WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

McClure quietly contributing to Devils' cause

By Jake Lloyd

Nov 14, 2008

Durham, N.C. — David McClure often goes unnoticed when he's on the floor for the Blue Devils. He's not the kind of player who stands out.

And that's never been a bad thing for the Devils.

But on Tuesday night, the senior forward had a couple moments in the spotlight. His powerful putback dunk in the first half extended Duke's lead to 16-4. Then he closed out the half in similar fashion, taking a pass from Jon Scheyer and throwing the ball through the rim again.

Duke led by 27 at the break en route to an easy 97-54 win over Georgia Southern in the quarterfinals of the 2K Sports Classic at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

After a home game Sunday against Rhode Island, the Devils will head to New York to play either Southern Illinois or Massachusetts in the semifinals Nov. 20.

And McClure will likely go back to his very familiar role of playing strong defense, getting his hands on loose balls and being a strong thinker on the court. Which is not to say that he didn't do any of those things Tuesday. But when he was pulled from the locker room for the postgame radio interview, it clearly wasn't just another night at the gym.

McClure epitomized what the Devils did well against the Eagles. In 11 minutes, he scored four points, grabbed five rebounds, including three offensive, dished out three assists and blocked a shot.

But the statistics don't do McClure's performance justice. Rather, let Scheyer explain what he did.

"When we had that big run (15-0 in the first half), he was in there, and he just makes so many little plays that go unnoticed," Scheyer said. "He had a path down the middle, and sometimes you can just look to score, but he hit me — I was wide-open in the corner — and I hit a shot.

"And then he got a steal and then (on a missed) free throw, he had a huge tip-out to Nolan (Smith) for a three. Just little plays like that. He doesn't get a stat for that play, but it's such a big play and (it gave us) momentum to blow it open (at the) end of the first half."

As Scheyer detailed, McClure was on the floor during Duke's quick spurt to close out the first 20 minutes that turned a 35-22 game with 2 minutes, 43 seconds to play into a 52-25 halftime advantage.

From there, the outcome was never in doubt. Kyle Singler led the Devils with 19 points and Smith added 13. Gerald Henderson and Greg Paulus chipped in 11 apiece.

"Lance (Thomas) and Dave defensively were terrific," Mike Krzyzewski said of his backup forwards. "They created so many points. Dave got us about nine points in a minute through his play."

Krzyzewski isn't kidding. Despite just having the two dunks, McClure was all over the court, reacting appropriately whether Duke was pressing the Eagles in the backcourt or settling back into a halfcourt defense.

Offensively, McClure hustled from the corner in front of press row to grab a rebound right by the basket in the second half. Later in the possession, Paulus knocked down a 3-pointer. It was typical McClure, making the setup play so a teammate could hit the crowd-thrilling shot.

"I'm the oldest guy. I feel like I have a pretty solid idea of what's going to happen every game, you know, what to expect, just to be a rock basically for the guys," McClure said of the role he tries to fill.

"Nothing too special, but go out there and just do what they need me to do every game. Play defense, rebound, take the opportunities when they come to me on the offensive end."

Toward the end of last season, in an ACC Tournament loss to Clemson, Krzyzewski praised McClure for playing a very similar game to the one he put together Tuesday. It was the best game McClure played all season as he continued to recover from right knee surgery.

Now that McClure is healthy, Krzyzewski said his 6-foot-6 forward does everything that's expected of him. He'll never be a star on this team, and he rarely stands out, but his coach certainly doesn't overlook his impact.

"He is perfect for his role because he can defend bigs and the perimeter," Krzyzewski said. "He's good about it, you know what I mean — he likes it. He knows he has worth even if he doesn't score.

"I told him before we started playing to look at himself like it's a pro team and I already know what you can do."

On Tuesday, McClure's teammates followed his example, hustling to outrebound Georgia Southern 58-36 and score 33 second-chance points. Balls were tipped to teammates. Extra passes were made. Krzyzewski was clearly more pleased with his team's overall performance than after Duke's opening-round win over Presbyterian.

But the highlight-reel dunks were the exception. McClure's not an emotional player, usually leaving such exhibits of gusto for Thomas or Henderson. Scheyer noticed the different aspect of McClure's performance.

"He's kind of deceivingly athletic, and those two dunks — obviously he had a lot of emotion with those," Scheyer said. "He just gives us a different dimension to our team."