The No. 4 seed Duke Blue Devils are set to face No. 13 seed Vermont in the South Region of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s first round.
The Teams
Vermont Catamounts
Vermont carries a 28-6 record, tied for the second-most wins in program history, into the program’s 10th appearance in the NCAA Tournament, where the Catamounts have a 2-9 record. They enter the tournament on a 10-game winning streak, fourth-longest in the country, and boasts the 23rd-ranked field-goal percentage defense in the country, holding its opponents to just 40.6 percent from the field. The Catamounts are coming off their third consecutive America East Tournament title, only losing 1 game in conference the entire season. After making their first March Madness trip in 2003, the 13-seeded Catamounts upset No. 4-seed Syracuse in overtime, 60-57, in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament.
The Catamounts are led in scoring by sophomore guard TJ Long who scores 12.2 points per game. Junior guard Shamir Bogues add 11 points per game to go with his team leading 5.3 rebounds per game. Aaron Deloney rounds out the double-figure scorers with 10.9 points per game and he leads Vermont in assists at 3 per contest.
Duke Blue Devils
Duke has been ranked inside the top-25 for the entirety of the 2023-24 season and enters the tournament with a 24-8 record after finishing second in the ACC standings with a 15-5 league mark. The Blue Devils enter the tournament on a 2-game losing streak after dropping games to UNC and NC State. The Blue Devils 15th in the nation in 3pt shooting at 37.7%, 50th in the country in 2pt shooting at 54% and 49th in assists.
The Blue Devils are making their 46th appearance in the NCAA Tournament – fifth most in NCAA history. Head coach Jon Scheyer leads Duke into the tournament for the second straight season and has steered the Blue Devils to a top-five seed in each of his first two campaigns. Duke is 119-40 (.748) all-time in the NCAA Tournament, marking the best winning percentage in tournament history by a team with a minimum of 20 games played. The Blue Devils lead the ACC in scoring margin (+12.4), field goal percentage (.482), 3-point field goal percentage (.377), assists (15.4 per game) and defensive rebounds (31.5 rpg).
Among ACC leaders, Kyle Filipowski ranks seventh in scoring (17.1 ppg), sixth in rebounding (8.2 rpg), third in blocked shots (1.6 bpg) and sixth in field goal percentage (.511). He leads the Blue Devils on both scoring and rebounding per game. Senior guard Jeremy Roach leads the blue Devils in 3 point shooting at 43.6% per game this season, he’s also averaging 14 points per game. Freshman Jared McCain is averaging 13.4 points per game and just under 40% shooting from 3 (39.9%). Mark Mitchell comes into Friday averaging 12.3 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per contest. He leads the starting group in field goal percentage at 54.8%. Tyrese Proctor, who has played all 40 minutes in each of the last three games, ranks second in ACC in assist/turnover ratio (2.84), and has 32 assists with just nine turnovers in his last seven outings. The Aussie is averaging 10.5 points per game.
Thoughts
Offensively for the Blue Devils there are things Duke should do that include cutting without the basketball, pick and roll and ball screen to death and take care of the basketball. Things that shouldn’t be done obviously as previously mentioned – giving up fast break opportunities to Vermont is a quick way to shorten your tournament life. This team lives and breathes in transition and if Duke should be so foolish as to play too loose with the rock it’s going to be bad as Duke has not shown the ability to consistently defend in transition well. Like Duke Vermont is looking for those transition 3 opps. Another thing Duke cannot do is finish weakly at the rim. One thing that is consistent this year is the inconsistency of refereeing. Duke has to FORCE the refs to make a call – DUNK EVERYTHING at the rim. Leaving it up to chance and finesse is not only a sign that you aren’t aggressive but a sign that you’ve learned nothing this season. Duke is strongest when their bigs finish at the rim with authority.
Defensively, obviously the Blue Devil guards need to pay attention to the scouting reports for Vermont much more closely than they have for the past couple of games. Duke guards have had a habit of losing shooters and it’s showed in their last 2 games. Letting mediocre shooters get good looks leading to hot streaks – see Cormac Ryan. Duke has to know who to be there on the catch and who they can give space to. TJ Long isn’t a guy you can give space to, whoever guards the sophomore flame thrower has to force him to become a driver where Duke can utilize their size on the interior. There were a plethora of defensive breakdowns in Duke’s last couple of games including getting beaten badly on very simple baseline out of bounds plays.
Duke’s guards lately, for whatever reason, have been playing with lead feet and that won’t do this time of year. Obviously being down Caleb Foster means that Duke will have to play their guards an inordinate amount of minutes but at this point in the season your tournament lives are at stake.
Duke has to understand they are playing against hungry competition and playing without your head on a proverbial swivel and simply going through the motions won’t cut it. Hungry teams advance and dance.
