Duke 71, Clemson 66

Tonight's game looked eerily similar to the last Clemson game, only the halves were even more dramatically different. Duke put up 41 points in 31 possessions in the first half, despite lots of foul trouble, by shooting lights out and not turning the ball over. They held Clemson to 6 of 23 from the field, and looked completely in control. Then Clemson came out like a team possessed in the second half. They shot 67% from 2 on their way to scoring 45 points in 36 possessions. Duke's shooting didn't really desert them, but they turned the ball over 11 times in 35 possessions, including 7 of the last 17 (aiee!). Actually, those last 17 possessions were remarkable for Duke. At times, they looked downright awful (seven turnovers). But when they held onto the ball, the execution was near perfect - 2o points in the 10 non-turnover possessions (though, admittedly, at least 4 of these possessions were end-game foul situations).

The up-and-down nature of this game is reflected in the chart below. Notice that the best player in the game for Duke (Scheyer) put up a -4 while he was on the court, and two guys who didn't take a single shot (Pocius and Zoubek) put up a +8 and a +12, respectively (in case you're scoring at home, that's Duke 37, Georgia Tech/Clemson 12 in the last two games with Marty on the court). Scheyer had a great shooting performance - it's rare when guys take more than a couple shots and have an EFG% over 1, but Jon pulled it off with a 1.083. Paulus had an up-and-down game himself - his outside shooting was great, and he dished out 6 assists, but he almost pulled off the dreaded points-turnovers double-double. With this win, I think it's safe to mark Duke as a lock for the tourney. Even if they lose out (not very likely), they'll be 21-11, 8-8 in the ACC, and owners of one of the better computer profiles among similar teams.

Player		O Poss.	Points	OPPP	D Poss.	Points	DPPP
McRoberts	ON	61	67	1.098	59	60	1.017
	OFF	5	4	0.800	8	6	0.750
Scheyer	ON	48	44	0.917	47	48	1.021
	OFF	18	27	1.500	20	18	0.900
Nelson	ON	59	69	1.169	59	60	1.017
	OFF	7	2	0.286	8	6	0.750
Paulus	ON	63	70	1.111	63	60	0.952
	OFF	3	1	0.333	4	6	1.500
Henderson	ON	25	23	0.920	28	28	1.000
	OFF	41	48	1.171	39	38	0.974
McClure	ON	35	35	1.000	35	37	1.057
	OFF	31	36	1.161	32	29	0.906
Thomas	ON	23	18	0.783	27	28	1.037
	OFF	43	53	1.233	40	38	0.950
Zoubek	ON	8	15	1.875	7	3	0.429
	OFF	58	56	0.966	60	63	1.050
Pocius	ON	8	14	1.750	10	6	0.600
	OFF	58	57	0.983	57	60	1.053
Duke Overall		66	71	1.076	67	66	0.985