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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.

Adapt or Go Home: The Key to Separating the Contenders and Pretenders Come March

Posted on by uncleronaldo

By Shea Raftus

Twitter: @RealSheaTheone

The sound of crumpled up paper: It’s a prevalent sound come March. That paper being crumpled up is millions of Americans crumbling and tearing their NCAA tournament brackets apart. As they tear apart their brackets, these poor Americans wonder where they went wrong when filling out their brackets in hopes to avoid the same mistake in the future.

I can’t guarantee what I’m about to tell you will help you win your pool. However, what I am about to tell you will only help you every year when filling out your bracket come March because it’s the one clear trend that plays out every year.

To make any type of run in the tournament, you HAVE to be able to play multiple styles and paces.

Certain patterns and trends ring true through the tournament, but there always seems to be exceptions to those rules that will end up foiling your bracket. Not this one. You HAVE to be able to adapt to different game plans/flows of the game or you will go home early.

The biggest example of this was shown in the Michigan State-Virginia second round-showdown. The team that eliminated them, eventual east region representative Michigan State, forced the Cavaliers to play up tempo to eliminate the UVA’s pack-line defense and grind-it-out half-court offense. Not only did this work, but Sparty was perfectly comfortable playing at the slow pace whenever Virginia tried their hardest to slow the game down. The result: The Spartans were able to negate Virginia’s pack-line defense by getting transition-three after transition-three (a Tom Izzo specialty) along with picking their spots in the half-court.

Conversely, Virginia was never able to get into a groove offensively which led to horrific shooting night. This also allowed Michigan State to dominate the glass on both sides of the court.  To state it as simple as possible: Michigan State was comfortable the whole game while Virginia was uncomfortable. Don’t believe me? Go re-watch the game. You’ll see it. Body language never lies, particularly in sports.

There are plenty of other example of this that played out through the tournament (Villanova living and eventually dying by the 3, Iowa State not being able to play a half-court/slow-it-down game vs UAB, etc.)  but the second round tilt between the Spartans and Cavaliers proved to be the most glaring example to me.

The tournament can be unpredictable. But next year when your filling out your bracket, make sure the teams you pick to go far (Round of 8 and farther) can play at multiple paces and adjust to different styles. It’s the best way to separate the contenders from the pretenders come March and is one of the few absolutes the tournament produces on an annual basis.