The execution during the second half of Tuesday’s Duke-Carolina was poor. There were some very sketchy turnovers and players did not display good awareness of the time and score situation. Case in point, the Heels were down three with about eighteen seconds to play. Two-for-one is a viable strategy but you need to go for the quick two quickly. Instead, Carolina ran around with like chickens with their heads cut off, tried a two with mere seconds remaining, missed, and fouled.
Carolina had used their last timeout after a score to set the defence. They executed good ball pressure and – after forcing Duke to call timeout – fouled Greg Paulus, who was an excellent choice. During the timeout, Roy Williams should have sent two plays in, one in case Paulus makes the foul shots (which he did) and one in case he misses and they only need a two. Apparently nobody was listening. Nevertheless, Carolina is a young team and can learn from these mistakes.
Duke on the other hand is not playing up to its experience. There are four seniors in the seven man rotation. They have to play more calmly under pressure. The A.C.C. is a tremendous conference and I highly recommend A March to Madness but Duke must curtail these nail-biters. Mike Krzyzewski said it’s not the number of minutes a player plays that count but the intensity of those minutes. Mental focus can help win games down the stretch (vs. Boston College, vs. Florida State) but mental focus also includes taking care of business and seizing control of the game in the first half.
The Carleton Ravens could fall into the trap of letting a bunch of teams run with them. They don’t and they kill teams from the opening tip onwards. The Ravens are motivated and focused enough to make the most of the talent and win three consecutive C.I.S. National Championships. Of course if they played Duke they’d lose by thirty-seven points.