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Corey's Corner: Not Yet The End Of Second Golden Age
by Mike Corey, GoDuke.com Columnist
Mike Corey is a columnist for GoDuke.com. A 2005 graduate of Duke, he is the former sports editor of The Chronicle and Towerview. In 2005, he won the Rolling Stone magazine College Journalism Award for Essays and Criticism.
DURHAM, N.C. - In the rise and fall of the Duke basketball empire under 27-year head coach Mike Krzyzewski, one would argue that there have been two Golden Ages. The first extended from 1986 until 1994, and the second began in 1998 and presumably ended this past spring when J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams graduated, leaving Duke with its youngest team since World War II.
Had the Allied Forces been as encumbered with such tremendous youth, they surely would have been more susceptible to foes, regardless of the quality and experience of their leadership - or so has gone the justification for Duke's slow offensive start to 2006-07. Scoring just 65 points per game, this year's Blue Devils have been cast aside by many as suffering from a temporary age of mediocrity.
Or rather, few would project that Duke could contend for the heights it has reached in the previous nine seasons, in which Coach K's team won 85 percent of its games, or the 1986-1994 stretch when the Blue Devils were victorious 82 percent of the time, an 18-year combination that produced three national championships and 10 Final Fours. (That isn't to say that the remaining eight years were marked by general inferiority, but retrospectively, the numbers are conspicuously less impressive: Duke won just .571 of its games during those selected seasons, advanced to only four NCAA Tournaments, and never played past the second round.).
Therefore, the question is whether or not this year's Duke team marks a continuation of the gaudy aspirations reached for much of Krzyzewski's tenure, or a brief return to mortality from the unabashed success of Duke basketball?
“It’s simple; we set our own goals and standards and we know when we achieve them and when we don’t,” says sophomore Greg Paulus. “We don’t need to have somebody tell us how to do what we want to do. I’m not really paying attention to what people say or write or watching TV, so I just stay away from it. We haven’t really discussed any goals; with us being so young we’re just trying to create a culture here and we’re setting our own standards and building our own habits every day.”
At this point in the season, this squad is clearly anomalous. Aside from its unique youth - and arguably, because of it - Duke is also uniquely un-offensive. Since 1980 when Krzyzewski was hired by then-Athletic Director Tom Butters, only two of Coach K's teams have averaged less than 70 points per game: The 1981-82 team scored just 64 points per game, while the 1980-81 squad compiled a 69.9 average, which would render this year's squad as Krzyzewski's least prolific since the advent of his career.
However, this tri-captained team is also unique--more dramatically and unexpectedly so - because of its stalwart defense.
Known for being enamored with intense man-to-man pressure, Krzyzewski's best-performing defense with regards to points allowed per game was in 1997-98, when the Blue Devils permitted opponents to score just 64.1 points per game. Thus far in 2006, Duke is relenting just over 50.
"It is easier to create a team identity on the defensive end, and our guys have really bought into that," explains Krzyzewski. "This year's group is playing defense at a very high level. They communicate well, and they genuinely like one another. They have developed a team ego on defense."
Defensive swaggers are rare, to say the least, and are usually prefaced by an emphatically-swatted shot rather than consistent formidability. That this Duke team has been able to stymie opposing teams so regularly, and takes such pride in it, is certainly encouraging.
And as Krzyzewski explains, that very defensive immutability has resulted from the shot-blocking void Shelden Williams left when he graduated.
"Last year, we relied so much on Shelden bailing us out as a last line of defense," Krzyzewski says. "This year, we've been much more team-oriented at that end of the court. Consistency at that end of the floor is a great thing as it gives you a chance every time, and it has bailed us out of some games so far this season."
This response is instructive in that it provides a logical explanation, but only to a point. When perusing the box scores at schools with lineups that similarly resemble troupes of
teenagers - namely Ohio State and North Carolina - a preponderance of scoring, and permitting a preponderance of scoring, is conspicuous.
This makes sense, since the majority of today's elite college players developed their games in the offensive-minded AAU system.
So what has made Duke, and particularly its freshmen, so atypical in surpassing expectations defensively rather than offensively (aside from inflated expectations)?
"The great thing about this freshman class is that it is a mature group," Krzyzewski says. "They really came in ahead of where many freshmen have through the years, both mentally and physically. They all have good basketball IQs and come from winning backgrounds. So, we haven't had to do too many things differently to get them ready. If
anything, we've treated them like an older group because that is how they arrived - more mature than many of the freshmen we've had here through the years."
This, too, makes sense. Maturity and basketball intelligence tend to equate to an ability to grasp the art of defense more readily than would players who are more raw. However, the combination of compensating for Williams' absence and of the maturity of the freshmen would also seem to indicate that the offense should be performing at a better clip. A year ago, Krzyzewski once criticized his team for "J.J.-watching," which led to a one-dimensional offensive performance.
That offensive component gone - like Williams' defensive component - shouldn't this Blue Devil team be able to similarly adjust and thrive accordingly?
Theoretically, with the abundance of talent in Durham, the answer is yes. However, the offensive transition in the post-Redick era was severely complicated by a pre-season injury to point guard Greg Paulus. And as has always been the case with Krzyzewski's teams, as goes the point guard, so goes Duke.
Paulus missed out on several weeks of practice at a time when the Blue Devils begin to gel and develop their chemistry, the ramifications of which, incalculable though they may be, have been on display since the season opener.
So rather than finding its rhythm in the preseason, Duke has had to construct its identity on national television, and the cobwebs have not been subtle: there have been uncharacteristically high numbers of turnovers, a slow-paced offense, and a hesitancy to run a fast break. This triumvirate of travails represents team deficiencies, of course, but all roads - and subsequently, much of the pressure and criticism - run through Paulus.
"Greg needs to establish who he is going to be as a Duke point guard," Krzyzewski says. "He needs to understand that this year's team is completely different than last year's group. We've met many times, both collectively and individually, to work through things with Greg. Basically, Greg needs to play. Missing as much time as he did was very disruptive not only to Greg, but to our team as well. He's getting there and has made progress each game."
That progress has been evident in Duke's most recent three victories, particularly in the second half against Georgetown, and the entire contest against George Mason. Paulus demonstrated the kind of patience and decision-making that had not been present earlier in the season, during which turnovers came at a higher rate than assists for the high
school All-American.
Consider, in the second half of the game against George Mason, Paulus was jogging the ball up the right side of the floor when two Patriot defenders began to collapse toward mid-court. Their intention, of course, was to trap Paulus in the corner as soon as he crossed half-court. Rather than attempting to break through two defenders, rather than trying to pass over top of them, Paulus slowed and took one dribble to his left, waiting for the defenders to adjust. One George Mason player retreated from the double-team, allowing Paulus to cross mid-court unfettered.
The other, more glaring complication Duke's offense has had to face is that of adjusting to the loss of two of the most gifted offensive players to ever come through Durham. Certainly, Williams was a dominating defensive player, but Duke's offense lost more than just the points per game that Redick and Williams brought to the fray, but the points they created, as well. Everything ran through that duo for the past two seasons, and in Paulus' rookie campaign, he could register a quick assist by tossing the ball into Williams or across the perimeter to Redick.
Now, everything has changed.
"We need to run our offense through DeMarcus and Josh and make sure they get their touches, and then let everyone else play off them," Krzyzewski asserts. "We made some steps in that direction against George Mason. We got a lot more open looks in that game. As coaches, we'll use this time between games to evaluate where we are and what we
need to do to improve offensively."
So as Duke improves offensively, it is incumbent upon Nelson and McRoberts to continue carrying their team defensively while leading the team offensively. Their effort on both counts is undeniable - nor is Paulus', nor anyone else's for that matter. This is a blue-collar Blue Devil team if ever there was one. It is as reminiscent of the vintage Coach K squads of the 1980s as any that he has coached since. It is a team in which any player on any given night could score 20, or a night in which every played could put up even numbers in an instinctually balanced effort.
Nelson has led the way offensively, and he has been effective largely because of his exhaustively thorough off-season training program under the watch of a former Navy SEAL.
“I would wake up around 8 a.m. and my trainer would cook a five-egg white omelet,” Nelson recalls. “Then from 9-12 I would do a skills workout; all basketball - shooting, dribbling and fundamentals of the game. Then I would have a short snack and right after from 12-1, I’d hit the beach where I would have a 60-pound Navy SEAL pack on my back and run up a 70-yard hill straight up and down in all sand. I would walk down at my own pace and as soon as I got to the bottom of the hill, I’d run back up, continuous for about 45 minutes to an hour straight. Then I’d take off the pack and run up the sand hill, which was sand stairs instead of regular sands, and I’d run that for 20-30 minutes with no stopping.”
It’s difficult just to read, let alone do for an entire summer in the California sun. It gets worse.
“After that I would get a protein shake, replenish the body and then hit a place that we called ?the pipes,’ which was a basic playground, but he had a series of Navy SEAL-type strengthening exercises like push-ups, medicine ball exercises; a lot of different exercises concentrating on strength with no weights,” Nelson continues. “It was very good for developing the body. We tried to get me on more of a protein diet and get away from the fatty and greasy foods and to eat a lot of carbs, vegetables and grilled chicken, things like that.”
Suffice it to say, Nelson’s efforts have paid off. He is now leading his team in scoring, and is arguably one of the best on-ball defenders in the country. And perhaps most notably, for the first time in his Duke career, Nelson is unencumbered with injury.
“I feel great. My body feels great,” Nelson says. “I’m playing the best that I’ve played so far in my college career and I feel like I never get tired out there; like I could run all day. I think it’s a definite benefit of doing that this summer.”
But as Krzyzewski noted, the other piece to the offensive puzzle is McRoberts, who snubbed the NBA a year ago to return for his sophomore campaign. A gifted passer, McRoberts’ year has mirrored that of his team thus far - he hasn’t been scoring nearly as much as anticipated, but his defense has been incalculably improved from a year ago.
“Offensively last year I was able to play off guys and get a lot of easy plays, easy dunks and easy finishes at the rim,” McRoberts says. “This year I probably haven’t had as many of those and I think it’s just because of the way that things are set up. Guys are playing off of me and that’s a role that I really like. I like having the ball in my hands and having guys play. Right now I think the biggest strength I have is just being able to play well with my teammates. I try to move the ball and put people in the right spots.”
But if Duke is to put itself in the right spot once ACC play rolls around, the constant must remain defense. The night where the defense faltered - against an energized Marquette team - the Blue Devils couldn't keep up.
But that is changing. The 2006-07 Blue Devils are unique in many ways, but if I were to project into March as to what this team's most definitive characteristic would be, I would posit that it would be its metamorphosis from a Wisconsin-like, grind-it out and slow-it down basketball squad to a meticulous, workmanlike machine hell-bent on playing furious defense on one end, and a fast-paced-but-efficient offense on the other.
Indeed, coming into the year, that run-and-gun offense was what was anticipated, particularly since Krzyzewski had spent the summer working alongside one of the stylistic and tactical masters of high-octane play, Mike D'Antoni. Furthermore, Duke had recruited and developed the athletes to successfully implement such an offense.
Spending a pre-season alternating a freshman off-guard and encouraging a power forward to become a point-forward threw a wrench into that machine, of course. But rather than folding, Duke has improvised and won 9 of its first 10 games despite an offense that has been anemic at times. But the flashes are there.
“I think we’ve done pretty well so far,” McRoberts says. “The freshmen have really come in and played well and stepped into our system. Their transition already has been smoother than what we were like last year and I think that’s helped them. Having a lot of guys with similar ages has helped us a lot this year. I think we have good team chemistry on and off the floor and I think that’s helped us so far and will continue to help us down the road.”
Gerald Henderson and Lance Thomas have the aggressiveness and the intelligence to thrive in Krzyzewski's system; Jon Scheyer found confidence in his stroke when he poured in 18 against George Mason; and big Brian Zoubek has shown the footwork and the touch to make him Duke's best true center since Alaa Abdelnaby roamed Cameron Indoor in 1989.
Yet the other, more subjective void to fill, has been that of leadership. It is no small order to have a trio of captains, two of whom are just in their second year in Durham. But the Blue Devils are filling it admirably.
“It’s very exciting,” Nelson says. “Playing at the highest level with Duke basketball and being a leader of this team is exciting and I really want to take that challenge and lead this team and make this the best season as possible for us as players, and for the fans. [There isn’t extra] pressure; I take it as a challenge. We should have fun playing with these younger players. They’re good and they’re talented but they’re going to make some young mistakes and that’s where leaders like myself, Josh [McRoberts] and Greg [Paulus] come in and keep those guys going. I think it will be more fun than added pressure.”
Fluidity and confidence, then, remain the ultimate mountains that must be moved before Duke can cross over into being as multifaceted as it would like to be - or perhaps, as it needs to be. Its offense has been stodgy and has trudged forward to this point in the season. And yet the tipping point appears to have arrived as the individual units mix together and precipitate into a unique chemistry that one expects to mark the continuation of this Golden Age, rather than its conclusion.
“We’re getting more comfortable with each other,” Paulus concludes. “We’re a very good defensive team and offensively, we’re trying to find ourselves and get comfortable with the system and each other. I only see us getting better from here.”
The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of Duke University or the Duke University Department of Athletics.
