At the Greensboro Coliseum . . .
Second-seeded duke didn’t lose to No. 15 Lehigh 75-70 because it played without third-leading scorer Ryan Kelly, who’s sidelined with a foot injury. It lost because Lehigh, of the Patriot League, was the bolder team – Mike Krzyzewski’s word – had the best player on the court, C.J. McCollum – Krzyzewski again – and had the defensive savvy and intensity to keep duke wallowing in its season-ending doldrums.
“We have had a week after the ACC tournament to prepare, and we did prepare certain things but we didn’t execute them,” the duke coach said. “At this time of the year, you should be as instinctive as possible. . . . We just were not, like, instinctive. There were spurts that we had, but the last three ballgames we have been just kind of mucking it out offensively, and again tonight.”
Krzyzewski said duke was already not playing well offensively with Kelly, who last appeared in the regular-season finale against North Carolina. Included in that struggle was a slump by Andre Dawkins, the junior guard from Chesapeake. Dawkins nearly went his fourth straight game without a three – he was 0-for-4 until sinking one in the final minute. Dawkins finished 2 for 17 from the arc in Duke’s last five games.
“We’re not a juggernaut or anything like that,” Krzyzewski said. “We have known that throughout the whole season. You have to do it pretty precise, and we just didn’t play well offensively the last few weeks of the season. Actually, we got better defensively, but offensively we just weren’t there.”
McCollum, a whippet guard, was everywhere, however. He had 30 points (on 9 of 24 shooting), got to the foul line for 16 attempts – he made 10 – dished six assists and had two steals. He played 39 of the 40 minutes.
McCollum said lessons learned from nine-point, early season losses at Iowa State and No. 1-seeded Michigan State were evident Friday night.
“We were toe to toe with Michigan State for a while and then they pulled away,” said McCollum, a junior from Canton, Ohio. “We went in their gym and gave them a tough fight. So we feel like we can play with anybody in the country.”
The Mountain Hawks, coached by the ultra-professorial doctorate holder Brett Reed, in his fifth year in Bethlehem, Pa., get their next improbable shot on Sunday against Xavier, which survived a 67-63 tussle with Notre Dame
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