Aggie-ny

In the first half, it was quick and painless. In the second half, it was slow and painful even for Duke fans to watch. Duke spanked New Mexico State in the first half behind their new and improved razzle dazzle fast break, spread offense, of which they have taken a few sets from the Phoenix Suns offense. The Devils looked great offensively in the first half even though you could already see their major weakness exposed early on: the low post; whether it's scoring, rebounding, or defending, they will have trouble with any physical, low post team once the ACC season begins or even before, when they face Pitt at the Garden.

The second half might as well have been a bottle of Nyquil because it put me to sleep. Why? Because Duke, as per usual, went back to playing a slow tempo and taking the air out of the ball with 8 minutes left in the game. Since they can't rebound, they are one-and-done on the offensive end and they begin to look like an average team. If they want to stay in the Top 10, they need to keep up this frantic pace, keep running bodies in and out, play pressure defense, and increase the number of possession because there will be a ton of one and done possessions.

A few things were highlighted last night:

1) It's no myth, size matters. Duke will be able to get away with it against a minor major or a mid major like New Mexico State but once they start playing the big boys, it's going to have to be all hands on deck in terms of rebounding and defending in the post. It's tough when your best rebounder is a 6'3'' guard.
2) Taylor King has range but also has NO CONSCIENCE!! I mean towards the end of the game he wasn't even looking at the basket...
3) McRoberts or no McRoberts this team will be better this year because of one word: depth

Player of the Game: Jon Sheyer, 22 points

Next up: Nov 19th, Duke travels a looooong way to the Maui Invitational and they will play Princeton in the opener. If they beat Princeton, they will play the winner of Arizona State/Illinois.

Prediction: Duke 90 Princeton 56