Triangle Offense

CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM/ DURHAM—The first time these two teams played, N.C. State (16-8, 5-6) had gone nine consecutive games without a loss. Coming into tonight’s game against No. 4 Duke (21-2,8-2), the Wolfpack had lost four of its last six games. They walked in Cameron Indoor Stadium with considerably less mojo than they had at home and without their crafty-passing point guard, Lorenzo Brown.

The Blue Devils, on the other hand, were still missing one of their senior captains, Ryan Kelly; and had to go without the reserve power of Josh Hairston, due to an infected cut in his arm from Duke’s previous win at Florida State. But, by now, the Blue Devils have mastered the art of playing with a few handicaps; and who can forget that day, last month in Raleigh when N.C. State knocked them out of their No. 1 spot. But still, this game wasn’t about revenge. It was about not repeating a loss.

In the games since then, Coach K has had enough time to play around with the lineup—letting Amile Jefferson fight his way through a bunch of mismatches, and encouraging Mason Plumlee to force his way to the bucket, no matter who or how many people were guarding him. All of that worked tonight, including some quality minutes from Alex Murphy, who tore his way through the lane and through N.C. State’s defense for a nasty dunk in the first half.

For the second straight game, Quinn Cook sank four three-pointers, matching his career high. Tonight, all of those came in the first half, along with four more from Seth Curry. N.C. State’s Tyler Lewis put up a tough fight against a killer backcourt, but wasn’t quick or sneaky enough to alter any of Duke’s perimeter play.

The C.J. Leslie/ Richard Howell combination failed against a confident and near-perfect (9-for-11 shooting) Mason Plumlee, who put up 30 points for the second time in Duke’s last three games. Howell, however, did manage to muscle his way into scoring 23 points—mostly against Plumlee.

But with 3:41 left in the game, Richard Howell fouled out of the game, leaving not much recourse for the Wolfpack. A couple of minutes later, after Mason Plumlee firmly rejected a Leslie layup in front of the rim, Leslie would also foul out and N.C. State would lose their third consecutive game. Let’s hope for a tie-breaker during this year’s ACC Tournament, when, hopefully, these two teams can meet in the championship game with a full roster. That is, if ACC powerhouse, Miami, doesn't ruin everyone's plans Click here for the full Duke/ N.C. State box score.

• hikingviking/ Creative Commons

Next, the Blue Devils head to Tallahassee for their first and only regular-season, ACC match against Florida State. Before they get there, here are some ideas for postcards we might expect from Duke’s visit to the Sunshine State. Alex Murphy looks like he may have the best handwriting, so just imagine these cards written in his most impeccable cursive.

The “Wish you were here” postcard—This postcard is addressed to Ryan Kelly, the Cameron Crazies, and Rodney Hood. Even though he’s sitting several seats down on Duke’s bench; and this is more like a “wish you were in the game” note to Kelly. Ever since he injured his foot against Clemson Coach K still hasn’t found a sufficient replacement(s) and because of it, the Blue Devils lost at N.C. State, and lost by a lot at Miami (not even Kelly could have changed the outcome of that game).

Mississippi State transfer Rodney Hood would have been Duke’s perfect fill-in for Kelly on the road; it’s a good thing that Hood—who’s redshirting—isn’t allowed to travel with the team, because it’s so much more painful to see him sitting on that bench, just as helpless as Kelly.

It’s painful to watch Josh Hairston out there, juggling every pass Quinn Cook hands him and occupying dead space just the sake of taking a charge. Marshall Plumlee’s performance has been equally torturous. Most of his touches are graceless and rushed. With older brother Mason, averaging almost 35 minutes per game and staying in foul trouble, and Kelly out, Marshall needs to be more of a defensive pillar. Go in there, hack a few guys, then, have a seat, little bro.

The “sense of humor” e-postcard—These are those annoying Pinterest postcards, and I don’t doubt that folks have been printing them off and sending them as snail-mail postcards. There are a couple of Duke-related ones, but none as good as this year’s real sound-bytes. It’s almost impossible for Coach K to get through one of Duke’s post-game press conferences without a smart-aleck response to a reporter’s question or a funny anecdote about the game—he told one reporter that he would need a 5-foot-tall basket to try Mason Plumlee’s spectacular reverse follow-up dunk against Maryland. He asked one young reporter, “What would you like?” following a question about the coach’s starting lineup for the next game, then he told him to post his ideas on Twitter.

Then there was the time he responded to a reporter asking him how he dealt with helping players make the transition from high school superstars to college-level role players. He jokingly said, “I go and I say ‘Do you realize that you’re playing for a legendary coach?'"

• Photo by D.L. Anderson
• C.J. Leslie, giving his best effort and respect to Duke and Mason Plumlee

Then, there’s still reason to wonder how much Duke expects Mason Plumlee to grimace and grapple near the basket, on both the offensive and defensive ends, without proper relief from younger brother, Marshall Plumlee.

Still, the Blue Devils will manage.

The kids are all right.

For N.C. State fans, last Saturday’s 84-76 win over No.1 ranked Duke was, indeed, a cause for court-storming, but it wasn’t the greatest achievement ever documented in mankind. According to the statistical gurus at The Wall Street Journal, “In the past 10 seasons, Duke has lost 31 true road games. Fans rushed the court after 25 of them (80.6 percent).”

Coach K called the Saturday’s celebration in PNC Arena “a sign of respect.” In this case, some of the greatest respect may have come from N.C. State star player and droop troop mascot C.J. Leslie, who rarely seems to give his team maximum leadership but somehow played against Duke as if it was the ACC Championship game.

The Wolfpack didn’t beat any real odds beyond nervousness and memories of their failure a year ago. Credit them for winning this first matchup and living up to the expectations most intelligent college basketball consumers had of them. In the end, the Blue Devils walked into the Wolftrap with multiple handicaps, lost a tough game to the rough-and-tough inside play of Richard Howell and Leslie’s game-high 25 points, and only dropped two spots to No. 3 in the nation.

The kids are all right.

At the center of all of the discussion about whether or not the Duke/ N.C. State rivalry was a real, breathing thing was the Rasheed Sulaimon vs. Rodney Purvis freshman matchup—an antagonism which started during the recruiting season when Duke signed Sulaimon instead of waiting on Purvis' questionable eligibility.

• File photo by Al Drago
• Seth Curry during the 2012 ACC Tournament

Like Coach Krzyzewski always mentions, Duke is a beatable team and we might see one of these losses occur over the next couple of weeks. More than likely, it will be Mason Plumlee's fault. He can't save Duke.

I can’t be too hard on No. 1 Duke either, because—whether or not I’m painfully undecided on whether this team is outplaying 11-1 Kansas—the Blue Devils’ starting five is still playing like a well-choreographed, pitch-perfect quintet. However, “The Temptations” would be an apt title for the Duke bunch, since the Blue Devils have appeared enormously tempted to force its offense to depend solely on Mason Plumlee’s efficiency in both scoring, and especially offensive rebounding—the inefficiency of which led to Davidson scoring 14 second-chance points in the first half of Wednesday night’s game.

Even Plumlee admitted that he had a bad game. If Duke would have suffered a loss to Davidson, all of the blame would have rested on Plumlee’s performance, even though that night should have belonged to Seth Curry—who after putting up a Duke career-high 31 points against Santa Clara returned to his hometown of Charlotte to put up a repeat performance against Davidson. It didn’t quite work out that way and Plumlee’s 10 points didn’t make the win look any prettier—you could see the rare ugliness on Quinn Cook’s face.

But how hard must it be for Mason Plumlee’s younger brother Marshall to sit on the bench game after game knowing that if he were able to offer his brother just a few more minutes of sibling relief, it could boost Mason’s game energy just enough to grab a few more offensive rebounds and maybe not turn the ball over as much. Mason never looks fatigued, but he often looks overused; and luckily, Ryan Kelly saves his ass. The Plumlee brothers’ tandem doesn’t seem to be something that Coack K is interested in exploring this year and if Marshall’s recovery from his injuries persist, he may not have a choice—unless Mason finds himself injured from constant wear and tear.