Inside College Basketball

Less Than Perfect  

Duke's stunning loss at Florida State exposed several Blue Devils flaws

By Seth Davis

It rained giants last weekend. Over a wild 36-hour period on Saturday and Sunday, 12 of the Top 25 teams, including eight of the top 12, were upended during a seismic stretch in an already volatile season. No team suffered a greater -- or more surprising -- loss than top-ranked Duke. On Sunday night the Blue Devils fell 77-76 to Florida State, which in amassing a 7-5 record had come up short against such powerhouses as American, Northwestern and Western Carolina.

Just as the will-Duke-go-undefeated train was starting to gather steam, the Seminoles revealed that the Blue Devils have flaws. If the defending national champions are to repeat, they must improve in three areas.

Mike Mathews and the other Seminoles exploited a Duke weak spot, dominating inside. Phil Coale/AP

The Blue Devils' rebounding deficiencies become magnified when 6'9" junior center Carlos Boozer gets into foul trouble, as he did against the Seminoles. That's because Duke is getting scant production from frontcourt reserves Matt Christensen, Nick Horvath and Casey Sanders, who through Sunday were averaging a combined 6.4 points and 7.4 rebounds. (That slurping sound you hear coming out of Kansas is the sound of rugged Jayhawks' forwards Nick Collison and Drew Gooden licking their chops.)

Foul-shooting . For a club that has been one of the nation's most potent three-point-shooting teams over the last two years, the Blue Devils have a mysterious knack for going cold from the foul line. They converted a woeful 7 of 19 free throws on Sunday night, including 2 for 8 over the final 1:30. Junior guard Jason Williams, who went 0 for 6 against the Seminoles, had shot 43.4% from three-point range this season but only 64.4% from the foul line. He has been through free-throw-shooting slumps before, most notably a six-game, 1-for-18 stretch toward the end of last season. Duke can ill afford to have its main ball handler be psyched out at the line late in games.

Chris Duhon's timid trigger . At the beginning of the season it was accepted that Duhon and Williams constituted the country's most talented backcourt. Duhon (8.9 points, 7.7 shots per game), however, has been too deferential to his running mate, who was getting a team-high 22.4 points and 15.6 shots per game. Though he had nine assists on Sunday (he was averaging a team-high 6.5), Duhon scored only six points on 2-of-9 shooting. With Mike Dunleavy hobbling on a sprained left ankle, the Blue Devils could use another scorer.

Duke has plenty of time to address these deficiencies. Indeed, its biggest problem on Sunday night may have been that it failed to match Florida State's intensity from the outset. "You have to attack them like they attack you," said Seminoles forward Antwuan Dixon, who scored 11 points.

That was a lesson learned throughout college basketball last week as nearly all the top teams showed they have some vulnerabilities. As Dixon and his teammates proved, it doesn't take a handful of magic beans to topple a giant. All it takes is a well-prepared game plan and the will to see it through.

Issue date: January 14, 2002

For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, January 9. Click here to subscribe to SI.

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