Scott Rich

The opposing team shoots 50% from the field because they're dunking it all over us and they're taking wide open threes.

SMU was taking and making hard contested shots throughout the game.

Sometimes that happens.

This defensive effort on film, I think, is night and day from the defensive effort from our last four or five games where we were really wringing our hands.

These weren't open threes.

There weren't these sort of missed assignments on defense.

Teams weren't annihilating us going to the rim.

SMU, just give them credit.

They made a lot of really good shots.

And so I think this is a defensive performance that will look better on tape than it does in the box score.

The last thing I'll say on this point is if you take all those turnovers, if you say that each of those turnovers is a missed shot,

Then all of a sudden, I'm making up a new advanced stat.

Their turnover plus field goal percentage goes down to 40%.

Duke will take a defensive performance where a really good offensive team shoots 40% from the field.

If you count each of those turnovers as a missed field goal, that's where things go down to.

So again, I thought this was a net step forward for this team defensively, even though the box score may not show it.

And just to give people some context, it is not always a given that players respond to benching the way that Caden Boozer and Pat Kongba did.

Just as an anecdote, when I was on campus writing for the Chronicle, I was there for Austin Rivers' year.

I covered for the Chronicle Austin Rivers' one game where he came off the bench against Wake Forest after he had a couple really bad games, and Coach K tried to send him a message.

In the locker room, everyone's around Austin Rivers.