How the ‘Ship Was Won: The Keys to Duke’s National Title Run

Posted on by uncleronaldo

By Shea Raftus

Twitter: @RealSheaTheone

A little over a year ago, I was visiting my friend Les in Dallas for spring break. We were watching Duke and North Carolina battle it out in Durham at the end of the 2014 regular season. Les always liked Duke, but he was rooting for them even more this year because of fellow Tongan Jabari Parker. I told him that as great as Parker was, this Duke team was fraudulent and would get knocked out of the tournament early because they were terrible defensively and lived and died by the three too much on the offensive end. I also told him that next year’s team would be better due to three talented freshmen coming in. To his chagrin and my joy (not because I like/dislike Duke but more because I like being right), Duke was eliminated in the first round by 14th seeded Mercer.

Flash forward to earlier this year. I was in Dallas to witness by Ohio State Buckeyes win the national championship and the day after Les and I were once again watching Duke battle it out at his apartment. This time, Duke was getting worked at home by a Miami team that didn’t even make the tournament. I told Les not to worry because come March this Duke team would be ready to ball. And I was right. Some of those reasons I foresaw and some I didn’t. We’ll start with the one I didn’t see but ended up being the biggest.

  1. Duke’s Historically Great Tournament Defense

All the talk going into the tournament was about Kentucky’s historically great defense and where it would rank among the all-time greats. Duke, the heavy favorite on the opposite side of the bracket to play the Wildcats in the final, had an average defense (55th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency) but a great offense (2nd) going into the tournament. That all changed come tourney time. Duke absolutely put the clamps down defensively, particular on the perimeter, and it showed as they jumped from 55th to 12th in six games. I haven’t seen a jump like that defensively over a six-game stretch in quite some time. Freshman forward Justise Winslow was obviously the catalyst in Duke’s defensive rise, but let’s not forget about the nat-like aggressiveness that fellow freshman Tyus Jones brought as well as the job Matt Jones did beside him. The second Jones was a big reason why Badger forward Sam Dekker never got going in the title game. It was a collective effort, but Duke’s meteoric rise in defense in March was huge factor in their title run. For all the hype Kentucky got as a great defensive team, Duke was the best defensive team in the tournament and it really wasn’t close.

  1. Tyus “Stones” Jones Tough Shot-Making Ability

Credit to CBS’s Seth Davis for the clever nickname. And it rings true to a tee. This is not to say Duke’s other guards didn’t knock down huge shots, which they did (Matt Jones against Gonzaga, Winslow against Utah, Grayson Allen in the title game, etc.). But Tyus was the one consistent guy in each game that made tough shot after tough shot. Jones didn’t just start in March though. He hit huge late-game shots in the first win against Wisconsin at the Kohl Center, at Virginia, and at home against North Carolina in the regular season. But he might have saved his best for last in the title game. He made Wisconsin pay for going under ball screens by hitting big shot after big shot and pulling up off the dribble time and time again. Like his fellow undersized point guard Shabazz Napier of UConn did the year before, Jones’s pull up game particularly late was killer. Combine that with his long down defense, and it’s no wonder Jones got MOP of the Final Four.

  1. Coach K’s Ability to Adapt

Five national titles. Twelve final fours. There’s a reason why Coach K is the greatest college basketball coach of all time (sorry John Wooden). His ability to adapt and with multiple styles of players and strategies is phenomenal. He’s now done it with one-and-dones, 3 and 4-year players, defensive-minded teams, and offensive-minded teams. The way Coach K was able to get his guys to flip the switch defensively in March was phenomenal. The best coaches adapt and can win multiple ways depending on their personnel and who’s lining up against them. Just look at who’s won the championship this year in professional and major college football and basketball: Urban Meyer, Gregg Poppovich, Bill Belichick, and Coach K. All arguably the best coach in their respective sport. All masters at adapting to their personnel and winning with multiple styles at the highest level; almost chameleon-like. It’s not a coincidence. Coaching matters; and whoever doesn’t think it does, just look who held up the hardware in 2014-15 when the confetti was falling.

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