His time leading Duke basketball dwindling, Coach K looks for answers after COVID pause
A ticking clock impacts people like few things do.
Take Mike Krzyzewski Saturday night after his No. 2 Blue Devils suffered a 76-74 loss to unranked Miami at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
January losses don’t prevent teams from achieving even the highest of goals. Just look back seven years this month, when Miami came to Cameron and left with a 90-74 win. Three months later, on an April night in Indianapolis, Duke won the NCAA championship.
Krzyzewski knows his team has time to get things right again, even after this latest home loss to the scrappy Hurricanes.
Yet, this is the last go-around for Krzyzewski. His 42nd Duke team will be his last, a decision he made last summer. Hence, a clock ticking like it never has before for him.
As much as no one around Duke wants to discuss it, there is pressure on this team to send Krzyzewski out with his sixth NCAA championship.
So when the Blue Devils spring a leak, like they did in committing a season-worst 17 turnovers while also allowing Miami’s experienced guards to drive for many shots in the lane, it carries a little more weight this season.
“In order for us to win something special you are going to have to beat veteran teams,” Krzyzewski said, peeking ahead toward his final March Madness.
The Blue Devils are not at their best, like they were when they beat Gonzaga, 84-81, in Las Vegas on Nov. 26. They were a better team Dec. 22 when they rallied from their only halftime deficit of the season to beat Virginia Tech, 76-65.
The program’s COVID-19 outbreak caused an unexpected shutdown from practice and conditioning while ACC games at Clemson and Notre Dame were postponed. Duke toughed its way to a 69-57 win over Georgia Tech on Tuesday, its first game since Christmas.
The Hurricanes (13-3, 5-0 ACC) offered a different challenge, though.
Miami’s backcourt features two players, Kameron McGusty and Charlie Moore, who are only still playing college basketball because NCAA granted players an extra season of eligibility due to the pandemic.
They hurt Duke on both ends of the court Saturday night. Moore scored 18 points and grabbed seven steals. McGusty scored 14 points, including the basket with 22.8 seconds left that put Miami ahead for good.
Though smaller and not as physical as the Blue Devils, Miami tallied 52 points in the paint as Duke allowed an alarming number of high percentage shots. Part of that is explained by looking at Duke’s 17 turnovers, which the Hurricanes turned into 17 points.
But Miami also carved up Duke’s normally stout defense in the half court as well. Knowing Miami’s guard-oriented team is exceptional at protecting the ball, the Blue Devils opted to protect passing and driving lanes rather than pressuring on the perimeter.
That was the plan, anyway. But the Blue Devils were still a step slow and Miami beat them for backdoor baskets time and time again.
“The backdoors were the ones because we didn’t want to contest,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re not going to get steals so we’re playing half a man below and they still backdoored. That shows you’re tired, I think.”
Krzyzewski lamented his team’s fatigue, caused directly by the COVID-19 pause. Yet for the second game in a row, four Duke starters played 31 minutes or more.
Trevor Keels, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Moore all played 35 minutes or more in the last two games.
That’s classic Krzyzewski zeroing in on his core players once ACC play arrives. It’s served him well over the last four decades, of course.
But his top, most-trusted players are having trouble producing while regaining their wind. Moore, after a 2 of 11 shooting night against Georgia Tech, improved to 5 of 12 against Miami.
But he missed an open 3-pointer with four seconds left Saturday night that could have put Duke in front. He also turned the ball over six times.
Keels struggled with 2 of 11 shooting, making only 1 of 6 3-pointers.
Jeremy Roach, who has averaged 34 minutes per game over the last two, has hit only 4 of 13 shots during that time.
There’s a fine line Krzyzewski and his staff are looking for here. They don’t want to push the players too hard, possibly exposing them to injury, as they get back into shape. At the same time, these players are who the staff will count on to win the season’s biggest games come March.
Duke has only seven home games left this season. That’s all the games Krzyzewski has left to walk out of the locker room into the raucous crowd’s din, stroll around the playing court that bears his famous name and coach the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The clock is ticking. He doesn’t want to walk off that court with any more losses like he did on Saturday night.
He also wants to prepare his team as best he can for March when, to use his word, special games are won.
It’s a push and pull that can flummox any coach, including one with a handful of NCAA title rings who’s a few weeks away from his 75th birthday.
This story was originally published January 9, 2022 at 10:40 AM with the headline "His time leading Duke basketball dwindling, Coach K looks for answers after COVID pause."