Imagine a stat sheet that looks like this:
Seven turnovers apiece and seven points off those turnovers to 10. Forty-two rebounds to 41 and a 10-board deficit on the offensive glass. Sixteen free-throw attempts to 25. But also, a 19% shooting advantage from the floor, 17% advantage from deep, and 31% difference from the line.
With just this information, one might reason this was a well-matched contest between two physical teams, one of which had a cataclysmic off-shooting day as the other got hot.
See, sometimes the stat sheet tells you everything you need about a game. But even when it does — and especially when it doesn’t — there is more to the story. It is correct that one team shot hot and both played physically, but this game was not well-matched.
In fact, nothing about No. 4 Duke’s Saturday date in Dallas with SMU could reasonably be considered close. The Blue Devils, for lack of a softer phrase, slaughtered the Mustangs. Duke’s defense was typically excellent, but it was the offense that shone brightest this time, putting together arguably its most complete performance of the season. And as the eye test — not just the box score — shows, that comes down to a Blue Devil backcourt realizing its elite potential.
“We've come together more, and I think our offense has definitely sharpened up a lot,” freshman forward Cooper Flagg said postgame. “A lot of guys have stepped up through a lot of different games.”
Let’s start with junior Tyrese Proctor — one of just two returners on this year’s roster — who has had to adjust to new schemes and roles numerous times in three years with the Blue Devils.
At various points in his career he has shared a backcourt with Caleb Foster, Jared McCain, Jeremy Roach and now Sion James, all elite players who complement Proctor’s skills to varying levels of effectiveness. The Australian has played well with all of them, but the best spells of his production have come when he has been trusted with primary ball-handling responsibilities as a true point guard, something the coaching staff’s decision to pair him with James this season — and this game especially— has enabled.
Proctor’s quantifiable impact against SMU was profound: 14 points, a 4-of-7 clip from deep and trio of assists. But his impact was broader.
Even when James brought the ball up the floor, Proctor would shift to the wing and shout plays, recognize gaps and demand the ball to kickstart passing sequences that diced up the Mustangs’ perimeter defense. When he brought the ball up himself, his eagerness to drive into the paint generated open looks that Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach could capitalize upon for put-back buckets or shuttle back to the arc for an open teammate to shoot.
Perhaps the best illustration of Proctor’s impact came late in the first half when he brought the ball up and saw space down the middle, blitzing toward the basket. Mustang defenders swarmed him and shut down a shot attempt but he recognized the pressure right away, dumping it to Maluach who slammed it in to build a 10-point Duke lead.
It was a fairly routine play, but that’s the point. In one fell swoop, Proctor controlled the offense, created chaos that disrupted the opponent’s defensive shape and set up a teammate.
“There were a few times defensively where our guards got blown by,” SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. “[Duke’s] offensive players were driving to the rim, and then our big guys didn't help. So we had a few plays defensively where we didn't follow our assignments, just didn't play our system.”
James has flourished too. The graduate student was limited in scoring against the Mustangs but ripped them apart time and time again with his vision. In just 26 minutes he logged a ridiculous eight assists to five different teammates, with seven of those dishes coming in the first half alone.
Then you have Foster, who can still break games open from the bench. His handling ability is unquestioned and, like Proctor and James, he has the size and aggression to threaten the defense from all levels of the court, giving opponents close to no rest when his teammates sub out. In a 17-minute cameo, the sophomore dropped nine points on SMU’s already bruised head.
The results of a backcourt this efficient are twofold. The first is whistle-to-whistle pressure that forces mistakes, creates opportunities and builds leads. The second is that the rest of Duke’s pieces become immediately more dangerous, since game-breaking creativity and aggression from guards permeates to the big men that can grab their rebounds and catch their lobs and the shooters who can sink open looks off kick-out passes.
“It takes time,” assistant coach Chris Carrawell, who filled in Saturday for head coach Jon Scheyer, said. “I thought our defense was, of course, ahead of our offense. But guys are learning how to play with each other.”
Such is the nature of modern college basketball, but Saturday showed that Duke’s care in assembling its offense can yield devastating results for the opposition.
Don’t get it twisted: SMU is a good basketball team. As many of the numbers show, the Mustangs fought hard. But it’s almost impossible to contend with a team when its playmakers are controlling the game so efficiently, and unfortunately for the home team, Duke’s played with maximum fluidity.
Stat sheets don’t capture that as well. But a final score of 89-62 certainly does.
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Andrew Long is a Trinity senior and recruitment/social chair of The Chronicle's 120th volume. He was previously sports editor for Volume 119.