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Diary of an inherently flawed team: Why the Blue Devils never had a chance
By Adam Zuerndorfer, Sports WriterIt doesn't happen often, but it did Saturday. I guess college basketball experts and blind squirrels have that in common; they both find success on occasion. They said Duke was too reliant on the outside shot - that one day, when the bombs weren't falling with quite so much frequency, the Blue Devils would struggle to compensate. And sure enough, on a day when the basket must have looked an awful lot like a pinhole to fellows named Scheyer, Paulus and Nelson, the Blue Devils had no answer. Fifteen straight misses from downtown left the Blue Devils looking about as comfortable as a vegan in a meat-packing plant. They said Duke couldn't survive without an inside presence - that the day would come when they would need to stop the bleeding with easy buckets from the paint. And when that day did indeed come, Duke had positively no one to turn to. When the Blue Devils seemingly couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from anywhere beyond ten feet out, they couldn't even muster the muscle to break down that imaginary barrier and try something different. Meanwhile, Mountaineer Joe Alexander provided the perfect contrast at the other end, shoving right in Duke's face the very type of player it could have used. They said Duke didn't have enough intensity on defense. This was never more apparent than it was Saturday, as the submissive Blue Devils waved their arms like bullfighters while the West Virginia ball-handlers breezed by. They said Duke couldn't rebound. And in an event surely orchestrated by the mocking college basketball gods, the Blue Devils surrendered 11 rebounds to a reserve guard who stood only 6-foot-2. The final tally saw Duke outrebounded 47-27. They said a lot of things, almost all of which came to fruition yesterday. Rarely have the talking heads in the world of sports media been so right. And rarely has such a smart guy like Coach K been so wrong. This Duke team didn't lose because it had an off game, and it didn't lose due to simple errors in execution. This team lost because it was built the wrong way from the start. It lost because driving and dishing, while a fundamental element of any good team, can only take you so far. Especially when it's all you've got. Taking after the NBA's Phoenix Suns - a team, by the way, which acknowledged the limitations of its old high-flying style when it traded for Shaq - Krzyzewski tried to flip basketball logic on its head. Some people, you see, have this crazy notion that buckets are actually easier to come by when you shoot them from closer to the hoop. Coach K didn't buy into any of that nonsense. Unfortunately for the folks in Durham, plain old reason is undefeated. And Duke is anything but. Adam Zuerndorfer is an Emory University graduate and a Sports Writer for the Lenoir News-Topic. Believe it or not, he actally likes Duke.
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