Somewhere Tuesday night, Rick Barnes was smiling as Duke beat George Mason 68-47.
The Tennessee coach was at GMU at the dawn of his career, in the 1987-88 season, and this Mason team played very much like a Rick Barnes team.
We knew they were physical but their size didn’t fully register until Jared Billups checked and we thought, he’s sure not built like Uncle Chauncey. And then you started to fully realize what a tough, physical team Tony Skinn has – and how dangerous they are.
And we’re not suggesting they’re dirty – they’re not. They’re just big, strong and hard-nosed, and for 20 minutes, that team gave Duke fits.
This team is going to surprise some A-10 teams for sure.
And they surprised Duke for about 20 minutes as well.
For long stretches in the first half, Duke just couldn’t buy a basket. Sure, the game started with a pair of threes and another jumper, but after that, the Patriots defended nearly as well as Duke did. The Blue Devils had 11 offensive rebounds in the first half, we think, but that was because the defense forced so many misses.
After that first nine points, which took nearly six minutes to achieve, Duke didn’t score again until Sion James hit a three at the 11:57 mark.
And the fact was, the home team couldn’t shake the visitors. Duke was playing very, very good defense – but so was Mason.
The Devils built a nine point lead with 7:40 to play in the first but GMU came right back and cut it to 20-16 with 4:37 to play.
The halftime score was 25-16. If the plan was to rough up Duke’s pretty boys, it worked pretty well – for about 20 minutes.
The second half was a different story.
Kon Knueppel hit a slippery layup to start the scoring and then Cooper Flagg ripped off seven straight points to put the Blue Devils up 33-18. And, effectively, though Mason certainly never conceded, the game was over.
Duke built an 18 point lead but the Patriots fought back and cut the lead back to 14 – and regained some momentum as well before Jon Scheyer called timeout.
Mason cut the lead to 40-28 before the Devils got some more separation. shooting ahead 50-32 with 6:15 left as the Flame Thrower, aka Isaiah Evans, hit back-to-back threes.
Those were backbreakers.
He would hit a third with 3:03 left to put the home team up 61-39, but Duke had long since made its point: it wasn’t backing down or rolling over, no matter how hard GMU played.
And make no mistake, they did play hard. There are going to be some bruises in the morning. You shouldn’t compare this to a prize fight except in this sentence: a lot of guys hit the floor, hard. And it wasn’t dirty. It was just very physical defense.
So while Duke didn’t shoot well at all in the first half with just 27.3 percent overall and just 26.7 percent from behind the line, Mason was worse with 21.4 percent overall and 11.1 percent on their threes.
Whatever happened in the locker room at the half, the Blue Devils were vastly different in the second and were much more aggressive. Cooper Flagg will get the most attention for his 24 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block, but Khaman Maluach should get some props too.
The big guy got pushed around a bit early, but in the second half, he clamped down on the lane and you had to work hard to get around him. He ws credited with two blocks, but he altered a ton of shots. He finished with six points and eight rebounds and a lot of intimidation.
Maliq Brown was back from his toe injury and he, too, played well, doing his usual tricks – getting in the passing lanes and knocking the ball loose when the defender got too casual.
You can’t really point to anyone and say they played poorly without considering Mason’s defense because they made everyone but Flagg look bad at times. And even he had a couple of Kentucky-like moments when he dribbled into trouble.
In the end though, Duke’s defense was better and the Blue Devils prevailed. The basic starting five seems to have solidified. The backcourt rotation between Tyrese Proctor, James and Caleb Foster, is pretty efficient. Duke brings Maliq Brown in for Maluach and while he can’t match Maluach’s length, he’s a brilliant and in some ways superior defender. Mason Gillis can come in to spell either Flagg or Kon Knueppel and that works pretty well too.
The wild card?
Evans.
He has a beautiful, instinctive shot and he’s increasingly confident. And with Duke having had some real dry stretches, his offensive aggressiveness guarantees him minutes.
Next up is a trip to Georgia Tech, where the Yellow Jackets pulled off a considerable upset last season, which will be remembered.
Notes – the next step for Duke is an improved offensive game from Maluach…he’s imposing on defense, but on offense he gives up position and doesn’t go straight up with the ball…he’s still quite young though so that will come in time…Flagg was offensively aggressive which was also an improvement….coming off the bench seems to have helped Foster be more aggressive…he’s not holding back as he seemed to do earlier in the season…didn’t score tonight but he’s playing harder…not kidding about Mason in the A-10…they could win that league and go into March as a very dangerous opening game…
