GREENVILLE, S.C. – Call it a wakeup call if you like. Duke coach Jon Scheyer prefers to look back at his team’s NCAA Tournament first-round close call against Siena as a learning experience.
Either way, the Blue Devils finally looked like the top-seeded team they are rather than the shaky unit that barely avoided a historic upset two days earlier by rolling past No. 9 seed TCU 81-58 Saturday at Bon Secours Wellness Center. It was a performance that restores their status as the team to beat in the East Region heading into the Sweet Sixteen next weekend.
“I thought there were incredible lessons there for me, for our staff, for our program but most importantly for our players,” coach Jon Scheyer said of the come-from-behind victory that saved his team’s season. “I thought the urgency we had tonight was there from the get-go. I’m just really proud of them for coming off three games in a row (at the ACC Tournament) last week and Thursday finding a way to win. Now we have to get refreshed the next two days, find out who we’re playing and keep this thing rolling.”
Duke faces either Kansas or St. John’s on Friday in Washington, D.C. It earned the opportunity by returning to its identity, something Scheyer said it strayed from in its NCAA opener.
Although it took until the second half for the Blue Devils to finally shake the Horned Frogs and pull away, their increased urgency and aggressiveness were evident from the opening tip. Or as Maliq Brown suggested, even before they left the locker room. The jolt of energy came from the knowledge that injured big man Patrick Ngongba was ready to return to action after missing the previous four games with a foot injury.
“Just having him back gave us a lot of emotion, a lot of energy going into the game,” Brown said. “Obviously we know he was going to protect the rim. Obviously we know he was going to be a big factor for us on the offensive end.”
Ngongba’s stat line wasn’t impressive, especially compared to the 19 points and 11 rebounds posted by 6-foot-9 freshman forward Cameron Boozer or 6-foot-6 sophomore Isaiah Evans’ 17-point effort. He finished with four points, four rebounds, four assists and four turnovers in a rusty 13 minutes. But Scheyer said the 6-foot-11 sophomore’s presence in the paint was far more valuable than any number on the stat sheet.
“We’re more whole with Pat being back,” he said.
Ngongba’s return helped take pressure off fellow bigs Boozer and Brown, and his rim-protecting ability was a major factor in the Blue Devils returning to the kind of defense that was ranked No. 1 in KenPom.com’s efficiency ratings during the regular season.
Duke limited the Horned Frogs to just 26.3 percent shooting (10-of-38) in the second half while outrebounding its opponent 42-25 overall. The coup de grace came during an 11-minute stretch in which the Blue Devils’ 30-8 run put the game away after a brief post-halftime lapse allowed TCU to tie it at 44.
“The second half, that’s where we felt the Duke defense, intensity, rebounding, protecting the rim,” said Boozer, who also came alive after a passive first half by scoring all but two of his points in the final 20 minutes. “I think we made it really tough for them scoring and I think that’s how it has to be for us moving forward for the rest of the games we play.
“We said just, ‘Now’s the time. Let’s get stops. Let’s get a run going. Let’s do what we do.’ We came out and we did that and we went on our run. That’s what we hung our hat on all year long, and we’ve got to continue to do that the rest of the year.”
It’s a revelation born from some serious soul searching in the 24 hours between the Siena game and Saturday. And not just on the part of the players.
“You can’t have a lot of time in this quick turnaround, but I took that night, a few hours afterwards just to think about how I could have helped our guys better,” Scheyer said. “I think it snuck up on me that our two most experienced guys in the tournament or a game like that are (injured point guard Caleb Foster and Ngongba). Maliq has never played in a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
“There’s just a different feeling associated with it. It’s the first time you’re playing where it could be the end of your season. It’s your first time playing where the other team doesn’t want to go home.”
The Blue Devils committed a season-high 17 turnovers and gave up 11 offensive rebounds to the smaller Horned Frogs. But in the only stat that matters in the NCAA Tournament, they did what No. 1 seeds are supposed to do in the first two rounds by surviving and advancing, and earning another shot at keeping their championship goal alive.
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