Video Link Duke UCM Mules
Duke UCM 87 - 47 Nov. 8 2014
Senior Rakeem Dickerson scored six early points, but reigning Division II champion Central Missouri couldn’t sustain its early momentum Saturday against the Blue Devils
DURHAM, N.C. – After a rough shooting stretch to start the game, the Duke Blue Devils found their rhythm and cruised to an 87-47 win over Central Missouri. Freshman Justise Winslow led the team in scoring for the second straight game with 17 points to go with six rebounds in the team’s final exhibition game.
“When we’re out there, we just try to stay focused, stay disciplined, and make the simple plays,” said Winslow. “When Jah [Jahlil Okafor] gets the ball, I know he’s going to command a double-team, so I just make the easy play. But it was a lot of fun, that stretch [in the first half], when we got the momentum and got the lead.”
The Blue Devils, ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Preseason Poll, went 2-of-9 from the floor to start the game before settling in on both ends of the floor. Trailing 13-7 at the 13:24 mark, Duke went on a 17-0 run to take control of the game and extended the run to 33-9 to secure a 40-22 lead into the break. Duke went 10-of-20 from the field over the final 13 minutes of the first half, while limiting the Mules to 3-of-14 shooting over the same period of time.
“Our defense was outstanding [during that run],” said head coachMike Krzyzewski. “If we were hitting shots it would have been more. That’s the neat thing about that run. A lot of times when you have a run like that, first of all you don’t have runs like that a lot, but when you do it’s usually because you hit a three, get a turnover, hit another three. That wasn’t this type of run, it was over a long period of time. I like that about our team even though we weren’t knocking them down, it didn’t affect our effort on the defensive end.”
Freshman center Jahlil Okafor was right behind Winslow with 15 points of his own, along with nine rebounds and four blocked shots. The tandem combined for 21 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Duke carried its momentum from its strong finish in the first half over to the second period, using a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 50-22. Freshman Tyus Jones stepped up defensively during that stretch, recording three of his game-high five steals. The play of the game also happened during that stretch. With the score at 46-22 with 15 minutes left to play. Okafor swatted a Central Missouri layup attempt off the backboard and found Tyus Jones on the outlet pass. Jones found Winslow trailing and tossed it up for him to slam home.
Senior Quinn Cook and Grayson Allen also provided a spark on the offensive side for the Blue Devils. Cook knocked down 5-of-10 shots for 12 points, while Allen connected on both of his three-point attempts and finished with 10 points on the day.
Duke played well defensively, holding the Mules to just 21-of-56 (.346) shooting from the field. The Blue Devils defense also recorded 11 steals and forced a total of 23 turnovers, leading to 32 points for the home team.
Sean O’Brien led Central Missouri with 12 points, while Rakeem Dickerson added eight points and three assists. Central Missouri won the Division II national championship a year ago, while posting a 30-5 record.
“This is a good game for us because Central Missouri is so well coached,” said Krzyzewski. “We are bigger than they are and more athletic but not any better coached than they are. They really play off of each other well. They have a system and that’s why we have played the Division II national champions every year because you’re always going to get a team that is well coached, they are winners, they believe they can win. So this was a good game for us. I thought our effort was outstanding.”
Duke had played the reigning Division II national champion for six straight seasons.
Duke UCM 87 - 47 Nov. 8 2014
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| Jahlil Okafor Shoots over UCM Defender |
Senior Rakeem Dickerson scored six early points, but reigning Division II champion Central Missouri couldn’t sustain its early momentum Saturday against the Blue Devils
DURHAM, N.C. – After a rough shooting stretch to start the game, the Duke Blue Devils found their rhythm and cruised to an 87-47 win over Central Missouri. Freshman Justise Winslow led the team in scoring for the second straight game with 17 points to go with six rebounds in the team’s final exhibition game.
“When we’re out there, we just try to stay focused, stay disciplined, and make the simple plays,” said Winslow. “When Jah [Jahlil Okafor] gets the ball, I know he’s going to command a double-team, so I just make the easy play. But it was a lot of fun, that stretch [in the first half], when we got the momentum and got the lead.”
The Blue Devils, ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press Preseason Poll, went 2-of-9 from the floor to start the game before settling in on both ends of the floor. Trailing 13-7 at the 13:24 mark, Duke went on a 17-0 run to take control of the game and extended the run to 33-9 to secure a 40-22 lead into the break. Duke went 10-of-20 from the field over the final 13 minutes of the first half, while limiting the Mules to 3-of-14 shooting over the same period of time.
“Our defense was outstanding [during that run],” said head coachMike Krzyzewski. “If we were hitting shots it would have been more. That’s the neat thing about that run. A lot of times when you have a run like that, first of all you don’t have runs like that a lot, but when you do it’s usually because you hit a three, get a turnover, hit another three. That wasn’t this type of run, it was over a long period of time. I like that about our team even though we weren’t knocking them down, it didn’t affect our effort on the defensive end.”
Freshman center Jahlil Okafor was right behind Winslow with 15 points of his own, along with nine rebounds and four blocked shots. The tandem combined for 21 points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Duke carried its momentum from its strong finish in the first half over to the second period, using a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 50-22. Freshman Tyus Jones stepped up defensively during that stretch, recording three of his game-high five steals. The play of the game also happened during that stretch. With the score at 46-22 with 15 minutes left to play. Okafor swatted a Central Missouri layup attempt off the backboard and found Tyus Jones on the outlet pass. Jones found Winslow trailing and tossed it up for him to slam home.
Senior Quinn Cook and Grayson Allen also provided a spark on the offensive side for the Blue Devils. Cook knocked down 5-of-10 shots for 12 points, while Allen connected on both of his three-point attempts and finished with 10 points on the day.
Duke played well defensively, holding the Mules to just 21-of-56 (.346) shooting from the field. The Blue Devils defense also recorded 11 steals and forced a total of 23 turnovers, leading to 32 points for the home team.
Sean O’Brien led Central Missouri with 12 points, while Rakeem Dickerson added eight points and three assists. Central Missouri won the Division II national championship a year ago, while posting a 30-5 record.
“This is a good game for us because Central Missouri is so well coached,” said Krzyzewski. “We are bigger than they are and more athletic but not any better coached than they are. They really play off of each other well. They have a system and that’s why we have played the Division II national champions every year because you’re always going to get a team that is well coached, they are winners, they believe they can win. So this was a good game for us. I thought our effort was outstanding.”
Duke had played the reigning Division II national champion for six straight seasons.
Duke's Justise Winslow (12) dunks during the game against Central Missouri on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke beat Central Missouri 87-47.The Herald-Sun | Christine T. Nguyen
NATIONAL CHAMPION: DUKE WINS 2015 NCAA BASKETBALL CROWN
Duke Beats Wisconsin for 5th Title
Duke Basketball Welcome Home Celebration
- Live on ESPN3
- Tuesday, April 7th
- Cameron Indoor Stadium
- 5:00 pm with doors opening at 3:30 pm
INDIANAPOLIS (GoDuke.com) – Call them freshmen. Please, do not call them kids.
Led by Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor, Duke's talented group of youngsters played like salty old pros down the stretch, outscoring Wisconsin by 14 points over the final 13 minutes Monday night to grit out a 68-63 victory for the program's fifth national title.
Okafor, the likely first pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave, got outplayed by Badgers center Frank Kaminsky most of the night but came through like a veteran when the pressure was highest.
The 6-foot-11 freshman made two straight buckets over Kaminsky, sandwiched between a pair of 3-pointers from Jones, to help the Blue Devils (35-4) turn a one-time nine-point deficit into an eight-point lead with 1:22 left.
A furious Wisconsin rally ensued, but it came up short. Then, it was Okafor on the bottom of a rowdy, raucous dog pile -- a scene very reminiscent of the last time the Final Four was Indianapolis, back in 2010 when Duke edged out Butler in another scintillating final. The Blue Devils also took one here in 1991 -- the Grant Hill, Christian Laettner squad.
"They showed such grit tonight," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose five titles put him alone in second place on the all-time list behind John Wooden. "Our bench was spectacular, and like we said about two months ago, eight is enough. Eight is enough."
Among the eight players who share all the playing time are Okafor, his buddy, Jones, and another freshman, Justise Winslow. They all might playing at an NBA arena near you next season.
But Grayson Allen? The most unheralded of Krzyzewski's first-year players, who averages four points a game, stepped up with Okafor on the bench for much of the second half in foul trouble. Allen, the slam-dunk champion at the high school McDonald's All-American contest last year, scored 16 points and kept Duke in it when Okafor was on the bench with his third and fourth fouls and Wisconsin (36-4) looked like it was about to pull away.
"It was fun to watch my teammates do what they do," Okafor said. "They have my back the entire season, and it was no different tonight."
This was a savvy, calm, collected comeback against the team that wrote the book on that all season. Wisconsin kept its cool two nights earlier in an upset over undefeated Kentucky and looked like it would close the deal when it turned a 31-all halftime tie into a 48-39 lead after Kaminsky made a layup with 13:23 left.
Then, suddenly, Duke looked like veterans and Wisconsin looked like kids.
Kaminsky had 21 points and 12 rebounds to Okafor's 10 and three, but "Frank the Tank" struggled to get a good look down the stretch. On Okafor's first late bucket, Kaminsky tried to wrap an arm around him, but Okafor just powered his way through it for the bucket and the foul. He missed the free throw, but a different point had been made.
In the seconds leading up to that basket, Winslow appeared to step on the baseline. But the whistle never blew and he delivered it to Okafor for the score.
That, and the foul count, had the Wisconsin Twitterverse fuming about some calls. The Badgers got whistled for only two fouls in the first half, but the count in the second half was Badgers 13, Blue Devils 6. Duke shot 20 free throws to Wisconsin's 10.
"It was a situation where you just have to be able to handle all the hands and the checking," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "There was more body contact in this game than any game we played all year, and I just feel sorry for my guys that all of the sudden a game was like that, and I think they're struggling with that a little bit."
Even though Kaminsky schooled Okafor to draw both his third and fourth fouls early in the second half, Wisconsin couldn't pull away from an aggressive Duke defense that allowed only 55 points a game in the five contests leading to the final.
Wisconsin shot 41 percent -- 7 percentage points under its season average.
"Shots just weren't falling, and they were getting to the line, and when the tide changes like that, it's kind of hard to get back in the flow," said Badgers forward Sam Dekker said. "We tried to play through it but they made more plays than we did."
Nigel Hayes had 13 points and Dekker, the key guy down the stretch against Kentucky, had a very quiet 12 for the Badgers, who were trying to bring their first title back to Madison since 1941. Dekker used his shirt to dab away tears during postgame interviews -- a much different scene than the loose, fun-loving media sessions the Badgers put on all tournament.
For Duke, it was all smiles. The Blue Devils are taking another trophy home to the Cameron Crazies.
"All these guys have become students of the game, and they share knowledge," Krzyzewski said.
This was not a dominant, wire-to-wire effort the likes of which some of the Duke title teams have enjoyed in seasons past.
Kentucky and its quest for perfection stole all the headlines this season. So, playing in relative shadows down on Tobacco Road was this group, which actually might have more one-and-dones than John Calipari says goodbye to in the Bluegrass State this year. Calipari was in the building, by the way -- honored for his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame. He got booed heavily.
In the end, it was all confetti and cheers. And it's not Calipari's team, but Krzyzewski's, that will end up in the history books.
"It was heaven," Krzyzewski said of the stadium where he's now 4-0 in Final Fours. "It was really divine."
Notes: Duke wins the 16th NCAA championship by a current ACC member school … the Blue Devils now own five NCAA titles (all under current head coach Mike Krzyzewski) … Krzyzewski is the winningest all-time coach in the NCAA Tournament with an 88-26 record ... ACC teams are 21-7 in postseason play, including a 17-5 mark in NCAA tournament play.
3 – Each of the three most recent trips to the NCAA Final Four by an ACC team resulted in a national title – North Carolina in 2009, Duke in 2010 and Duke in 2015.
5 - Current or former ACC head coaches comprise the all-time top five list in NCAA Tournament wins – Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (88), North Carolina’s Dean Smith (65), North Carolina’s Roy Williams (65), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (53) and Louisville’s Rick Pitino (53).
13 - Duke has been a No. 1 seed 13 times, second-most in NCAA Tournament history ... the Blue Devils are 51-9 (.845) as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
17 - The ACC’s 17 wins in the 2015 NCAA Tournament are the league’s most ever in a single year.
16 - Current ACC schools have claimed 16 NCAA Championships – Duke (5), North Carolina (5), Louisville (3), NC State (2), Syracuse (1).
Duke Beats Wisconsin for 5th Title
Duke Basketball Welcome Home Celebration
- Live on ESPN3
- Tuesday, April 7th
- Cameron Indoor Stadium
- 5:00 pm with doors opening at 3:30 pm
- Live on ESPN3
- Tuesday, April 7th
- Cameron Indoor Stadium
- 5:00 pm with doors opening at 3:30 pm
INDIANAPOLIS (GoDuke.com) – Call them freshmen. Please, do not call them kids.
Led by Tyus Jones and Jahlil Okafor, Duke's talented group of youngsters played like salty old pros down the stretch, outscoring Wisconsin by 14 points over the final 13 minutes Monday night to grit out a 68-63 victory for the program's fifth national title.
Okafor, the likely first pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave, got outplayed by Badgers center Frank Kaminsky most of the night but came through like a veteran when the pressure was highest.
The 6-foot-11 freshman made two straight buckets over Kaminsky, sandwiched between a pair of 3-pointers from Jones, to help the Blue Devils (35-4) turn a one-time nine-point deficit into an eight-point lead with 1:22 left.
A furious Wisconsin rally ensued, but it came up short. Then, it was Okafor on the bottom of a rowdy, raucous dog pile -- a scene very reminiscent of the last time the Final Four was Indianapolis, back in 2010 when Duke edged out Butler in another scintillating final. The Blue Devils also took one here in 1991 -- the Grant Hill, Christian Laettner squad.
"They showed such grit tonight," said coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose five titles put him alone in second place on the all-time list behind John Wooden. "Our bench was spectacular, and like we said about two months ago, eight is enough. Eight is enough."
Among the eight players who share all the playing time are Okafor, his buddy, Jones, and another freshman, Justise Winslow. They all might playing at an NBA arena near you next season.
But Grayson Allen? The most unheralded of Krzyzewski's first-year players, who averages four points a game, stepped up with Okafor on the bench for much of the second half in foul trouble. Allen, the slam-dunk champion at the high school McDonald's All-American contest last year, scored 16 points and kept Duke in it when Okafor was on the bench with his third and fourth fouls and Wisconsin (36-4) looked like it was about to pull away.
"It was fun to watch my teammates do what they do," Okafor said. "They have my back the entire season, and it was no different tonight."
This was a savvy, calm, collected comeback against the team that wrote the book on that all season. Wisconsin kept its cool two nights earlier in an upset over undefeated Kentucky and looked like it would close the deal when it turned a 31-all halftime tie into a 48-39 lead after Kaminsky made a layup with 13:23 left.
Then, suddenly, Duke looked like veterans and Wisconsin looked like kids.
Kaminsky had 21 points and 12 rebounds to Okafor's 10 and three, but "Frank the Tank" struggled to get a good look down the stretch. On Okafor's first late bucket, Kaminsky tried to wrap an arm around him, but Okafor just powered his way through it for the bucket and the foul. He missed the free throw, but a different point had been made.
In the seconds leading up to that basket, Winslow appeared to step on the baseline. But the whistle never blew and he delivered it to Okafor for the score.
That, and the foul count, had the Wisconsin Twitterverse fuming about some calls. The Badgers got whistled for only two fouls in the first half, but the count in the second half was Badgers 13, Blue Devils 6. Duke shot 20 free throws to Wisconsin's 10.
"It was a situation where you just have to be able to handle all the hands and the checking," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "There was more body contact in this game than any game we played all year, and I just feel sorry for my guys that all of the sudden a game was like that, and I think they're struggling with that a little bit."
Even though Kaminsky schooled Okafor to draw both his third and fourth fouls early in the second half, Wisconsin couldn't pull away from an aggressive Duke defense that allowed only 55 points a game in the five contests leading to the final.
Wisconsin shot 41 percent -- 7 percentage points under its season average.
"Shots just weren't falling, and they were getting to the line, and when the tide changes like that, it's kind of hard to get back in the flow," said Badgers forward Sam Dekker said. "We tried to play through it but they made more plays than we did."
Nigel Hayes had 13 points and Dekker, the key guy down the stretch against Kentucky, had a very quiet 12 for the Badgers, who were trying to bring their first title back to Madison since 1941. Dekker used his shirt to dab away tears during postgame interviews -- a much different scene than the loose, fun-loving media sessions the Badgers put on all tournament.
For Duke, it was all smiles. The Blue Devils are taking another trophy home to the Cameron Crazies.
"All these guys have become students of the game, and they share knowledge," Krzyzewski said.
This was not a dominant, wire-to-wire effort the likes of which some of the Duke title teams have enjoyed in seasons past.
Kentucky and its quest for perfection stole all the headlines this season. So, playing in relative shadows down on Tobacco Road was this group, which actually might have more one-and-dones than John Calipari says goodbye to in the Bluegrass State this year. Calipari was in the building, by the way -- honored for his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame. He got booed heavily.
In the end, it was all confetti and cheers. And it's not Calipari's team, but Krzyzewski's, that will end up in the history books.
"It was heaven," Krzyzewski said of the stadium where he's now 4-0 in Final Fours. "It was really divine."
Notes: Duke wins the 16th NCAA championship by a current ACC member school … the Blue Devils now own five NCAA titles (all under current head coach Mike Krzyzewski) … Krzyzewski is the winningest all-time coach in the NCAA Tournament with an 88-26 record ... ACC teams are 21-7 in postseason play, including a 17-5 mark in NCAA tournament play.
3 – Each of the three most recent trips to the NCAA Final Four by an ACC team resulted in a national title – North Carolina in 2009, Duke in 2010 and Duke in 2015.
5 - Current or former ACC head coaches comprise the all-time top five list in NCAA Tournament wins – Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (88), North Carolina’s Dean Smith (65), North Carolina’s Roy Williams (65), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (53) and Louisville’s Rick Pitino (53).
13 - Duke has been a No. 1 seed 13 times, second-most in NCAA Tournament history ... the Blue Devils are 51-9 (.845) as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
17 - The ACC’s 17 wins in the 2015 NCAA Tournament are the league’s most ever in a single year.
16 - Current ACC schools have claimed 16 NCAA Championships – Duke (5), North Carolina (5), Louisville (3), NC State (2), Syracuse (1).
New-look Duke unselfish bunch of Devils
Nov. 08, 2014 @ 06:43 PM
No. 4 Duke’s jump shots weren’t falling early in Saturday’s exhibition game with Central Missouri.
Jump shots tend to do that sometimes.
“Shooting is the most inconsistent part of the game,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
In two exhibition games this month, including Saturday’s 87-47 romp over Central Missouri, Duke is showing it has enough ball movement and unselfishness on offense to survive even when the jumpers are staying stubbornly out of the net.
The Blue Devils dished out 17 assists on their 29 made field goals against Central Missouri. Coupling that with the 25 assists on 34 field goals Duke had in a 115-58 win over Division II Livingstone four nights earlier, the Blue Devils have assisted on 67 percent of their field goals while averaging 101 points per game.
“We are doing a great job of making the extra pass,” Duke junior forward Amile Jefferson said. “We also have guards that can really get into the paint. They’re not just looking for their shot. They’re looking for bigs. They’re looking for wings. They are drawing defenders and kicking.”
The simple comparison, even with this early, small sample size, is a look at last season. Duke averaged a healthy 78.4 points per game, but did so while logging assists on just 54 percent of its field goals.
The improvement from last year drew Krzyzewski’s praise.
“At the highest level, they are very unselfish,” Krzyzewski said.
That style of play was on display in the first half against Central Missouri Saturday when Duke, after a slow start, forged ahead of last season’s Division II national champions for good with a 17-0 run.
Duke made just one of its first eight shots from the field, even though Krzyzewski liked the shots the Blue Devils were taking. The misses allowed Central Missouri to grab a 13-7 lead.
But when the clock ticked below the 13-minute mark of the first half, the Blue Devils embarked onithat 17-0 run.
During that stretch, when Duke was the only team that scored for eight minutes, the Blue Devils scored five field goals. Assists were granted on four of them, indicating how well Duke passed the ball to get easy baskets on dunks and layups.
“On offense we know we can do whatever we wanted,” Duke freshman center Jahlil Okafor said. “One of our focuses this year was sharing the ball, making that extra pass, finding your teammate. That’s what we’ve been doing.”
Okafor was the recipient on one of those plays when freshman point guard Tyus Jones found him in transition for a one-handed slam dunk.
Okafor even had an assist himself, zipping a pass to Justise Winslow on a post-to-post play that lead to an easy basket.
Tyus Jones led Duke with six assists with Rasheed Sulaimon contributing four in a reserve role.
“We did a good job of it our first game and I think we did a good job of it today at times,” Tyus Jones said of the ball movement. “You are just trying to set your teammates up. Just playing team ball.”
Winslow scored 17 points, leading Duke in scoring for the second time in as many exhibitions. He scored 19 against Livingstone.
The 17-0 run against Central Missouri, when he had five of the points, was an example of the style of play the Blue Devils strive to display, Winslow said.
“It was a lot of fun during that stretch when we made the plays and got the lead,” Winslow said.
Saturday’s game was the final exhibition for Duke, which opens the regular season Friday at home against Presbyterian at 6 p.m.
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