ORLANDO, Fla. — Mike Krzyzewski coached Duke to 13 Final Fours. A dozen of those teams were a No. 1 or 2 regional seed. The other was a No. 3.
Jon Scheyer, Krzyzewski’s hand-picked heir, is trying to defy that trend in his rookie season. His Blue Devils, the East Region’s fifth seed, have just started their NCAA tournament journey, but few if any teams are playing better basketball.
Duke (27-8) has won 10 consecutive games entering Saturday’s second-round NCAA encounter against fourth-seeded Tennessee (24-10) at the Orlando Magic’s arena. It’s merely the Blue Devils’ longest winning streak at this stage of the tournament since 1999.
Not to suggest this group is as talented as the ’99 crew headlined by Elton Brand, William Avery, Trajan Langdon and Shane Battier. Those Blue Devils won 32 straight and were 37-1 before falling in the NCAA final to Connecticut.
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“I think you have to be careful [about thinking] that it translates,” Scheyer said Friday of momentum. “You have to go make it happen. You can’t assume it will.
“For us, I’m really proud of the fact that we haven’t assumed anything just because of the winning streak we’ve had or the basketball we’ve played this last stretch. We have to go continue to make it happen, play with an edge, play with a hunger, and that’s what’s made us really special.”
Defense has been the most impressive component of this Duke run, especially considering five of the six Blue Devils averaging at least 20 minutes per game are freshmen. It’s one thing to have a veteran such as junior guard Jeremy Roach defending at an elite level, quite another rookies such as springy shot-blocker Dereck Lively, forward Mark Mitchell and guards Tyrese Proctor and Dariq Whitehead.
In Thursday’s 74-51 dismissal of Oral Roberts, Duke stifled the nation’s No. 3 scoring offense (83.3 points per game), limiting the Golden Eagles to 30.2% shooting, 25% beyond the 3-point arc. Lively blocked six shots, and a collective effort pressured Max Abmas (21.9 points per game) into 4-of-15 shooting and five turnovers.
The Blue Devils were just as effective defensively in their 59-49 ACC tournament final conquest of Virginia a week ago.
“If you look at it, Dereck had six blocked shots tonight, but I bet he altered another six,” Oral Roberts coach Paul Mills said Thursday. “They have a presence inside the rim, and they can really defend the arc.”
“It makes you pick up your pressure on defense, just knowing you’ve got a big back there who’s going to block a shot if someone gets past you,” Whitehead said . “It makes you more comfortable knowing you can pressure the guards.”
Duke’s emergence coincides with its health. Various ailments sidelined Whitehead (eight games), Roach (four) and Lively (two), but the team has been at full strength since Whitehead returned to action in a Feb. 11 overtime loss at Virginia.
The Blue Devils are undefeated since.
Conversely, Tennessee has lost six of its last 13 games and is 2-2 since point guard Zakai Zeigler sustained a season-ending knee injury Feb. 28. But the Vols spent 11 consecutive weeks in the top 10 this year and rank second only to UCLA nationally in defensive efficiency.
Moreover, Tennessee is among the few teams that can match Duke’s size. Six Vols average multiple offensive rebounds per game, including 7-foot-1, 265-pound mountain Uros Plavsic, and five available players average between 8.5 and 12.6 points.
“We know they [love] to live in the paint,” Mitchell said, “kind of similar to us. ... We know they have some big guys down there, but I think if we play our defense, we’ll be good.”
