THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2007
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
COMMENTARY
5B
Power house falls from poll
1. 下列语句中，___是错误的。
Gail Burton/ASSOCIATED PRESS
**Duke coach Kyle Krzewski and his Blue Devils appear to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble after falling behind .500 in the ACC. Early this week, Duke fell out of the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll for the first time in 10 seasons.**
*kurt harris/ASSOCIATED PRESS*
Weak offense, floundering defense put Duke Blue Devils on bubble
BY ALEX FANAROFF
THE CHRONICLE
DURHAM, N.C. — After Duke's third game of the season, a win over UNC-Greensboro, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked about his teams' inconsistency on the offensive end, specifically its occasional inability to score for long stretches.
The coach responded (I'm paraphrasing here) that maybe his team was just not a good offensive team. Maybe their inconsistency showed up when they were playing well on the offensive end, as opposed to when they were playing poorly.
He said wed know more later in the season — wed have a frame of reference after they had played more games together. Well, now it's later, and we have a frame of reference.
This is a bad offensive team. This is an open-shot bricking, freethrow-shot-clanging, layup-missing, ball-movement-lacking team with no player quick enough to get to the basket or good enough off the bounce to create — and make — his own shot.
That being said, the Blue Devils' offense is good enough. While they are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the country, they're still 18-7. And Duke actually should be one of the lowest-scoring teams in the country because they play at an excruciatingly slow pace, which limits their shot attempts.
Using points per possession to control for Duke's slow pace, the Blue Devils score 111.7 points per 100 possessions, which puts them
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in the top 20 percent of all NCAA teams in terms of offensive efficiency. So as deficient as Duke is on offense, there are a lot of teams that are worse, which is encouraging.
Up to the Maryland game, in fact, Duke had been performing well on offense even during its three-game losing streak, scoring about 100 points per 100 possessions (just about the national average) in each game. And even though that is below Duke's season average, it's not terrible when you consider the fact that athletic ACC teams play better defense than the likes of Georgia Southern and Columbia.
So the problem in the most recent three-game losing streak is not on offense. It's on defense. If the Blue Devils aren't playing good defense, they're going to lose.
During the current four-game losing streak, Duke has allowed more than 100 points per 100 possessions every time out. Its season average is 81.6 points per 100 possessions. They've had four of their five worst games of the season, as far as defensive efficiency goes, during this four-game stretch. The only game that was worse was the loss to Marquette.
This is the part of the column where I should give some solution to the problem, but I don't have one. Maybe Coach K does.
is that teams are taking and making too many open jump shots, getting to the basket too frequently and grabbing too many offensive rebounds. Basically, the Blue Devils are failing in every defensive area relative to how strong they were earlier in the season.
For two years, quick guards and active big men have killed Duke's defense. So maybe the last four teams Duke has played just have the type of personnel that gives the Blue Devils fits.
But that's not really encouraging either, because it's not like the five ACC games Duke has left are against teams that better fit Duke's defensive
schemes.
Just to get to 7-9 in the ACC (and likely lock up a tournament bid), Duke's going to have to win two of its final five conference games against Boston College (which is first in the ACC), Clemson (which Duke only beat by two at home), Maryland, North Carolina and Georgia Tech (all of which beat the Blue Devils once already). A conference record of 6-10 might be good enough, but it might not.
Welcome to life on The Bubble. Make yourself comfortable. Because until the team's defense improves, Duke's not getting off.
>> BIG 12 BASKETBALL
BY ANUP SHAH
DAILY TEXAN
AUSTIN, Texas — All season long, Kevin Durant has tried telling the world that the Longhorns are all about playing a team game. Against Oklahoma State, he finally got a chance to show it.
Durant didn't need 37 points and the Longhorns didn't need three overtimes to claim a 83-54 victory in front of a rowdy home crowd.
"We've never really totally relied on Kevin to score a lot of points," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "We've always felt like we were a balanced team and tonight we got it."
It was no instant classic, but the young Texas squad did accomplish a significant feat for the first time in a regulation game.
Though they've had several players step up in different big games, the Longhorns have never had all five starters score in double digits, except for the thriller against the Cowboys on Jan. 16. Along with Durant's 21 points, D.J. Augustin torched OSU with 19 while A.J. Abrams stepped out of a recent shooting slump, pouring in 17 of his own. Damion James and Justin Mason also added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
When asked to describe his team when all five starters show up to play, Durant's answer was simple.
"Very dangerous," Durant said. "Everybody on our team can score and everybody can dribble. We've just got to keep working as a team on our defensive and offensive efforts and we're going to be good."
The game began with James
providing four points, a steal and a block on OSU phenom Mario Boggan within the first 5 minutes. From there, the Longhorns matched the intensity of their 6-foot-7 teammate and gave one of the best team efforts of the season.
"I think it really started from Damion going straight at Mario Boggan." Durant said. "Everybody just cruised on from there."
Holding onto a seven-point lead at halftime. Texas did not allow a comebreak like it did against Iowa State on Saturday. Instead, the Longhorns stuck it to the Cowboys, using all of their weapons to hold the OSU offense to just 36.7 percent shooting on the night.
After playing a lockdown man-to-man defense in the first half, Texas adjusted to fit the tone of the game in the final 20 minutes. Barnes went to the ultimate team defense — the 2-3 zone that his team struggled with in losses to Kansas State and Texas A&M last week.
"You could feel it coming together as a team," Barnes said. "There's no doubt that, over the last couple of games, the communication of our team has gotten so much better."
Having picked up arguably its biggest win of the conference season, people might begin to think that the Longhorns are starting to peak at the right time.
But for Durant and the Longhorns, there's still a long way to go.
"We're not looking to say that we're peaking." Durant said. "We're looking to get better every day. We're not going to be complacent with this win — this win is over and done."
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MEET LAWRENCE WRITER STEVE BUCKNER
Wednesday.
February 7, 2007
3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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Saturday,
February 17, 2007
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
(before the Nebraska game)