Wrapping Up Maui

Duke picked up its fourth Maui win in four tries, and looked impressive doing so, especially in light of some of the team's weaknesses last season. The Marquette game especially was an example of a game that last year's Duke team would not have one. This season's version handled the ball better, stood up to the pressure better, and executed better down the stretch, all of which were necessary to bring home a four-point victory. Last season, against basically this same Marquette team, Duke turned the ball over on 28% of its possessions and managed only a .425 EFG%. Those same numbers this year were 21% and .558, and the improvement in those two categories is responsible for the 15-point swing.

Here are the HD Box scores for Duke for the three games in Maui (follow this link for an explanation of these):

Princeton

O. Poss

D. Poss

+/-

Pts

2PM-A

3PM-A

FTM-A

FGA

Ast

TO

STL

BLK

ORB

DRB

Henderson

35

35

+33

12/50

6-8

0-0

0-1

8/37

1/15

1/35

0/35

0/23

2/19

4/19

Paulus

46

46

+24

7/58

2-3

1-5

0-0

8/49

4/22

2/46

3/46

0/33

0/26

1/20

Singler

50

48

+16

21/57

7-11

2-3

1-1

14/57

0/16

3/50

0/48

0/29

9/34

3/16

King

27

28

+13

7/33

2-5

1-4

0-0

9/27

0/10

0/27

0/28

1/18

0/16

1/13

Thomas

27

26

+13

6/32

2-3

0-0

2-3

3/27

0/11

1/27

0/26

0/18

1/16

1/10

Scheyer

41

42

+12

10/46

2-5

1-2

3-4

7/42

2/16

0/41

0/42

1/26

1/25

3/16

Nelson

45

45

+11

7/52

3-8

0-1

1-2

9/51

3/19

1/45

2/45

0/29

3/30

3/14

Zoubek

29

30

+3

9/34

4-7

0-0

1-2

7/32

0/10

2/29

0/30

2/23

3/18

3/12

Smith

25

25

-2

2/25

1-5

0-1

0-0

6/25

3/8

0/25

2/25

0/14

0/17

1/7

McClure

13

14

-6

0/13

0-0

0-0

0-0

0/8

0/4

0/13

1/14

0/10

0/4

1/4

Pocius

17

16

-7

2/15

0-0

0-3

2-2

3/15

1/5

1/17

1/16

0/12

0/10

2/4

Duke

71

71

+22

83

29-55

5-19

10-15

74

14/34

11/71

9/71

4/47

20/43

24/27

0.527

0.263

0.667

41.18

15.49

12.68

8.51

46.51

88.89

Illinois

O. Poss

D. Poss

+/-

Pts

2PM-A

3PM-A

FTM-A

FGA

Ast

TO

STL

BLK

ORB

DRB

Singler

42

42

+15

8/53

3-5

0-1

2-3

6/31

1/17

3/42

1/42

0/39

0/14

1/28

Zoubek

31

29

+12

4/41

2-2

0-0

0-0

2/22

1/12

0/31

1/29

1/27

1/11

2/23

Scheyer

55

54

+11

7/63

1-3

1-3

2-2

6/33

2/27

2/55

0/54

0/53

1/17

6/40

Thomas

43

46

+10

5/47

2-2

0-0

1-2

2/27

0/12

1/43

1/46

1/42

0/16

1/32

Smith

19

19

+6

6/23

0-0

1-1

3-4

1/11

0/8

3/19

1/19

1/20

0/4

0/14

Henderson

42

42

+5

23/47

6-11

2-4

5-8

15/30

1/7

0/42

0/42

2/39

1/18

4/29

Paulus

50

50

+5

10/56

0-2

2-4

4-4

6/36

4/17

1/50

1/50

0/46

0/20

3/34

Nelson

53

53

+3

16/61

6-8

0-0

4-6

8/38

2/16

0/53

0/53

1/52

1/19

5/35

King

5

5

-2

0/4

0-0

0-0

0-0

0/2

0/0

0/5

0/5

1/7

0/1

1/5

Duke

68

68

+13

79

20-33

6-13

21-29

46

11/26

12/68

5/68

7/65

5/24

26/48

0.606

0.462

0.724

42.31

17.65

7.35

10.77

20.83

54.17

Marquette

O. Poss

D. Poss

+/-

Pts

2PM-A

3PM-A

FTM-A

FGA

Ast

TO

STL

BLK

ORB

DRB

Singler

64

61

+12

25/75

4-6

3-5

8-8

11/48

1/19

3/64

0/61

0/52

3/27

4/33

Zoubek

9

9

+9

4/17

2-2

0-0

0-0

2/11

1/5

0/9

0/9

0/9

2/4

1/5

Scheyer

43

41

+1

2/54

1-2

0-2

0-0

4/36

2/19

2/43

0/41

0/38

0/18

4/23

Thomas

49

52

-7

10/49

4-8

0-0

2-4

8/36

0/12

0/49

0/52

1/41

3/25

2/26

Smith

26

26

-4

4/28

1-2

0-1

2-2

3/20

1/10

1/26

0/26

0/22

0/12

1/13

Henderson

39

38

-4

7/35

2-7

0-0

3-4

7/26

0/7

2/39

0/38

1/30

1/20

4/18

Paulus

49

48

+12

9/59

0-0

3-6

0-1

6/37

3/15

3/49

0/48

0/41

1/22

1/26

Nelson

59

58

+4

16/68

6-10

0-1

4-8

11/44

4/17

3/59

1/58

0/51

0/25

7/31

King

2

2

-3

0/0

0-0

0-0

0-0

0/2

0/0

0/2

1/2

0/1

0/2

0/0

Duke

68

67

+4

77

20-37

6-15

19-27

52

12/26

14/68

2/68

2/57

12/31

25/35

0.541

0.400

0.704

46.15

20.59

2.94

3.51

38.71

71.43

I thought Singler and Nelson both had excellent tournaments in all three games. Henderson showed us flashes of brilliance, but also reverted to last year's form of being a little bit of a black hole with the ball - once he gets it and makes a move toward the hoop, it's very likely he'll shoot, even if it ends up being a difficult/contested shot. Scheyer played very solid floor games - watch him sometimes on off-the-ball defense, because he does as good a job on ball denial as anyone at Duke in recent years. All in all, there was a lot to be excited about from the team's performance in Maui.

Eastern Kentucky shouldn't provide too much trouble tomorrow, but it'll be a nice warmup before Wisconsin comes to town for the ACC/Big Ten.