Duke Enters Hostile Cassell Coliseum Tonight at 7PM
By Ray Horn — After a disappointing showing against St. John’s, the Duke Blue Devils look to get back in a groove against the Virginia Tech Hokies. In their last game on Saturday, Duke jumped out to 22 point lead only to let St. John’s back into the game, having to then knock down free throws to close it out. Mason Plumlee continued his good play with a 15 point, 17 rebound performance. For this performance along with the Maryland game, Plumlee was named the USBWA National Player of the Week. Ryan Kelly did a good job on the glass as well and made clutch free throws down the stretch. Austin Rivers and Andre Dawkins were a bit inconsistent, but each had their moments of great play. Seth Curry however is still struggling. Curry has a lot of ability and showed as much in China and in the early part of the season. My feeling is that Seth has gone through a time of adjusting to defenses taking away his strengths. I think he has gotten over that and is now just in a shooting slump. In his last 10 games Seth is 14-47, 30% from the three point line. Now I am not expecting Seth to shoot a great percentage from the field, but he needs to get to the line more and start knocking down his threes. Jon Scheyer is a great example of a player who shot a low field goal percentage but was a highly efficient scorer, averaging 1.38 points per shot taken. In his senior season Scheyer shot just under 40 percent from the field, but was 38 percent from the three point line and 88 percent from the free throw line, attempting 5.5 per game. Points per shot (pps) is a terrific stat to understand just how effective an offensive player is because it values the three point shot and free throws telling just how efficient a player is in scoring the ball. Since Seth Curry started his big slump he is averaging only 1.1 pps while in his 10 best games this season his pps is an astronomical 1.65. Seth just needs to keep working and stay aggressive, that will get him out of his slump. Seth has taken a beating on online message boards and yes he has been struggling, but this is a guy we should be supporting and I hope fans will keep that in mind because in my opinion it is inevitable that he will get out of his slump
The Virginia Tech Hokies come into the game 12-9 and 1-5 inconference play. The Hokies are similar to Georgia Tech and Clemson in terms of having a good defense, but struggle to put points on the board. They are in the top 40 nationally in field goal percentage defense, and third in three point defense. Tech isn’t going to turn you over a ton or block a lot of shots, but they do force you to take tough shots. Offensively, Tech has three guys that need to be accounted for in Erik Green, Dorenzo Hudson and Jarell Eddie. Other than those three and Victor Davila being able to clean up some garbage around the basket the rest of their roster struggles to score. Look for the Hokies to push the ball and although they struggle shooting wise they will launch a healthy amount of threes. One of the reasons for their strugles offensively is the fact that Green isn’t a true point guard, so without a playmaker they struggle to get easy baskets. In the end, one thing you can bank on is that Seth Greenberg will have the Hokie team and crowd ready to go and this is the type of win that they believe can turn their season around.
Scouting Report
PG- #11 Erik Green Jr.- Green is the Hokies best player. He runs the point, but is not a traditional point guard, and is going to look for his shot more than disturbing the ball. At 6’4”, Green has good size for the position and can plays defense at a high level. On the offensive side of the ball Green likes the mid range pull up as well as knocking down the three and getting in transition. Shutting down Green has to be Duke’s number one priority.
SG- #1 Robert Brown Fr.- Brown is another guard with great size at 6’5”. He likes to shoot three-pointers (shooting a team-high 84), but doesn’t shoot it very well at only 31%. All in all, Brown is a pretty heady freshmen with some solid all around abilities, but is a guy that Duke shouldn’t have to key on.
SF- #31 Jarrell Eddie So.- What do you know: another Virginia Tech play with good size at 6’7”. Eddie is a versatile scorer who can shoot and shows good driving ability. I like Eddie as an offensive player but he can struggle on defense at times. As a guy with great length, he is the type of guy that has given Duke trouble. Hopefully Andre Dawkins can meet the challenge. If not, Mike Gbinije could be a good matchup defensively if he is healthy enough to get substantial minutes.
PF- #4 Cadarian Raines So.- Raines is a tough guy down low who is built fairly strong. He will get on the glass and finish garbage around the rim. As a young guy, Raines still hasn’t developed a high basketball IQ and does find himself in trouble on defense at times with too many fouls (averaging 6.67 fouls per 40 minutes).
C- #14 Victor Davila Sr.- Davila is very strong and physical around the rim. Davila is a lot like Raines in that he isn’t all that skilled, but will rebound and finish. Like Raines, Davila does commit fouls at a high rate (5.02 per 40 minutes), so it’s important for the Plumlees to use shot fakes and be disciplined in the post.
Bench
G- #5 Dorenzo Hudson Sr.- Hudson is the team’s sixth man but will actually play more minutes than both Brown and Eddie. Standing 6’5” with a strong and athletic frame, Hudson will slash and shoot from nearly all over the court. He’s shooting 31% like Brown, so he’s not too big of a threat on the perimeter. Hudson is a good perimeter defender and will most likely spend a lot of time guarding Austin Rivers.
F- #15 Dorian Finney-Smith Fr.- Finney-Smith was starting earlier in the season, but has been relegated to coming off the bench. He has a lot of ability but has struggled mightily in scoring the ball, shooting under 30 percent from the field. That being said Finney-Smith does have game and can defend, rebound and pass.
F- #42 CJ Barksdale Fr.- Barksdale is forward in a similar role to Josh Hairston. Don’t expect Barksdale to make a big impact.
G- #10 Marquis Rankin Fr.- Rankin is a seldom used point guard with good speed, but has a hard time scoring. Like Barksdale, don’t expect a big impact from Rankin.
Final Thoughts and Prediction
If you just look through the scouting report you can see why the Hokies have struggled. They are fairly young, don’t have a lot of skill in the frontcourt and lack a true point guard. Of late, the Hokies have shown improvement losing to Maryland by 4, BYU by 2, winning at Virginia, and leading North Carolina at the half. Virginia Tech does have the backcourt and wings that give the Devils trouble but in the end I think the Blue Devils will be ready and use their advantage upfront. I expect to keep seeing big things from Mason Plumlee, but the guy I am going with for player of the game is Seth Curry. Seth’s father Dell played at Virginia Tech and Seth went scoreless and fouled out in the matchup last season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tyler Thornton start over Seth, but I expect Seth to come in and rise to the occasion with a big game.
DUKE: 76 VIRGINIA TECH: 69
