Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, Duke fans. Welcome to Episode 786 of the Duke Basketball Roundup. We are coming to you on Sunday, January 11th.
Chapter 2: What was the final score of the Duke vs. SMU game?
Duke is 15-1, 4-0 in the ACC after an 82-75 win over the SMU Mustangs. We are here to recap all of it. It was a wild, perplexing game as my man Scott Rich, who is here with me. Scott, hello. I'm Donald, by the way. That's Scott.
Yep. No, I'm glad we reminded everyone who you are. Hopefully they know at this point. Hopefully. Yeah. But no, perplexing was the key word as I was texting you and Jason, you know, after the game. This was a, you know, horrible start, then a really dominant stretch. Then a why can't this team put a team away?
game where it simultaneously felt like a game we could have lost in a game that we should have won by 20 and i think like a lot of duke fans i'm very confused as to what if anything to take away from that performance
Yeah, and we'll talk about the – it's funny. There's a lot of stuff that belong in both the good and bad, and we'll talk about all that. But since the Pearl lives, before we get into the headlines and everything, as I mentioned, this game, 82-75 win over SMU. It was without Boopie Miller.
Boopie Miller made the trip to Durham but developed flu-like symptoms, I guess, a couple days before the game and did not leave the hotel. So he was not there at this game. So there was that part of the angle of this game. they honored the 2001 national championship team. Um, almost everybody was there except for, uh, Nate James, who's coaching, uh, as assistant coach at Howard.
Um, I believe, uh, Andre sweet was not there. And like maybe one other person, like I think JD Simpson or, or Ryan callback, one of those two were not there, but it was a great, great site to see those guys come back to Cameron. Jay will was on the broadcast. They had Shane Batty on the broadcast. So it was a nice little deal, um, where you kind of had that, um,
with the overlay of this particular game, which was a top 25 matchup. It's funny. This was the first time that John Shire had coached against SMU. If you recall last year, when we went to Dallas, he was sick. It did not make that trip. And Chris Carrowell led the team in the absence. That was a Chris Carrowell win for Duke. This win is, It's the sixth quad one win that Duke has.
Seven? No, it's six.
It's six and one.
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Chapter 3: What were the standout defensive performances by Duke players?
My notes were done before Texas won, so thank you for that. And also, here's an interesting stat. I think everyone's aware of this stat. It's the 549th consecutive game at Cameron Indoor Stadium that was sold out. The last time we did not have a sellout at home was in November 1990. But yesterday's win marked the 500th victory during this sellout streak.
So we moved during this 549 consecutive game sellout streak. We are now 549 at Cameron Indoor. a fortress Cameron is, and this is no exception and we needed Cameron. The crazies were back. It was a little bit, you know, we got a little bit more of the energy that was needed to close out this game. We begin with the headlines and I have a few of them that I want to go through.
First of all, from Dave Jordan, Dave Jordan writes, sharp shooting stallions stymied by Boozer Brothers bombs. We'll talk about the Boozer Brothers. I thought they had a very, very great game. John Grantland, who always writes in, wrote, blazing saddles. Devils rope, ride, and eventually break the gritty Mustangs and great home win for Duke and the 2001 champs.
Again, great to see those guys back on campus and in Cameron. Jim Baumgartner wrote, Mustangs managed making Duke's win modest, but We'll talk about how good they played in spite of not having Boopie on the floor. And then finally, Bill Wheeler wrote, the Mustangs bucked, yet Duke wrote it out to the buzzer. Scott, your thoughts on the headlines?
I think the headlines are a perfect encapsulation of moderate enthusiasm of this victory, which I think most Duke fans are probably feeling this morning.
And how all over the place we can go with these good and these bad, right? There were so many different things, elements that affected this game. Let's get into the good stuff. And I mentioned off the top that there's going to be some stuff that's in the good and the bad. One of those things is defense, because there were parts of the defense that was very good.
Duke forced 21 turnovers in this game, 14 of them in the first half. They got three shot clock violations on SMU. Two of those came in the first half. And after the slow start that Duke had, it was, again, not a slow, not a blitz to get back to square and to take the lead, but yet another one of those slow burns.
And it was led, in my mind, by Dame Sarr just decided that he was just going to be a thief and pick everybody's pocket. It felt like every possession, he had his hand in the passing lane. He was, you know, all over the floor trying to get loose balls. He was making great decisions on defense. And Scott, I think that was when we had the slow start.
If we go back just a second, the starting line of change quite considerably. We had Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarbalik, Browning, Cam Boozer all in the starting lineup. And it felt like Dame, after the slow start, knew that his defense was necessary to pick things back up, at least on his end.
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Chapter 4: What improvements does Duke need to make after the SMU game?
And he just returned, and Austin Rivers was Austin Rivers for good and bad. That's not what happened today. I think Caden Boozer played his most complete games at Blue Devil. I think his defense was much, much improved yesterday relative to what we've been seeing. I think a little bit of that was he didn't have to guard Boopie Miller.
Everything's a little bit nicer when you're not guarding Boopie Miller, but he was... playing better defensively. He was communicating better. He wasn't getting blown by and attacked the way we've seen in the past. And that's what allowed him to stay on the floor to have the offensive impact he had. He was on the floor for the second most amount of time.
Only his brother was on the floor for 30 more seconds. So this was a Caden Boozer game. And again, you don't play 34 minutes in the Duke uniform if you're a defensive liability. There have been questions this year, is Caden Boozer a defensive liability? He certainly wasn't last night.
And again, he can't have the offensive impact he had on that game if he's not backing that up on the defensive end of the floor as well. On Pat, the thing with Pat was he was attacking the paint. Finally, Pat Gongba played like Big Pat, not Stretch 5 Pat. And he took a couple of threes. They were wide open. I'm fine if they're not.
If he wants to take an Ali Khalifa, they're not even guarding me three. I'm fine with that. We've seen Pat make that. But afterwards, he wasn't sticking around up there. He finally realized, I've got some advantage. He attacked the paint. We got him some isolated post-ups, and rather than looking to pass, Pat looked to go to the rim.
Even though he was getting guarded by someone with size, Pat had the footwork to get around Simei Igdgulu, and he did that multiple times. This was a really positive sign from Pat as well, in that he was aggressive offensively, looking for his shot, not looking for shots anywhere, but his shots as Big Pat in the paint.
using his post moves, using the feet that we know he has, but we haven't seen for a few games.
And for Pat, the fact that he is a danger with the ball on the passing end as well, right? Like we've seen him have games where he has three, four, sometimes even five assists this time around. He only had one assist, but it was a banger, right? It was that alley-oop to Malik Brown. And again,
you could see the defense kind of be like, okay, well, we can't let him pass anymore because that'll happen. So he, again, used his footwork to his advantage. I thought he did excellent. One thing, shifting gears, one thing that Duke did I thought that was great was they were, you know, SMU, I mentioned they held SMU to just 10 assists on 30 field goals, and it was even less than the first half.
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Chapter 5: Who were the key players that contributed to Duke's victory?
We had 18 assists and 25 made shots. 72%, which is, if you've been following this show for a while, we call that excellent. We love assist rates over 70%. And, again, it was guys making the extra pass. making the smart pass, but also something that we haven't really done consistently over the last few games, guys knowing when to not make that final, final pass and just shoot the ball, right?
Like being in the corner and just saying, okay, well, I'm open. I'm not going to try and make another pass to show that I'm unselfish. They pass me the ball because I'm in the corner and there's nobody within 20 feet of me. Shoot the ball.
That sort of thing where you have that kind of wherewithal to get to the right spot, but also they were taking advantage of, I have the ball in a position where I can make this basket. I'm going to go ahead and make this basket.
A lot of those assists were from the usual suspects. The Boozer brothers both had four assists. The unusual suspect who I think we also need to mention is Nick Kemenia. Nick had four assists in 15 minutes. He had five points off the bench. He looked more like himself. He looked like the Nick Kemenia who was in the starting lineup for that stretch.
I think for the first time in a few weeks, if that ankle really has been bothering him, This was the first sign that he might be over that hump. And he's a guy who we need on this team moving forward.
I thought that he finally embraced the potential we saw in the scrimmages where he was almost operating like a de facto point guard when he was in the starting lineup before Dame got back from his early season injury. He was facilitating. He was attacking and kicking well.
and when you're attacking and kicking with a 6'7", 6'8", frame, that's something that's really hard to contend with on a defensive side. That was really encouraging for me. I think that Nick Kemenia as the offensive spark off the bench is going to be a big factor for this Duke team because we love Malik Brown, we love Dame Saar, but those are defense-first guys.
If someone on this team is going to be the offensive spark plug off the bench, that we need of, hey, it's a slow start and it's a slow offensive start, not a slow defensive start. We need Nick Kamenya to be able to come in and be that spark plug and that creator. And he did that yesterday.
I mean, look, I've said it on the show before. I think one of the most important players in NBA history was Vinny Johnson, the microwave, because he taught everybody that, hey, you don't have to – Who do you play for? Who do you play for? He played for our Detroit Pistons is what he played for. And he's a champion.
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Chapter 6: What role did the bench players play in the game against SMU?
Isaiah Evans outpoints Cam Boozer in the department. So if we're looking for a second scorer, great. I think we found him. It's just a matter of whether on a daily basis it's going to be Slim or if it's going to be Cam. But I like the fact that we had three guys in double figures, if you include Pat. Three guys that were – I mean, one over 20 and two close to 20.
And they were really – and it felt like at certain points of the game that when they got the ball – SMU might as well just run down to the other end of the floor because they weren't going to stop them.
I'm going to hold off on Cam for reasons that will become clear in a few minutes. For Isaiah, though, I just want to, after his essential no-show against Texas Tech, his last four games, 17 against Georgia Tech, 28 against FSU shooting 42% from three, 23 against Louisville shooting 40% from three, and 21 yesterday against SMU shooting 50% from three.
That's the Isaiah Evans that we were expecting this year. That's the Isaiah Evans that is this team's second option. That four-game stretch, especially Aft in the response to Duke's loss in one of his worst games in a Duke uniform, that's got to be extremely, extremely encouraging. If Isaiah Evans is shooting 40% from three, This is a different Duke team.
And he's not just, again, we've talked about this evolving throughout the year. Again, yesterday, he wasn't just a spot-up shooter. He was someone who was, once he made a few threes, once teams were cheating on him on those flare screens. He loves those flare screens, but he's developed a counter move. He's developed a, oh, they're cheating off me on the flare screens. They're over-helping.
They're over-pursuing. I'm going to just immediately put the ball on the floor and and get it into the paint off of that. And a lot of times he was doing that to actually facilitate rather than doing that just to put up a floater, doing that to attack the rim. He still has to improve finishing at the rim. I think we all know that.
I liked how against SMU, he was attacking, he was getting two feet in the paint, but then he was making that pass out and leading to that ball rotation. So again, rather than put up an okay shot off of a flare screen that was contested.
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Chapter 7: How did Duke's shooting performance compare to SMU's?
He was leading the offense and getting the ball rotation started to get to a better shot off of that.
Isaiah Evans is like a starting pitcher who has an incredible fastball, but like midway through the season, you realize, Oh no, he's developed another pitch, right? He's got that curve ball now and he's using it and he's utilizing it when, when something either is not working or they've caught onto it. And like you said, there was a point where I think he was what four for 10 from three.
And he, I'm sorry. He was four for eight, excuse me, from three. And he, once again, Duke is undefeated when he hits more than three threes in the game. So keep feeding him the rock, but also it, it makes sense when he's making those shots because it just draws the defense out that much more. And for him, he knows he can blow pot past and almost anybody in college basketball.
Chapter 8: What were the academic achievements of the Duke basketball team this semester?
And when he's in the lane, he's, he's always in that position where he can do three things to the ball. He can dribble to the hole, he can shoot pop-up like for a 15-footer, or he can pass if the defense presents itself out to somebody on the wing who then shoots the three. Or at least, like you said, moves the ball around and gets to an even better shot. I like what I'm seeing from him.
I hate that he was sick against Texas Tech, and that's the reason for his resurgence. I don't need him to get sick again for this to happen, but I like the fact that he – You know, he spent 10 days essentially getting better, but also hearing about how that was one of his worst games.
And he said, well, I'm not going to do that again and kind of filed that away in memory and learn from it and has really developed a second part of his game that is just as lethal as his best part of his game.
Last thing for the good I'll mention is Semit Igatulu, 7'2", 270, huge guy. I think, you know, there were some questions, hey, how do Kan Boozer and Pat Ngongba, you know, match up against huge, extraordinary size? They did pretty darn good. They limited Igatulu to six points. He was three of six from the floor. He only had six rebounds.
He was not the dominating force in this game that I think the best form of the SMU Mustangs is when they really have a 7'2 guy who's dominating the paint to be the counterattack to all of their perimeter weapons. Defensively, there were a lot of problems. Defensively, a lot of things to improve on. I don't think down low in the paint against their center was one of those issues.
I think both Pat... and can and to a lesser extent malik more in the second half than the first deserve a lot of flowers for not letting that 7-2 guy really be a dominating force in this game
Again, I do want to talk about the defense, but we're going to shift to the rest of our recap of the SMU game. But first, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about the stuff to improve. We'll give our player of the week and play the game options. And we're going to talk GPA. Our Duke guys are getting it done on the court and in the classroom. We'll talk about it in a minute.
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