Blue Review: A 2021-22 Duke Basketball Recap – Game 8 vs Ohio State
Well, this was a rough one. I only saw the last four minutes of the game, so I’m going to take some time on Wednesday to find the full footage and truly give a detailed breakdown of what transpired in Columbus for this Duke basketball team.
However, I feel like the short and the long of it is going to be the same. This is a young Blue Devil squad coming off the heels of a tremendous win against the then-No. 1 team in the country, to only now find themselves billed as the top team in the land, facing a potential top-25 team away from Cameron where they lose an ugly and uncharacteristic battle that causes everyone to panic. Sound familiar? Well, it’s because we’ve heard this song and seen this dance before.
A quick glance at the box score and a scroll through Twitter really tells me all I need to know. For starters, Ohio State outscored the Blue Devils by 18 in the second half – not a recipe for success. The backcourt of Trevor Keels and Jeremy Roach followed up their combined 5-for-24 shooting night against Gonzaga with a 7-for-22 shooting campaign against the Buckeyes. And again, since I’m guessing here, I figure this team saw a lot of possessions just kind of stall in the hands of either Banchero or Moore – through no fault of their own. I’m also sure that Keels took a fair amount of contested 20-footers with the shot clock winding down because the entry pass to Banchero wasn’t enough to get by E.J. Liddell or Zed Key.
Wendell Moore Jr. once again had a great all-around effort for Duke – 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists – but at what point does he exhaust every ounce of energy he has being the best player on both sides of the ball for this team? Paolo Banchero hasn’t truly become a consistent threat from deep and that’s going to afford teams the opportunity to clog the paint – which is of no benefit to either Mark Williams or Theo John.
Last but certainly not least, this isn’t a good shooting team – evident by their 4-for-14 mark from three-point range and 25-for-65 shooting from the field. Frankly, I’m going to assume that this game could’ve been a lot worse if not for the defensive ability of this squad. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to clean up and it’s still early, so don’t hit the panic button just yet.
* This article will be updated with a more detailed analysis when some YouTube channel puts up the full film *
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