Duke is a better basketball team by playing — and beating — a pesky Campbell squad
When the final words are written about this Duke basketball season, few are likely to be devoted to Saturday night’s win over Campbell.
The Blue Devils, though, already realized the important lessons they’ll take from what was a hard-fought 67-56 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
To finally pull away in the game’s final 10 minutes and beat the Camels, No. 9 Duke decided to play differently than it had in its previous two wins. The Blue Devils set their towering frontcourt on the sidelines and changed their defensive approach on the fly after discovering the usual way wouldn’t work against Campbell bevy of small, quick ballhandlers.
“They are disciplined deep into the shot clock,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “That doesn’t happen with many teams.”
After trailing by 10 points early, Duke’s night at the improv proved successful in the end.
Rather than relying on 7-1 sophomore center Mark Williams and 6-9 graduate student center Theo John to guard the rim, the Blue Devils slid 6-10 freshman forward Paolo Banchero down low and surrounded him with four smaller players.
Duke changed from its traditional man-to-man to a defense where players switched off who they guarded in real time, almost like zone defensive concepts.
“I thought the last 32 minutes we played great defense,” Krzyzewski said. “In the second half we didn’t give up a backdoor or a 3.”
On offense, Duke also took a different approach without Williams or John on the court to set screens or post up down low for high-percentage shots.
“It was like improvisation,” Krzyzewski said. “We were running a weave. We were running Paolo in different spots.”
For a team with the highest of aspirations in terms of season-long achievements, being able to make such a drastic in-game adjustment will help in the long term.
It was a shock to the system and the Blue Devils didn’t suffer because of it.
“Our guys adjusted really well to it,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m proud of our guys. We beat a really good basketball team.”
The adjustments started just a few seconds after the opening tip. On Duke’s first possession, Wendell Moore fell to the court in pain fearing he may have injured the same left knee he had sprained during the summer.
As Duke’s medical staff tended to Moore, Krzyzewski left the bench to check on Moore. He came back thinking the worst.
“I thought he was out,” Krzyzewski said.
Moore was helped off the court to Duke’s locker room. Suddenly the Blue Devils were without their most experienced player, the same guy who produced a triple-double the night before.
But Moore, calling the injury “a little hyperextension,” said he knew he would be ok when he was back in the training area.
“I knew I was ready to play right away,” Moore said. “As long as I knew I could walk. I was able to run a little bit. I was going to go back out there either way.”
The Blue Devils didn’t play well without him as Campbell built an 18-8 lead. Krzyzewski said his team was “knocked back and scared” seeing Moore go down.
But, suddenly, Moore emerged from the locker room and returned to the bench. Krzyzewski, admittedly surprised, put him back in the game.
Joey Baker, though, had entered the game earlier when Moore left. He got into the flow of things and that would prove important later when he scored 11 points in the second half.
Duke’s lead was 39-38 when Jeremy Roach hit a 3-pointer. Baker added another to boost the lead to 45-38.
“Joey had one of his best games,” Krzyzewski said. “He hits three 3s and he doesn’t hit three 3s in a game where we win 82-60. He hits 3s when it’s a four-point lead. There’s a lot of pressure. That’s big. That is big.”
Another lesson learned for the Blue Devils. They didn’t react well to losing Moore initially. But Baker showed he can make a big shot in a tough situation.
Both of those things figure to help Duke down the road just as their ability to play without their bigs and adjust to a different defensive set will.
So, yeah, the first glance at a 67-56 win over Campbell might show Duke struggled against a team it would normally beat handily.
The devil is in the details, though. And these Blue Devils gained plenty in the process of winning this game.
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Duke is a better basketball team by playing — and beating — a pesky Campbell squad."