Henderson, defense have Duke back on track
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| Mike Krzyzewski will be going for coaching victory No. 800 on Saturday at North Carolina State. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images) |
That's exactly what happened with this year's version of the Duke Blue Devils, who had raised the bar so high after a 22-1 start that people started questioning their legitimacy as a Final Four-caliber team following consecutive road losses earlier this month.
Shortly after a road win at North Carolina, Mike Krzyzewski's team went down the road to Winston-Salem and the Duke head coach watched all five of his starters foul out en route to an 86-73 loss to Wake Forest — a middle-of-the-pack ACC team.
The Demon Deacons shot 45 percent from the field and 46 percent from long range.
Duke followed it up with a 96-95 setback at Miami in which the Blue Devils committed 23 turnovers. The Hurricanes were able to score virtually at will, making an astonishing 57 percent of their shots — including 7-of-14 from beyond the 3-point arc.
This coming from a team that has prided itself on its defensive play to catapult itself all the way up to a No. 2 national ranking prior to the losses.
"We were giving up an average of 91 points in those two games," Duke junior point guard Greg Paulus said. "We weren't putting enough pressure on the ball."
The Blue Devils have begun to right the ship over the last two games — an easy win against St. John's and a physical, hard-fought victory on Wednesday night at home against Georgia Tech.
Coach K's approach this year, after adding athletic freshmen Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith, has been to take chances and play aggressively on the defensive end for most of the game.
Duke leads the ACC in steals per game at 10.5 and the Blue Devils had 14 steals and forced Georgia Tech into 20 turnovers.
Gerald Henderson Jr., playing with a wrist injury that will likely require surgery at the end of the season, had a break-out game on the defensive end and also finished with 15 points in the 71-58 victory that Krzyzewski called "one of our best defensive performances of the season."
"He made three plays in a row that broke it open," Krzyzewski said. "Those couple of steals are plays he has not made. It was almost like the birth of a new talent."
Henderson, playing with a brace on his wrist, showed little effects of the injury that has clearly bothered him for the past couple of weeks. He was aggressive in transition and also made a key mid-range jumper in the second half.
"I feel like I'm 100 percent," Henderson said. "I am healing and I don't feel like it's holding me back."
"He and the rest of the team is so quick off the ball and they anticipate so well," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "That's what they do. He (Krzyzewski) does exactly what he needs to do for this team to win — play aggressive man-to-man defense."
Duke, which entered the game ninth in the country in 3-pointers made, only made 2 of 14 against the Yellow Jackets, which kept the score close for much of the game.
"When they start hitting 3s, it's over," Hewitt added. "As kids say, it's a wrap."
"In a way, that's good for us," said Jon Scheyer, the Blue Devils' sixth man. "Our offense wasn't going for us like it usually does. We weren't making shots and we still found a way to win. Our defense was the key, though, and that's a step in the right direction."
Duke's attempt to incorporate sophomore 7-footer Brian Zoubek, the team's lone true big man, into the game failed miserably. He scored on a dunk when Georgia Tech failed to pick him up underneath the basket, but he was overmatched for the remainder of the five minutes he was in the game.
Zoubek, who has missed most of the season with foot injuries, was coming off a double-double in a rout over St. John's and there was some optimism that maybe he could be productive in limited minutes — and that would allow Singler to get some time on the perimeter instead of having to always defend bigger players in the post.
However, it doesn't look as though Zoubek will be able to give the Blue Devils anything more than a couple minutes of providing a big body to foul guys like Tyler Hansbrough
Krzyzewski will now go for his 800th career victory at N.C. State on Saturday — which would make him just the sixth coach in Division I history to reach that milestone.
He'll do so with his team back on track.
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