Duke fell to the top ranked Jayhawks in Las Vegas

Duke basketball fell to 4-2 on the season after falling to the #1 Kansas Jayhawks in a thrilling 75-72 game. The Blue Devils settled in after falling early with its defense giving Kansas whatever it wanted, but ultimately it was the Jayhawks who deserved to win the contest.

It was clear early on that the Jayhawks’ main focus was taking Duke freshman superstar Cooper Flagg out of the game. It worked early, as Flagg had just 2 first half points.

After clearly getting out hustled early on, the Blue Devil defense settled in and held the Jayhawks after Kansas got out to an early lead.

Duke played a great final ten minutes of the first half. After being down 23-13 and really struggling to keep the Kansas offense out of the inside, the Blue Devils brought the deficit down to just 41-39 at half after Tyrese Proctor hit a phenomenal three point shot at the buzzer.

After Kansas got out to an early run to begin the second half, Duke came back and was able to bring itself back into the game. Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson and Duke big Maliq Brown got into a scuffle coming down for a loose ball, and it resulted in the ejection of Dickinson after a flagrant 2 foul call when it looked like Dickinson kicked Brown in the head.

Dickinson tallied 11 points before his ejection and it seemed to turn the tides of the game with his absence. From there on out, the matchup was neck and neck.

Fast forward to the final minute of the game, and Kansas held a 1-point lead at 73-72. Duke got the ball back with the ability to take the lead as time winded down.

Similar to the Kentucky game, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer turned to the freshmen. Against Kentucky, it was Flagg. Flagg dribbled into turnovers on the final two possessions to take away any chance Duke had to score against the Wildcats, and it was more of the same here.

With just under a minute to go and Duke down by one, the Blue Devils brought it up the court and worked a pick-and-roll with Kon Knueppel and Flagg. Knueppel dished it off to Flagg, and Flagg lost it eventually turning the ball over.

But it wasn’t over. Duke got a defensive stop and was ready to take the last shot.

This time around as time ticked down, Scheyer turned to Knueppel who wasn’t having a memorable game. Knueppel finished the contest with 11 points shooting 4-of-14 from the field and 0-of-8 from three point range.

As the ball got over half court, Knueppel received it at the top of the key with about ten seconds to go. He drove to the basket, was met by two defenders, tried to dump it off, and passed it right to Kansas’s Rylan Griffen to turn the ball over with three seconds to go. The same template as the loss against Kentucky.

This is now the second time Scheyer has gone to his freshmen on the final play of the game and essentially said “go make a play.” It didn’t work against Kentucky, and it didn’t work tonight.

The star for the Blue Devils tonight was Tyrese Proctor. Proctor was hot from outside, shooting 5-of-7 from three to finish with 15 points. It was really interesting how there was nothing drawn up for the veteran guard to hit a big shot when he was feeling it all night.

It makes sense why Scheyer goes with the freshmen: talent and trust. There’s no question about how good Flagg is, and Knueppel is still probably the best shooter on this Blue Devils squad despite being 0-of-8 from three point range tonight.

Even with that, it seemed like Proctor deserved the shot. He was feeling it all night, was shooting well from the outside, and has been in these positions before unlike the freshmen.

I think Duke put in the effort to win this game and did deserve to win the game if a few more things went right, but it’s another incident where a freshman mistake costs Duke the game at the end.

Granted, there’s nothing wrong with the mistakes Flagg and Knueppel made in these respective games. They’re freshmen. It does seem strange with Proctor didn’t get that shot, but that’s not up to the fans.

Overall, Duke played pretty solid defense and fought its way back into the game. Like all losses, the program will learn from this, and hopefully it’s quick as Duke will host #4 Auburn on December 4th.