Well, Duke officially survived upset mania.
The No. 4 seed in the South region took care of business during the opening round of March Madness, surviving an early scare against Vermont before pulling away for the 64-47 victory. The Blue Devils outscored the Catamounts 30-18 in the second half led by four double-digit performances from their starters, including a game-high 15 points apiece from sophomore Mark Mitchell and freshman Jared McCain.
Yes, a five-point halftime lead is probably not what Duke fans had in mind against a No. 13 seed in the opening round, but after a two-day stretch that saw top seeds like Auburn and Kentucky already fall, a win is a win once March rolls around.
Here are our biggest takeaways from the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Duke sophomore Mark Mitchell is one of the best things working for the Blue Devils right now.
Mitchell hammered home 15 points on Friday night, most of which came through dunks on the back end of pick-and-roll sequences. Yes, the Catamounts were an undersized team that Duke could outmuscle, but the Blue Devils’ offense looked the smoothest when Mitchell was sneaking behind the Vermont frontcourt. Despite the ease with which he kept finding the lane, however, Duke strayed from him for long stretches in the middle of the game, a decision which usually led to the offense slowing down and Vermont creeping closer.
After a two-game lull to end the regular season, Mitchell is back to being one of the most consistent offensive pieces for the Blue Devils, averaging 16.5 points through two postseason games. He doesn’t need to be the No. 1 option on offense, but he should be a circled supplemental piece unless proven otherwise.
The narrative coming into the NCAA Tournament, both among our staff and among the nation’s analysts at large, was that Duke had the ceiling to make a deep tournament run. The Blue Devils had an All-American 7-footer and they were one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country, after all. However, outside voices were worried Duke couldn’t put together six games in a row to make it to the mountaintop.
The problem might even be worse than that.
Every basketball game comes with peaks and valleys, and if you look too deep, you’ll find flaws everywhere. However, Duke looked like a team too willing to play with its food on Friday night. The Blue Devils were behind 12-11 early before scoring 17 of the game’s next 23 points, surging ahead 28-18 with six minutes before the half. They let Vermont rip off a 9-1 run to make it a one-score game four minutes later, but ended the game on a 14-3 run to stitch up the final margin.
If you’re looking for a reason Duke can’t put games away, there seems to be a short lapse on at least one end of the court in every half, much less every game. It’s usually outweighed by short spells when the Blue Devils can’t miss, but that’s a lot of pressure to leave yourself on offense in a tournament game.
The senior captain needed to be huge in this NCAA Tournament if Duke wanted to make a run. While he only scored a ho-hum 14 points on Friday night, he did just that in key moments.
Roach rattled off a mini-run midway through the second half, making a tough layup in the paint before drawing a foul and sinking two free throws on the following possession. With Duke clinging to an eight-point lead in the final five minutes, Roach knifed his way to the lane and finished through contact for the and-one, burying the free throw to make it a double-digit game.
In both instances, Duke still had control of the game, so this game won’t go down in the annals of Roach’s clutch performances. However, it’s clear Jon Scheyer trusts the senior captain to turn the corner and fight toward the glass late in close games, and the reminder that Roach is willing to do just that is always nice.
All of the above being said, Jeremy Roach had four points through 30 minutes of basketball on Friday night. The only upperclassman in Duke’s starting lineup and, by percentages, the most efficient shooter on the Blue Devils roster this season needs to be more involved than that.
Roach made one of his first five attempts from the floor and finished 3/10 for the day, and he still came away with five rebounds and four assists, but the early invisibility contributed to the Blue Devils being unable to separate from Vermont until the final 10 minutes.
Everyone is worn down by the end of the season, so there’s no telling what percentage Jeremy Roach is operating at out of 100. He went 1/6 in the ACC Tournament loss to NC State and 3/12 in the regular-season finale against UNC. If Duke wants to make it to the Sweet 16, or farther, it needs its leader at his best.
Speaking of inefficiency at the offensive end, Roach was far from the only guilty party on Friday night. Duke finished 6/18 from beyond the 3-point line as a team, with Tyrese Proctor and Jared McCain teaming for a combined mark of 5/15.
The performance comes on the heels of a 5/20 team performance from long range against NC State in the ACC Tournament, and most of the looks from those last two games have been ideal. McCain, Proctor, and Roach are getting plenty of chances without a hand in their face and with their feet set under them, and they’re just finding iron instead of nylon.
Shooting form comes and goes. I’ve played sports enough to know that focus or effort isn’t always the reason for a lapse in form. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be fixed, however. The Blue Devils survive by their perimeter offense freeing up Filipowski on the inside. They can’t win multiple tournament games while shooting below 35% from distance.