“Something you can't simulate.”
“Really impacted what we were able to do offensively.”
“Every shot will be challenged.”
This season, head coaches Bill Courtney (Miami), Chris Markwood (Maine) and Andy Enfield (SMU) all experienced firsthand what it is like to play against — and lose to — Duke’s defense. The Blue Devils boast what is not only the best defense in the ACC, but one of the most efficient in the nation.
Despite starting three freshmen, head coach Jon Scheyer’s team has managed to allow just 59.6 points per game and held six opponents to a season-low output. Talent and size alone do not create that kind of dominance. Defense takes buy-in, communication and focus.
“The thing that I love about coaching this entire team [is] they respond,” Scheyer said at a Jan. 23 media availability. “... It just comes down to a toughness and a mindset guarding the ball, trying to protect your paint as much as you can. And then, most importantly, how do you cover each other? That's been our biggest thing.”
The goal of a great defensive unit is to control the decisions the offense makes. Some teams, like perennial defensive powerhouse Houston, do this by pressuring opponents into mistakes. Others, like Syracuse’s 2-3 zone under retired Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, ran unique systems that made offenses uncomfortable.
The most remarkable thing about Duke’s dominance on defense this season is its simplicity. The Blue Devils are not in the top 200 teams nationally in steals per game. Excluding recent wins against Wake Forest and N.C. State, they almost exclusively play man-to-man and rarely make significant changes to what they do between games. Scheyer’s team has locked down the competition by playing sound, fundamental defense until the other team simply cannot take it anymore.
It is hard to score on the tallest team in the country, after all.
That is where it begins for Duke: Every single player that receives regular playing time is at least 6-foot-5. This creates major problems for players looking to score, starting when the shot clock starts ticking down and rarely ceasing before its unforgiving shrill 30 seconds later. In fact, the Blue Devils’ opponents have the sixth-longest average possession length, according to KenPom.
Duke put together a defensive clinic against Louisville on the road Dec. 8. On one possession, all five Cardinals touched the ball but none of them could hit the rim. Defenders pestered every offensive player as soon as they caught the ball and positioned themselves perfectly in rotation. An off-balance three contested by Kon Knueppel sailed right for an air ball, and even after Louisville was gifted another try, its second shot — which Khani Rooths barely got off — was swatted away by Maliq Brown.
“I think we turned it over on like 22% of our possessions. We want to be at 15% or less,” Cardinals’ head coach Pat Kelsey said after the game. “Against a good team like that, you can't have that many empty possessions. But give Duke credit, they're a very, very good defensive team.”
The Blue Devils begin to guard as soon as the other team touches the ball. Point guard Sion James, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound defensive force of nature, frequently picks up his counterpart full court, simultaneously wearing down the legs of the backcourt and bleeding precious seconds off the clock. Once a team makes it into the halfcourt, Duke uses its length on the perimeter to plug up driving lanes.
Typically, when a player is guarding someone away from the ball handler, they are taught to split the difference between their man and the ball, plating an area known as the gap. A wingspan of nearly seven feet helps shrink this region and let a defender guard both offensive players at once.
When direct drives are hard to come by, a team will set ball screens to create an advantage. Both defenders in coverage have a number of options, ranging from double-teaming — or blitzing — the ball handler to dropping off the screener to dare a 3-pointer. The most basic coverage scheme is switching, where the two defenders exchange guarding responsibilities to nullify the screen. Switching a ball screen is most effective when the two defenders involved in the screen could feasibly guard either offensive player, but it can fail if a point guard is matched up with a center and vice-versa.
“We're just committed to not giving them layups. When you're 6-foot-6 or above across the board switching, it doesn't hurt you,” Scheyer said of the gameplan in beating then-No. 2 Auburn. “For us, we were willing to take the switch.”
Size is rarely a concern for James, who routinely switches onto forwards. It’s even easier for 6-foot-9 freshman sensation Cooper Flagg, who has guarded one through five on a nightly basis. The most interesting defender in switches this season, though, has been freshman Khaman Maluach.
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The 7-foot-2 center will make plenty of money in the NBA for his ability to guard the rim, and for good reason. But the Rumbek, South Sudan, native has shown an equally impressive ability to hang with guards outside the paint — especially since the injury to Brown. While Maluach has a height advantage against nearly all of his opponents, smaller guards often look to exploit his lateral quickness to draw fouls.
He has shown repeatedly that this is not a winning strategy.
Maluach is not a usual center and Duke is not a usual team. As soon as a ball handler breaks the 3-point line with Maluach trailing, the Blue Devils send help in from the gaps to stop penetration. Malauch is adept at recovering from this position and at times picks up blocks from behind a shooter. In a blowout win Jan. 7 against Pittsburgh, Duke effectively shut down the backcourt duo of Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett, and Malauch was a key reason why. On just the second play of the game, he got switched onto Lowe after a ball screen. The shifty sophomore danced side-to-side trying to find a way past Maluach but had to settle for a pass down low after James came to help. After swift rotation by the other Blue Devils, Maluach immediately closed in on Cameron Corhen in the post and forced a bad miss moments later.
“He's a little bit of a unicorn, right?” Scheyer said postgame. “Because you want to keep him at the rim and protect, but we've known from the beginning he can move his feet. And even if you get by him as a guard, even if you get a step, you still have a 7-foot-2 guy that can move in timing that's coming to chase after your shot.”
The final piece of Duke’s juggernaut defense is its ability to recover when it does make a mistake. Just as the Blue Devils do on ball screens, defenders often switch when their man gains an advantage. In other words, offensive players work hard to get past the 6-foot-6 Tyrese Proctor, only to be matched up with Flagg.
That is exactly what happened to Auburn guard Denver Jones in Cameron Indoor Dec. 4. Jones used a well-timed screen to get past Proctor and into the paint, but he made the crucial mistake of driving on Flagg. While the 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior does not lack for strength, he tried to muscle the ball through Flagg’s chest on his way to the hoop. This allowed the savvy freshman to poke the ball out of his hands, leading to an and-one dunk from James that gave Duke a massive influx of momentum.
Plays like this most often happen when an offensive player picks up their dribble. With the ball dead, or unable to be dribbled, the Blue Devils will press even further into coverage, effectively sealing gaps airtight. As the shot clock begins to run inside 15, then 10 seconds, the offense can get desperate. More often than steals, Duke forces shot attempts with little to no chance of going in. Yet again, the team’s length helps ensure it gets the rebound.
Brown, the Blue Devils’ Swiss Army knife, has barely been mentioned to this point. He is currently sidelined with an injury, but the 6-foot-9 Syracuse transfer showcased his defensive prowess throughout the beginning of Duke’s season. Brown takes every defensive principle to an extreme, hounding guards and bigs alike and repeatedly poking the ball away.
“Maliq, he does so much for a team without necessarily putting up numbers in the box score,” Scheyer said after the team’s win against Virginia Tech. “To have him and Khaman as this one-two punch defensively, they're so different, but they're both still so impactful.”
With or without Brown, the Blue Devils have made lives difficult for opposing offenses. The effect of Duke’s gap integrity, length and switching compounds over the course of a game, especially if shots are not going in early. Offensive struggles take their toll physically, but also mentally wear on teams unable to find a spark plug. Fatigue eventually leads to poor decision-making, which the Blue Devils are ready to capitalize on.
Duke has only grown on offense as the season has worn on, and its scoring is beginning to rival its ability to get a stop. That does not make the Blue Devils unbeatable — Kentucky and Kansas proved that in November — but it does not put them high on a coach’s list of desired opponents either.
A great defense may not be as flashy as a high-flying offense, but ask any coach and they will tell you: It is every bit as beautiful.
Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.