Duke's Early Exit Leaves Questions - SCACCHoops.com

Duke's Early Exit Leaves Questions

by Duke Sports Blog

Posted: 3/17/2013 12:37:26 PM


Another opening game loss in a late season tournament has sent a wave of mixed emotions over Duke fans.

Duke has some serious questions going into the NCAA Tournament.

Duke has some serious questions going into the NCAA Tournament.

There are those, the eternal optimists that believe in their heart of hearts that no matter what, the Blue Devils will prevail and always be in the mix to win a national championship. There are those pessimists out there who feel like Duke will never be able to live up to the hype or expectations and constantly worry about an early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

I find myself firmly straddling the fence this season. Now if you ask the 13 or so odd people who stopped following me on Twitter either during or after Duke’s embarrassing performance in their opening round loss to Maryland in the ACC Tournament they’d surely testify to my constant negativity.

I’ll rightly admit when Duke loses I tend to send out way more negative vibes than warm fuzzies but even more than a day after Duke’s loses I still have my concerns, but I still have my hopes too.

Many are curious as to what the Blue Devils’ seed will be. More than likely it will be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Many are writing off their performance against Maryland as an anomaly, but after last season, I’m personally a little more gun shy about not doing well in the ACC Tournament and how that translates to the NCAAs.

I can’t remember a time when Duke lost in their first game in the ACC Tournament and then made a very deep run in the NCAAs. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen but my bet it is rare.

The most frustrating part about this Duke team is that everyone knows and has seen how good this team can be. The loss against Maryland, the second such loss in a month, wasn’t just the culmination of some of the Blue Devils other precipitous declines during the course of the season.

To the contrary, following the North Carolina game last weekend, many, myself included, felt Duke was looking more comfortable with Ryan Kelly back in the lineup and consequently looking more like the team that was clearly the No. 1 team in the country back in December.

But, the inconsistency that has plagued Duke this season when Kelly was out, reared its ugly head against against the Terrapins. The Blue Devils looked passive on defense, couldn’t bye a shot and was not particularly strong on the offensive glass. Granted everything that Maryland threw up went in the basket and that isn’t typical for them, but still Duke’s defense allowed the Terrapins countless wide open looks.

Seth Curry said after the game that Maryland played with  sense of urgency and that Duke did not, presumably knowing they would have another game to play.

My problem with that is that Duke would have that attitude. Most of the team was part of the loss last year in their first game of the NCAA Tournament and you’d figure that they’d know better than to come out with that attitude against a hungry team, especially one that hates the Blue Devils as much as Maryland.

That leaves me with serious concerns about the leadership of this team. All of Duke’s great teams had great leaders who possessed a refuse to lose mentality. This version may not have that and that is a reason for concern.

Duke is talented enough to cut down the nets in April. We’ve seen they can play and beat the best teams in the country, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will.

The questions from Duke’s loss are many. Do they have the mental makeup to make a run? Can they play the kind of defense that it is going to take to make a run? Can Mason Plumlee play to the level he showed against North Carolina and earlier in the season going forward? Can they play with the level of intensity that they clearly lacked in the loss to Maryland?

If the answer to those questions is yes, then the question about which seed they end up with is mute, however, if they cannot then it could be another early exit for Duke and a long off season where Blue Devil fans ponder the question, what if?

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