Brill: Defending The Arc

by Bill Brill, Blue Devil Weekly

DURHAM, N.C. - It should come as no surprise to anybody who watched Duke lose its first game of the season to Georgetown that the Hoyas had the best three-point shooting game of the season against the Blue Devils. They made 6-of-14, or 42.9 percent, which paled against their overall 61.5 field goal percentage that was created mostly by breakaway layups and backdoor cuts against a defense that was always a step slow.

However, in the course of an entire season in which Duke is now 17-1, the Blue Devils have done their best work while defending the perimeter.

Even with Georgetown's modestly successful day outside the arc, Duke has allowed opponents to shoot just 26.8 percent, which leads the ACC ? and perhaps the nation ? by a wide margin. The only team that made more threes than Georgetown was Clemson, another recent opponent, which hit 7-of-20, including five relatively wide-open shots in the first half and then was shut down in the second.

Duke not only leads the league by a wide margin in defense against the three, it also is second only to Clemson in fewest threes attempted by the opposition. In fact, J.J. Redick, who has been magnificent of late although having to play 40 minutes almost every game, has made more threes (69) than all 18 opponents combined (66).

In researching Duke's three-point defense since 1998, one thing jumps out at you immediately. It is not the primary point of emphasis every season, but when it is, the Devils finish first. In the nine seasons including '98, Duke five times led the ACC in three-point defense and also finished second in 2003.

Ironically, the second weakest three-point defense came in 2001, when the Blue Devils won the NCAA championship and had two national players of the year in Shane Battier and Jason Williams. Battier won every award except one, which went to Williams. Jason was selected by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

That team, which finished 35-4, averaged almost 91 points per game, third highest in school history. It took an all-time NCAA record of 1,057 three-point shots and made 407, also a national record. That team got into a lot of shootouts because it had the proper personnel. The 207 threes made by opponents is also a school mark, but note that they made 200 fewer than Duke.

It also is worth noting that the second-most threes any Duke team ever made was 301. While that's 106 fewer than the record of 2001, it's worth pointing out that it happened in 2002, when Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Chris Duhon were still on the team.

In '01, Duke had no less than five players who took at least 122 threes, and that includes Duhon, who took just 95 shots from two-point range. The others were Williams (309), Battier (296), Dunleavy (153) and Nate James (137). The Devils had five men average at least 12.3, including Carlos Boozer, who didn't take a single three but still scored at a 13.3 clip. I profess to being surprised that Battier attempted almost as many threes as Williams, although he shot 70 fewer times.

Williams and Battier, the twin All-Americas, each attempted more threes than twos, and Shane actually took a higher percentage from beyond the arc. They both shot well, 42.7 percent for Williams and 41.9 for Battier. And it was Dunleavy's trio of three-pointers, on consecutive possessions midway in the second half, that broke open the championship game against Arizona.

Duke's three-point defense that year was its second worst, percentage-wise (34.4), in the eight seasons that I researched. Obviously, that didn't matter. The worst occurred in 2000, when teams made 35.7 percent of their long-range shots but the team that had lost Elton Brand, William Avery and Corey Maggette to the NBA still went 15-1 in the ACC and 29-5 overall.

This season, the Duke defense has been predicated on stopping the three, and the results have been excellent. N.C. State, which gives the green light to every starter except Cedric Simmons, got only 11 three-point shots and made a season-low two, both by Cameron Bennerman. Engin Atsur, Ilian Evtimov and Tony Bethel, three veterans, were all shut out.

In many respects, that game mirrored the one at Indiana, which ranks among Duke's best victories of the campaign thus far. Against the Hoosiers, Marco Killingsworth went off for 34 points, and while there was some criticism of the defense played by Williams, the truth is that Shelden never had any defensive help, and often he had to protect the goal after somebody had achieved dribble penetration.

The same thing happened against State. Simmons had a career-high 28 points. He never before had scored more than 19. But he got to roam, often unchecked, as Williams again had to leave his man to pick up a penetrator. While it may not have looked good for Shelden, despite his 21 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and five steals, the fact is that Duke won by 20 points and the rest of the Wolfpack squad totaled 40 points. It's clear that is a tradeoff that Mike Krzyzewski will take in every game.

The three-point shot was called the great equalizer when it came into being. In many respects it has been, but it's also been a weapon for Duke, the most successful program in the nation in the past 15 years. The Blue Devils always have taken far more threes than their opponents over the course of a year, and this one is no exception.

This time, however, there is one primary shooter from outside ? Redick. Others can, and do, take threes, especially Lee Melchionni. But the Georgetown game was more typical. Redick was 6-for-11; the rest of the team was 3-for-8.

What Coach K and his staff want to do most is win. This year, that means an unusual emphasis is placed on defending the three, with the knowledge that Williams, Duke's all-time shot blocker, is in the middle to offer help when necessary. It didn't help against the Hoyas, but until then, nobody could question the strategy.

There are teams that don't shoot the three much. Michigan State, which eliminated the Blue Devils in last year's NCAA Tournament, comes to mind. But Duke always has found a way to incorporate the three as one of its essential weapons ? it does, after all, count 50 percent more than a dunk ? into its offense.

And, more often than not, the defense is predicated on stopping the three-point attempt first, which means leaving the inside more vulnerable than other coaches prefer. I tend to think that the records speak for themselves. When it makes sense to stress perimeter defense, that's what Duke will do. When the Blue Devils have the weapons they had in 2001, a different strategy was used.

Players Mentioned

Lee Melchionni

JJ Redick

Duke information