his presence as Duke’s last line of defense in the paint.
Though last year’s team had numerous athletically gifted players who could stay in front of opposing guards, a lack of leadership on the defensive side of the ball caused most of the Blue Devils’ defensive woes. A new focus and pride on defense seems to be the theme for this year’s squad, which has been stressed by everybody, from Krzyzewski all the way down to on-court communicators such as junior team captain Javin DeLaurier.
“Really it's just a lot of talk...we believe we have the potential to be an amazing defensive team that can cause a lot of problems for people with our athleticism and quickness,” DeLaurier said. “Everyone in here wants to win. Everyone in here wants to compete. And I think we showed that for 40 minutes today which was a great sign.”
Ferris State will not be the most athletically gifted or offensively talented the Blue Devils face this year. The Bulldogs poor shot-taking decisions contributed to their abysmal 19-74 shot chart, and many of their turnovers were unforced mental mistakes. However, an engagement on both sides of the floor for Duke showed why it it was able to completely dismantle Ferris State, outscoring the Bulldogs’ 48 overall points by the end of the first half with 64. If Duke can continue to get defensive stops, it can push the tempo by generating most of its offense through fastbreaks, leading to more highlight plays, and more importantly, more wins.
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