Duke's backcourt shows where the game is won

By Tim Hall
Feb 9, 2010

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I don't know what's making this season sweeter for Duke. The fact that it's 18-4 (7-2 in ACC) and has a pretty good team atop the ACC standings. Or the fact that North Carolina doesn't know which way is up.

Either way it could get a lot sweeter if the Blue Devils waltz into Chapel Hill on Wednesday night and do to North Carolina what everyone else is lately - crush them.

There's no question the Tar Heels are in a free fall having lost six of their last seven. They might not even make the NIT with the way things are going. The NCAA Tournament definitely looks out of the picture. It isn't their year, and I'm okay with it. It's hard to win every year. But Tar Heel fans still have to have some type of venom to spit in Duke's direction. Even though Duke is a much better team this year, there has to be some aspect of the Blue Devils team that can be picked on.

Just like we do for every Duke team in recent memory, we can make fun of the frontcourt. We can bring up Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas and Miles Plumlee and talk about how the lack of post play will kill this team early in March. We could bring all that up, but we'd all be wrong. And in light of this week's game, a small look at Duke and UNC reminds us that guards still rule college basketball. One team has 'em, one doesn't.

I'll be the first one to tell you how cheated I feel by the Plumlee brothers and their lack of offensive growth. I wrote a column endorsing Mason and Miles after they both had huge games against Wake Forest. Since then neither has done anything in the offensive category. My mind was clouded by the stats. It happens sometimes. Miles scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds but it was a style of game that allowed him to have big numbers. It was an up and down, fast-paced high scoring game. Most of his points came off alley-oops and offensive rebounds. He still had a great game. But still, when was the last time he scored on a low post move?

Since that game Miles has been shut out of the scoring column twice, and in three games he scored just 2 points. How can a team win 18 games and be leading the ACC with that kind of play out of its "best" low post player? Because Duke has the guards.

"When you start to pick teams again for March or April you go to veteran backcourts, and Duke's defense has been so good often this year that they go with one three pointer in a whole game and still win," former Duke coach Bucky Waters told me last week on 99.9 The Fan.

If you combined Duke and Carolina's rosters this year, you could either come up with a really incredible team, or a really disgusting team.

Ed Davis, Deon Thompson and Tyler Zeller would be better options than ANY of the Duke big men. I'd take any of those three over Brian Zoubek, Lance Thomas, Miles or Mason Plumlee. But at the same time Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler are better than EVERY Carolina guard. Larry Drew II, Marcus Ginyard, Dexter Strickland and Will Graves don't come close.

I read so many preseason college hoops magazines that rated the Tar Heels front court as a Top 5 national unit. And everyone around here was saying the same thing. We kept hearing about the big guys and how far this team would go with its low post presence. Look at us now. North Carolina can't win a game because its guards are an absolute wreck. Duke's big guys can't score at all, but the team is pretty good. It's so simple - talented guards outweigh talented big men.

The Blue Devils are lucky enough to have three perimeter players that might be the best in the nation at their positions (Yes, Singler counts). Would it be great to have a low post scoring threat? Obviously. Duke might not be able to win the national championship without it. But we've seen guard oriented teams have huge success in the tournament without it.

Villanova (the team that beat Duke last year) beat Pitt in the tournament on the way to the Final Four. DeJaun Blair and Sam Young made up one of the best low post teams in the country, but Villanova's guards were better.

Last year's Tar Heels had amazing guards and they steamrolled everyone in front of them. But watching Tyler Hansbrough for four years can make you forget where college basketball is won. Duke will remind us again on Wednesday night.

Most Recent Comments

RE: Duke's backcourt shows where the game is won

Ole Hookie is something else chaseme, he loves UNC and VT.....i think him and Coach Roid are brothers or something.

RE: Duke's backcourt shows where the game is won

You have to be a Carolina grad, right?

RE: Duke's backcourt shows where the game is won

Duke does rely on the 3 ball not only for scoring but to open driving lanes.
When Duke hits 3's early the defense must come out and guard, which opens driving lanes. Singler is a match-up nightmare, at 6-8 he shoots over guards, if a big comes out to guard him he drives around them. The Plumlee's are young, I believe in time they will be great post players for Duke for years to come.

GO DEVILS!

RE: Duke's backcourt shows where the game is won

Coach K stated at pre-season that his 3 guards would have to carry the load. They have. But, when they aren't hitting the 3 ball, they can be beaten by decent teams.

WRAL Sports Fan

Tim Hall