“Soft. Overrated. Pretty Boy.”
The viral catchphrase is clipped from the 2011 ESPN documentary “The Fab Five” in which Michigan stars single out Christian Laettner and express how they felt about the Duke forward during their playing days. The hated Blue Devil stuck it to the Wolverines in the 1992 NCAA championship game, scoring 19 points and grabbing seven rebounds en route to a 20-point victory.
Sitting in a small press conference room in the Watsco Center after a blowout 97-60 victory over ACC basement dweller Miami, it’s impossible to ignore the similar grit, desire and determination that this Duke team is playing with night in and night out. Despite the supposed lack of maturity as one of the younger squads in college hoops, this team is striving for that 1992 glory in all the right ways, and it shows on and off the court.
Take the defensive effort. The Blue Devils immediately smothered the Hurricanes. They played tight man defense and forced Miami into contested long-range shots, some of which scraped the sky before falling harmlessly as airballs. The Hurricanes shot an abysmal 5-of-25 from beyond the arc, 10 percentage points below their season average. Alongside his 20 points on 6-of-8 from the field, Kon Knueppel played smothering defense on the perimeter, forcing three turnovers and finishing with a game high plus-35 plus-minus. He even flung himself headfirst into the videoboard to chase a loose ball while Duke was firmly in the driver's seat.
“Kon is incredibly hard on himself,” Scheyer said of his guard. “He’s pissed if he’s not in, if he didn’t get a rebound, if he missed somebody on a pass. He understands what other people could consider small things to the game.”
“I just try to play really hard and so that’s what you’ll see,” added Knueppel.
The accountability and effort resonate across the lineup to the other end of the floor. Offensively, Duke shot 56.1% from the floor, 60% from beyond the arc and 90% at the line. No matter who was on the floor, the offense found the best shot at all times and maximized efficiency. Usually that meant Isaiah Evans was the trigger finger, blasting off another 16-point performance on 62.5% from 3-point range. In the last three games, the Fayetteville, N.C., product has gone 13-for-19 from beyond the arc, and his recent success is not just a stroke of luck or a case of the hot hand.
“Just staying consistent, just working with Coach Dildy, getting the same reps over and over again … being repetitive,” Evans said on his shot. “People make jokes that my shot is automatic. But when you actually rep it out, it’s like that.”
The team wasn't nearly perfect Tuesday night. Duke was outrebounded 30-28 and allowed a whopping 13 offensive boards, 10 of which were in the first half. The Blue Devils missed some open looks, including an easy lob that Patrick Ngongba II didn’t flush. Tyrese Proctor went down with a knee injury, and his prolonged absence along with Maliq Brown’s could be tough to replicate. Scheyer will be the first one to tell you so, noting how he always finds something to improve on every single game.
“Our mission is bigger,” Scheyer said of his team’s goals. “I love the killer instinct that our team has … [and] our approach to the game”
However, the difference-maker is that this team has untaught grit. The determination to blow out Miami on a forgetful Tuesday and not “big time” the contest. The willingness to learn from their mistakes at Clemson and go on a massive five-game win streak in which the tightest margin of victory was 18 points. The ability to compete through injuries while finding success with different rotations. The team has fully bought in internally and the manifestation is bubbling externally as palpable excitement, making it impossible to stop watching.
“Coaching guys when you don’t have to coach playing hard [is easy],” remarked a beaming Scheyer. “They don’t just play hard, they compete. I had to say that.”
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