All Duke does when Ryan Kelly is on the floor is win, and they almost always seem to find ways to do it over Top 5 teams.
Ryan Kelly’s performance is nothing short of miraculous.
Kelly, after nearly a tw0-month absence, came out of the locker room and put up the game of his career and perhaps his life scoring 36 points on 7-9 shooting from behind the arc as the Blue Devils knocked off Miami 79-76 in a game that was part revenge and part rediscovery.
Nearly every single player at one point in the game struggled, except for the senior captain. Mason Plumlee continued his struggles scoring only 12 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. Seth Curry also struggled from the floor and from the free throw line and it almost cost Duke is the end.
Miami came into Cameron confident they could win and early on it looked like they might thanks to the Blue Devils struggles. In fact if it weren’t for Kelly’s performance, the Hurricanes at one point would have led the game by 24 points and the game could have easily turned into a repeat of the game back in January. Instead Kelly kept Duke alive.
The Blue Devils defensively had few answers, especially for Shane Larkin and the rest of Miami’s guards who drove into the lane at will and finished almost as easily. Larkin finished with 25 points and Kenny Kadji added 17 but in the end Duke did just enough to win though toward the end they almost gave it away.
The story though is clearly the return of Kelly. With him on the floor Duke is 16-0 with four wins over Top 5 teams. Many weren’t expecting Kelly to play this soon and those who did were expecting him to play limited minutes. No one could have projected a 36 point performance and the kind of shooting night he had.
Kelly was very active on both ends of the floor and wasn’t shy about stepping back into the role he vacated when he went down to injury. He showed no ill effects from the foot injury and played more than 30 minutes showing, at least for one game he was in pretty good shape. How that will translate over the next few days remains to be seen.
There was a slight scare when Kelly ran into the locker room in the second half but reports are he was readjusting his shoes and quickly returned.
Kelly was at times a one man wrecking crew who got occasional help from Quinn Cook. Rasheed Sulaimon was almost non existent but hit a couple of late shots to seemingly put the game away. Miami, however, would not go away. Shane Larkin hit a late three to pull the game within two and then Quinn Cook turned the ball over.
The Hurricanes would turn the ball right back and after a crazy sequence but they had the ball in the end with a chance to tie the game but couldn’t hit a three despite having three shots at it.
In the end Duke’s win is a big momentum boost after the disappointing loss against Virginia. Miami is still very much in the drivers seat to win the ACC Regular season title but Duke solidified a bye in the first round of the ACC Tournament and still has a shot to be the No. 2 seed.
Certainly the sky seems to be the limit for Duke with Kelly back in the lineup but it shouldn’t be lost that the rest of the team has been struggling with consistency for a while, namely Plumlee and if they can’t get back on track the post season could be short. That said the Blue Devils are certainly a more dangerous team with Kelly back and if he plays even a fraction as well as he did against Miami you can expect Duke to be a tough out.
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