In a game where Duke was favored on the road against a struggling Notre Dame team in their first ever ACC game playing without their best player, you might have expected a much different outcome.
The Fighting Irish would have none of that as they sent the Blue Devils packing 79-77 in the first ACC game for both teams. Jabari Parker coming off probably his worst game as a collegiate player player followed that performance with one that was much worse and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Parker scored only 7 points and sat for a good bit of the second half including the waning minutes as Duke’s attempt at a comeback came up short. Rodney Hood helped ease the lack of Parker’s scoring by 27 points. Quinn Cook added 22 but there wasn’t much esle from the Blue Devils.
Despite all that about midway through the second-half though it looked like the Blue Devils might pull away from the Irish as they had a 10 point lead 60-50 with 11:39 left to play. But the wheels just completely fell off for the Blue Devils. It was the same old recipe that has cost Duke all season, poor rebounding and lack of any kind of defensive efficiency.
Notre Dame shot over 50-percent from the floor, and from beyond the three-point line. Time and time again they were able to get into the lane and beat the Duke defense and got easy shot after easy shot. The Irish dominated the glass 40-29 and it didn’t seem like it was event that close.
The Blue Devils had no answer for the Irish bigs including Garrick Sherman and guard Pat Connaughton who both had 8 rebounds a piece.
Other than Hood and Cook who led the Blue Devils in scoring, nobody for Duke cracked 10 points while Notre Dame had a fairly balanced attack.
It is hard to be optimistic after a game like this, another case where Duke showed little to no killer instinct. There will be lots of discussion about what went wrong but the bottom line is this incarnation of the Blue Devils appears to be nothing more than a compilation of talent that has not yet melded into a cohesive team.
