Opponent aside, Duke building better defensive habits

By Lauren Brownlow

Duke has a historically good offense. That is going to continue, no matter how many dry spells senior Grayson Allen goes through as a shooter or no matter how many turnovers they have in the first 30 minutes of a game (19 at Miami, but none in the final 11). Duke's offense is so good, in fact, and so potent that it can withstand things that normal teams can't. There are so many options.

What it does have to do, though, is play at least passable defense. Against NC State, Duke didn't do that. Against Boston College, Duke didn't do that. Even in a win over Florida State at home, Duke didn't really do that. But that was Duke's first three ACC games.

Since then, Duke has held four teams to an offensive efficiency (per statistician Ken Pomeroy) of 94.5 or worse. That was Miami's, in a game the Hurricanes got whatever they wanted early. Until Duke went into a zone that worked just well enough.

• Images: Duke 81, Pitt 54

Duke knew it wouldn't need any defensive switches or anything fancy against a bad, bad Pitt team. So what they did was come out looking more like Duke teams of old -- pressing up on the ball, getting into the passing lanes and even adding in a three-quarter-court zone press for good measure, just to keep an already-rattled Pitt team even more flustered.

"I think our help defense is better, but against Miami, we didn't extend because they drive so well," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You have to be able to do different things defensively because you play different offenses and different talents. But the thing that this team didn't have ... was a base of defense -- the foot movements or whatever -- where you could go out a little bit more or stay in. We're in the process of developing that base.

"Miami (was) not just man but zone. Today, you saw primarily aggressive and a three-quarter-court zone press. But our base is better. Our foot movements and our talk is better."

Allen in particular fed a lot of the defensive energy from his teammates, getting two of Duke's eight steals on some of those wing overplays.

"I mean, I haven't had much offense in the last six games, so I'm having fun playing defense," Allen joked afterwards. "I like getting deflections and getting out there in the fast break."

Vintage Duke teams under Krzyzewski have always defended well. The recent one-and-done-laden groups haven't always gotten it very quickly, or sometimes at all. There's still no telling what this Duke team will end up being defensively, but they knew after the NC State game something had to change.

"Since the NC State game, we've gotten better defensively. You didn't need much to get better defensively from what we did in our first three ACC games," Krzyzewski said. "But we're working at it. I'm just trying to have our guys get better, and we're getting better."

One big reason for the improvement has been his best two players' willingness to want to get better on that end, too. Krzyzewski said that he Carter -- who had a game-high 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting -- has protected Duke's basket very well of late, and Marvin Bagley (who added 20 points of his own) is improving as well.

"(Carter) and Marvin are such good students of the game. They want to learn so much. So many of these kids when they come from high school, they haven't watched tape," Krzyzewski said. "They've watched tape of when they dunk or do something spectacular and they put mixtapes together and put all kinds of music, but they don't watch their foot movements. They don't watch when they commit a silly foul. They don't watch what they do on the help side on defense.

"And so when they come here -- and we're not the only program -- they have an opportunity to be educated about the game. And our two big men really want to learn about the game and they're very, very smart. It's on them, because they want to do it. They've been really a joy to coach, those two guys."

Carter has seven blocks and four steals in Duke's last two games and has been a noticeably disruptive defensive presence -- something Duke hasn't had much this year. Bagley has four blocks and five steals in the last three games and has been a beast on the defensive boards.

"So much of defense -- it's like learning to dance," Krzyzewski said. "Your body doesn't move naturally like that. It has to learn how to dance, just like you see all these great dancers -- you all can't do that. They can do it. But we're trying to teach them how to dance defensively.

"The music to the dance is talk, and if you get five guys talking, maybe you can dance together and maybe you can win. It's really, for me, kind of easy to understand but it's not easy to get it done. So our guys are working at it."

The caveat, of course, is a necessary one and it's that Duke has played bad offensive teams, largely, during this stretch. But NC State is 11th in ACC-only offense and the Blue Devils couldn't stop them. Pitt is obviously dead last while Miami is 12th and Wake is 13th.

The Blue Devils will get Wake again this week, this time on the road on Tuesday. Allen knows that it can be dangerous. Because any game can. If Duke lets up, they risk letting an opponent get hot and run them out of the gym. Wake has certainly proven itself capable of beating Duke over the years.

"Things are going really well for us right now and so when things are going well, that's the point we need to lock in even more because teams will be gunning for us," Allen said.

"We can't overlook anybody or be satisfied."