There were a lot of things that clearly were not going right for No. 18 Duke on Saturday.
Rodney Hood was unable to start due to illness, Quinn Cook looked a bit gimpy due to some injury and the Blue Devils were shooting woefully from the floor for most of the game. To make matters worse, Duke who has been widely rumored to be undersized all year, was going up against a big size mismatch with Florida State.
All of that though made very little difference surprisingly enough as Duke used another solid defensive performance and a head scratching (if you are Leonard Hamilton) job on the glass to knock off Florida State in convincing fashion 78 to 56.
The Blue Devil forced 17 Seminole turnovers and flat out destroyed the bigger FSU team on the boards 46 to 24. Despite shooting only 31 percent from the floor, the rebounding help give Duke second chance opportunity after second chance opportunity.
Duke after setting for a lot of early three points shots worked in more drives and it payed off with trips to the free-throw line where Duke hit 34 out 43 attempts.
Despite not starting Hood led the Blue Devils with 18 point and 9 rebounds. Jabari Parker scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds recording his second straight double double. Andre Dawkins chipped in 11 points as well.
One pleasant surprise for the Blue Devils was the play of Marshall Plumlee who didn’t fill up the stat sheet but showed a lot of hustle and aggressiveness, scoring 7 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
Duke’s defensive improvements have been marked over the last four games and definitely in the last three, all blow out victories.
The Blue Devils clearly have been getting better since the loss at Clemson. They have still shown some late game lapses but have managed in all cases in the current four-game stretch have managed to fight off opposing teams rallies and win going away.
Things get exponentially harder for Duke as they go on a two-game road trip to play both Pitt and Syracuse, neither will be easy games as those two teams have established themselves as the cream of the ACC to date.
If Duke is to get back into the ACC Regular Season race and back in the national title picture, they will need wins against one or both and to accomplish that they must continue with their improved play, especially on defense.
