A year ago Duke walked out of Coral Gables with their tales tucked between their thoroughly beaten rear ends. On Wednesday Duke got a modicum of revenge with its 67-46 victory over Miami.
It wasn’t exactly about revenge for Duke and it is hard to call it a rematch with both teams being so different, but perhaps there was some payback incentive for the Blue Devils.
The victory is Duke’s first win on the road in the ACC this season and helps the No. 18 ranked Blue Devils (15-4; 4-2 ACC) continue their climb back toward the top half of the conference standings. Jabari Parker led Duke in scoring with 17 points in a disjointed offensive game.
Parker also had a carrier high in rebounds with 15 while Rodney Hood chipped in 12 points and was the only other Blue Devil player to score in double figures.
For the third game in a row, Mike Krzyzewski utilized a steady rotation of players and increased defensive pressure including full-court pressure that caused the Hurricanes problems. It is hard to argue with the results as Duke is on a three-game winning streak and have won their last two ACC games by a combined 56 points since the changes.
Miami appeared like they might keep the game low scoring and ugly enough to make it interesting, however, Duke utilized solid defensive play and a key run in the final few minutes of the first half to stretch their lead to double digits going into the break.
Duke maintained at least a 13 point lead for most of the rest of the game and fought off a couple of Hurricane surges. Unlike earlier in the year when Duke would start to fade toward the end of games or when their opponents would make a run, they were able to fight back and ended up extending the lead.
The Blue Devils got solid play again out of Rasheed Sulaimon who appears to have regained his confidence and broken out of his early season funk. Amile Jefferson also continued to live up to his new moniker, “An-Amile” grabbing 7 rebounds and 8 points while getting his hands on the ball a lot more on both ends of the court.
While Miami isn’t exactly the same team that was a highly ranked force last year, they are still a well coached team and a road win, as Duke has proven, doesn’t come easy in the ACC.
Moving forward Duke still had to continue to improve on both ends. Miami implemented a zone which caused the Blue Devils fits when their offense opted to just stand around and watch the shooters shoot.
They will need to work on attacking the basket with greater frequency and be aggressive and smart on defense. Duke will get a tough test on Saturday against a big Florida State team before heading to Pittsburgh for a show down with the Panthers who sit a game behind the ACC’s top team, Syracuse.
