Sometimes, we think we lost something—phones, wallets, keys—so we pad our pockets, look on chairs and ask our friends if they’ve seen it. A few minutes later, we laugh at ourselves because it was in our hands the whole time.
No. 16 Duke’s 65-64 win over Boston College was not a victory to write home about for the Blue Devil faithful. For a team that Duke handled by 16 the last time these sides met in December, many probably did not anticipate a game in which they would be on the edge of their seats, pleading for the Eagles to miss their final shot attempt with three seconds left. But after a complicated 40 minutes Saturday afternoon at Conte Forum and a profound 24-point loss to N.C. State before that, many might wonder now: What’s going on?
“Wednesday [against N.C. State] wasn’t our best performance, obviously,” freshman forward Mark Mitchell said after the game. “I think we just wanted to prove that we can come into somewhere that’s not Cameron and play a good team. When you have a bad loss, you just want to get that taste out of your mouth, and I think that’s why we were just fighting today—just trying to get a win.”
The answer, Saturday showed, does not lie in talent. For a team that leads the ACC in rebounding margin (+8.6) and offensive rebounds (13.0) while ranking second in scoring defense (62.5), just to name a few accolades; for a team with freshman center Kyle Filipowski, who has reached double figures 14 times in 16 games; and for a team on which seven different players led the team in scoring over the nine games prior to Saturday, there is clearly something working on an individual level for head coach Jon Scheyer’s squad.
What is missing—what is in the palm of Duke’s hand that it just cannot seem to find—is what it does with those players.
The most notable example of that Saturday was Dariq Whitehead. The five-star freshman had his second start of the season and burst out of the gates; he opened the scoring for Duke and had perfect shooting up until the last few minutes of the first half, ending the period with 13 points and three treys.
But Duke was so intent on finding success inside—it often looks to graduate center Ryan Young, and today used Mitchell, to achieve this—that Whitehead was not given opportunities to capitalize on a remarkable shooting day throughout the second half. For more than nine minutes in the second, Duke failed to score a field goal, trying to force the ball inside where Boston College’s 1-3-1 zone defense and 7-foot Quinten Post rejected or altered attempt after attempt by Duke’s bigs.
“Give them credit for the switch,” Scheyer said. “The zone really took us out of our rhythm, and we need to do a better job. We’ll see that more.”
Meanwhile, Whitehead waited in the wings, and the lack of structure in his incorporation into the offense slowed his roll. The freshman scored only five points in the second half but still finished with a career-high 18 points.
Scheyer did show with his last-second defensive adjustments that he can identify what each player can do and find ways to access that potential. In the final minute, he instructed Mitchell to switch and guard Boston College’s Jaeden Zackery; Mitchell blocked Zackery’s last shot attempt of the game and arguably saved the day for the Blue Devils.
“You’re not prepping for that; it’s a different matchup. So being able to do that in real-time, that says a lot about his feel, his IQ, his instincts to win,” Scheyer said of Mitchell after the game.
Scheyer did notice that Young took on a different role against the Eagles; while Duke opened again searching for Young to give it an early start, he ended the game having scored only seven points. Scheyer noted postgame that “he didn’t score like he normally does.” But what also stands out is that Young notched five assists—all in support of Whitehead and Mitchell—with no turnovers. Instead of treating Saturday as a fluke, Scheyer could work to develop Young as a passer from the elbow when players like Whitehead start to get hot or forwards are getting double-teamed inside, both of which happened against the Eagles Saturday.
There is also potential going forward for sophomore guard Jaylen Blakes to step up, given both his strong recent performances against Florida State and Wake Forest and his role as a teammate. With captain Jeremy Roach out due to a reaggravated toe injury, a vocal Blakes has the potential to bring maturity and additional leadership to the floor as Duke works its lineup around its freshman class. Blakes did not get that opportunity against the Eagles, exiting the starting lineup and finishing with three points in 18 minutes.
Going forward for Duke, the question is not who it needs to win—it is how it needs to win.
“I’m really proud of what [Mitchell] did, and I’m proud of our team [for figuring] out a way to win,” Scheyer said. “And that’s what it’s all about.”
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Leah Boyd is a Pratt senior and a social chair of The Chronicle's 118th volume. She was previously editor-in-chief for Volume 117.