It wasn’t a start befitting at team that had days early taken out the No. 3 team in the country, but the No. 9 Blue Devils kicked their game into gear and easily took out the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
Mason Plumlee had a dominating performance for the Blue Devils recording a near double-double with 28 points and 9 rebounds.
Mason Plumlee had a dominating performance scoring a game high 28 points while grabbing 9 rebounds. It didn’t look like Duke was even attempting to get him the ball early as they failed to go to their big man. But once they did the Eagles had no options when it came to try and stop him.
Plumlee showed his improved post game and shot 9-11 from the floor. More shocking was his performance from the free throw line. He was nearly perfect shooting 10-11.
“I’ve done it in practice,” Plumlee said. “This is the first time I’ve done it in a game.
But it was Plumlee’s all around game that proved too much for an over matched Florida and that shows his ability to draw attention and that opened up opportunties for his teammates.
“I feel like I’m going to make the right play. Its not necessarily always shooting it,” Plumlee said. “I’m going to find guys and get guys open shots.”
Fellow senior Ryan Kelly benefited to the tune of 14 points and freshman Rasheed Sulaimon scored had 19 points, while Seth Curry pitched in 10 points.
Kelly helped Plumlee on the glass as well grabbing 9 rebounds. Sualimon was again impressive finding his shot from three point range as well as showing the ability to create shots off the dribble. The glue that helped put it all together may have been Quinn Cook who finished with 8 points, and 9 assists.
“Quinn was a major factor in our win over Kentucky. It’s a game he needed,and a game we needed because we need him,” Mike Krzyzewski said.
“When he came into the Kentucky game we really pushed the ball well. And his pressure on the ball was excellent,” Krzyzewski said. “He did the same thing tonight.”
Offensively Duke played well but it may have been the defense that was the pleasant surprise. The Blue Devils forced 25 turnovers in the game, which helped circumvent a hot shooting night from Florida Gulf Coast who hit 40 percent from the floor and 44 percent from the three point range.
Still forcing 25 turnovers and which lead to 36 points was a major difference maker and something that the Blue Devils did not do much at all last season.
Duke also got 36 points in the paint and won the rebounding battle 37 to 33.
Overall it wasn’t the best game the Blue Devils have ever played but it did show signs of improvement and at this stage in the year that is all you can hope for because it is much better to not be a complete team in November.
Game Notes:
Duke got some solid minutes again off the bench from Josh Hairston and Amile Jefferson. The two combined for 6 points and four rebounds in 24 minutes of action.
Alex Murphy also saw a few more limited minutes in this game. He played six minutes and again played aggressive and hard and that appeared to further improve his body language. At one point he received a fist bump from Krzyzewski as he came off the floor and with all the transfer rumors floating around, anything positive seems news worthy.
Mike Krzyzewski was also asked about the possibility of Maryland leaving the ACC for the Big 10 and Krzyzewski gave a rather diplomatic answer to the question.
“I would hope they would stay in our league. Believe me I’m sure nobody at Maryland is going to pay attention to anything I say based on the response I get every time I walk in that arena,” Krzyzewski said. “There are two words with an exclamation point that are always said to me and I think if I comment on this there would be a resounding two words with an exclamation point coming from College Park.”
He added that you can take a guess at what those two word are.
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