Duke 82 Wisconsin 58

Coming into this game, Wisconsin had given up just .679 ppp all year, completely dominating the defensive glass (grabbing 81% of possible defensive boards) and playing overall suffocating defense, holding teams to 25.9% from beyond the arc and 37.9% from inside the arc. Against Duke, they looked lost tonight as Duke spread the floor and hit 9 3s in the first half on their way to a 48-25 halftime lead.

A couple of days ago, I identified some points to look for in the game. To follow up:

• What will Wisconsin guard? Well at first it seemed like nothing. On the inside, the Badgers did a good job collapsing and preventing good looks. I was also impressed how hard they hustled back on run-outs. They didn't show Duke a zone and none of their guards were capable of really containing Henderson or Nelson's penetration. Duke had very few bad looks as a result, and took a big lead early.
• Rebounding. Not surprisingly, Wisconsin did a good job rebounding the ball, but Duke also did a great job preventing Wisconsin to get the kind of second chance opportunities that Illinois had. Illinois grabbed 18 offensive rebounds to Duke's 23 defensive rebounds, whereas Wisconsin grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to Duke's 28 defensive rebounds (37.8% ORB for Wisconsin - close to 6% lower than their season average). Duke's good work on the defensive glass allowed for the smaller Devils to push the tempo well.
• Pace. On this, I was wrong. Well, sort of. I said that the game would probably not be fast paced. I anticipated a game more like Illinois where both teams kept good care of the ball. Well, Duke rebounded well on the defensive glass (as noted) and forced 18 turnovers on 74 possessions (basically 1 in 4 possessions). Furthermore, after a couple of games where Duke played a more normal pace, the Devils pushed the ball every possession hard and rarely waited long before finding a good shot.
  
• Foul trouble. Duke's defensive pressure actually caused some minor early foul trouble on Duke's guards, with only Lance Thomas really suffering from foul trouble in the paint. Zoubek ended up playing a much smaller role than I anticipated - though it's not surprising why. Early on Duke tried to attack Wisconsin with superior quickness - and the formula worked spectacularly. Furthermore, with King on fire (5 for 9 from behind the arc) and Singler playing well too, the line-up that seemed to see a lot of time included King and Singler at forward positions.
  

Some additional notes on the game:

• 8 players played double digit minutes with Zoubek played 7. Zoubek dropped some rebounds, but overall played well defensively and had one nice post move that was negated by an iffy offensive foul. I still have hope!
• Can we lavish King with any more superlatives? While all the national focus is on Singler (and quite deservedly so), King has quietly shot 19 for 37 from behind the arc and has an eFG% of 71% for the season to date. Add to that that he has turned it over on only 7.2% of his possessions, has a defensive rebounding rate of 19.3%, an assist rate of 11%, a steal rate of 3.4%, and a block rate of 5.2% and he's looking to be one of the big steals of this class. I have always thought King would be a dangerous weapon to have, but I never dreamed that he could have such a knack for causing turnovers and just playing smart basketball. He will be the next great hated Duke player - a leftie white guy who is animated, shoots 3s and isn't particularly athletic. I just hope we'll have the guns around so he won't have to carry the team like JJ did.
• Greg Paulus is shooting north of 46% from 3. Jon Scheyer is shooting 50%. Taylor King is shooting over 51% from 3. Duke as a team is shooting 42.4% now. Frankly I don't care if Duke is dependent on the 3 point shot if they shoot at this clip. For the record, the team is shooting 58.1% eFG for the season with just a 20.6% TO rate. I'd like to see the turnovers be reduced even more (tonight's game against Wisconsin was a good example of how we can avoid stupid turnovers).
  
• Gerald Henderson is evolving into a star. For the season, he now uses 27% of Duke's possessions at about 109 efficiency. His turnovers are down (15.9% TO rate), his rebounds are up (16.4% DRate), has a good assist rate (13.6%), and has the 3rd highest block rate on the team (4.5%, behind King's 5.2% and Zoubek's 8%).
  
• Wisconsin turned it over on 1/4th of their possessions, which is a full 7% higher than their season average of 17.8%.
  

In other ACC/Big 10 news:

• The ACC is clowning the Big 10

That's all.