Duke fans were probably having that deja vu feeling as the Blue Devils limped into halftime leadin Georgia Tech by one point.
In a way the Blue Devils were fortunate to be up by that amount as they once again played a disjointed half that saw defensive breakdown after defense breakdown and a lack of offensive continuity. The second half didn’t start out much better but about midway through the second half Duke found something.
The put together a run and were able to stretch the lead to 10 points before Georgia Tech cut the lead down, much like what happen to the Blue Devils this past weekend against Notre Dame. Unlike that game, Duke was able to rebuild the lead and continue to build upon it to gain its first ACC win of the season, 79 to 57 and move to 12-3 on the season.
Jabari Parker was still not quite the super freshman he has been most of the season. He scored a modest 12 points and had 6 rebounds, but clearly was still not on his A-game after struggling against the Irish. Once again it was Rodney Hood who was the best player on the floor for Duke offensively, scoring 27 points on 5 of 7 shooting from behind the arc and 8 of 12 overall from the floor.
The Blue Devils got a much more balanced offensive output as Rasheed Sulaimon, Quinn Cook and Andre Dawkins all scored in double digits. Jefferson also posted 6 points and did another solid job on the glass grabbing 10 rebounds.
After dropping the first ACC game of the year, Mike Krzyzewski as usual, went with a change in lineup that featured Amile Jefferson and Sulaimon in place of Tyler Thornton and Josh Hairston. The move may have been seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but the increased confidence in Sulaimon who had been struggling until late was obvious by putting him back into the starting lineup.
This game wasn’t necessarily a sign of Duke heading in the right direction. They clearly are not clicking on all cylinders and their defensive struggles continue to be a problem.
Parker’s recent struggles also have to be considered, though they certainly don’t mean gloom and doom for the Blue Devils as he has plenty of time to work out of it.
Still there is something about this Duke team that still seems off and inconsistent. More performance like the one they put on against Georgia Tech in the second-half of the second half will go a long way toward reassuring some doubters, they have to start being consistent with those stretches.
For now a win is a win and Duke will take it even if it wasn’t necessarily textbook or pretty.
