DURHAM, N.C. — It was five minutes. Not even. A whopping four minutes and 34 seconds, fleeting as that is, especially in the course of a 40-minute contest.
But you know what else it was?
Gorgeous. Decisive. And, quite possibly, predictive.
Blink. It’s a back-and-forth game against Syracuse, with Duke trading baskets (and bad misses) with the Orange, narrowly clinging to a one-point second-half lead.
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Blink again. Duke’s up 13, completely in control, and Syracuse’s spirit is all but shot. Adrian Autry’s summary timeout call, on the heels of a Blue Devils 16-4 run, may as well have come with a white flag.
Because in Duke’s eventual 86-66 win over the Orange on Tuesday — yes, it really got out of hand thereafter — that four-minute spurt was the singular difference. “Those are the exact runs we want to go on,” said freshman guard Jared McCain. (A fitting spokesman, since his two transition 3s in barely a minute were what forced Autry to stop play.) “That’s Duke basketball.”
Or at least, it is at its best. Simply, what Duke did on that run — four different players scoring, three assists on five baskets, plus two forced turnovers and another block defensively — is exactly what Jon Scheyer envisioned from his second squad back in the preseason. More shooting. More pace. Multiple ballhandlers, all former five-stars, all whizzing around the court in a furor no opponent can match.
And in that one 4:34-long stretch? Duke checked all those boxes: A Jeremy Roach 3 — he’s now hitting 48.8 percent from deep this season, the ninth-best mark of all high-major players — led to another by Tyrese Proctor, then two Proctor free throws, followed by one of McCain’s game-best four triples, a Kyle Filipowski jumper — he somehow finished with 12 points and a team-best seven rebounds, despite not scoring and only playing seven minutes in the first half — and soon after, the McCain 3 that put a bow on it all.
“For anyone who hasn’t done that,” McCain said of his dagger-like transition triple, “it’s probably the best feeling in the world. Being able to hit that 3, then they call timeout, then hype up the crowd? I don’t think there’s a better feeling.”
He means it individually, but the collective impact was just as intense. The game, effectively, ended then. That the final margin grew to 20 was only further proof of how completely demoralizing a fully actualized Duke team — even just five minutes of it — can really be.
That’s the thing.
Five minutes was enough Tuesday, against a good-not-great Syracuse side.
But five minutes will not be enough to beat the ACC’s better outfits — the North Carolinas and Clemsons of the world, or any reasonable NCAA Tournament team.
That will require doing something that Duke, like many young teams, is still in the process of — establishing consistency.
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“It’s got to be who we are,” Scheyer said Tuesday, although the sentiment applies more broadly.
So far this season, or at least up until the line of demarcation — crushing consecutive road losses to Arkansas and Georgia Tech — that had not been who Duke was. Not even five minutes, sometimes. Since then? Better. Much, if you consider Proctor missing four games with a sprained ankle.
Still: This team, all things taken together, has been more parts than sum. (That’s not a knock, when your parts include multiple projected first-round picks and several other seasoned college hoops veterans.) But flashes like Tuesday are evidence that can change, even if it hasn’t fully yet. “We finally started playing together,” Filipowski said. You can’t quantify that human component, but the equally unscientific eye test corroborates what he’s saying. Outlet, go-ahead passes. No-looks. Every player on Duke’s roster is talented enough to win an iso situation, but every player on Duke’s roster has to be smart enough to realize there’s also an easier way.
And if you do want to quantify that? The assist rate is simple, but for this team, telling. During Duke’s current five-game winning streak, the Blue Devils are assisting on 61.5 percent of their made shots — a rate which, extrapolated out over the entire season, would be top-25 nationally, per KenPom. (In the team’s three losses? Under a 50 percent assist rate. Well, well, well.)
“It’s contagious when you do that,” said Scheyer, who posted the best assist rate on Duke’s 2010 title team, per KenPom, and knows a thing or two about moving the rock.
Now it has to become contagious from minute to minute, half to half, rather than player to player. And with Duke’s looming schedule — it has at least an 84 percent win probability in four of its next five games, per KenPom — that’s not an unattainable goal.
Tuesday was a flash. Five minutes, come and gone. Possibly a sign of more. Possibly just a one-off of parts coming together. But at the very least?
It’s a target.
“Those,” McCain said, “are the exact moments.”
(Top photo of Jeremy Roach: Lance King / Getty Images)
