The Struggles of Duke and Kentucky
Duke and Kentucky. They define college basketball. Thirteen combined National Championships. Thirty-three combined Final Fours. Currently, ten McDonald All-Americans between the teams. Hall of Fame coaches. And the most passionate fans in the sport. These two seem the least likely to struggle on any given season. But the 2015-2016 tells another story. Duke is 15-6 on the season, and 4-4 in ACC play. They've lost four out of their last five games. Kentucky is 15-4 on the season and has lowly losses to Ohio State and Auburn. This season bears the question: Why have these elite programs struggled so badly this season?
Duke: For Duke, and really Kentucky as well for the matter, the struggles started well before the opening tip of the season. Back in April, the nucleus of the championship winners left the program. Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, and Quinn Cook all declared for the NBA draft. That left big holes on the Blue Devils’ roster for 15-16. Coach K was able to bring in 5 Star, Brandon Ingram, in the spring, but the addition has proven fairly ineffective to the final results. Duke got off to a 8-1 start to open the season, but Senior center, Amile Jefferson, broke his foot and has been out ever since. The results haven't been pretty as a result. Duke is 7-5 without Jefferson and is giving up 72.5 points per game. They have also been out-rebounded by their opponents in all their losses. Syracuse’s Tyler Roberson secured 20 rebounds when the Orange pulled the upset in Cameron Indoor on January 18th. The lack of a rebounding presence has killed the Blue Devils in their losses with Jefferson out. Also, lack of pure point guard play has hampered Duke. Derryck Thornton, a freshman guard for the Blue Devils, simply hasn't been ready to contribute to the team so early in his career. Duke has been forced to play Matt Jones and Grayson Allen, both of which are better off the ball than on it, at the point. Allen is the team leader in assist with just 3.7 a game. Duke must find a way to protect the rim and get rebounds more consistently until Jefferson returns. Duke has the talent of a top one or two seed, but a lack of veteran leadership has rendered them near the bottom at the moment. There is time for turnaround, but the ACC schedule is unforgiving; therefore, it better happen quickly. Kentucky: As with Duke, there was a mass exodus from Lexington into the NBA draft after the season ended. Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Trey Lyles, Devin Booker, Dakari Johnson, and the Harrison twins all took their talents to the NBA. All Kentucky was left with was Tyler Ulis, Marcus Lee, Alex Poythress, Dominique Hawkins, and Derek Willis. The lack of returning starters has shown this season. The young group showed promise in an early season win against Duke, but since the immaturity has taken over. One of the top players coming out of high school, Skal Labissiere has yet to make much of an impact at Kentucky. He simply doesn't have the weight or the drive to compete in the post at the college level. Guards Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis have averaged more rebounds per game than Labissiere since December. In Kentucky’s four losses to UCLA, Ohio State, LSU, and Auburn, they have a negative rebounding margin and have allowed the opponents to hit 45% of their threes. Simply the cats have play uninspired and undisciplined basketball. Turnovers and bad shot selection have plagued the offense and lack of energy has hurt the defense. This past week the Cats showed signs of life with double digit victories at Arkansas (the first win in Arkansas in the Calipari era) and against Vanderbilt. Skal had double digit points against Arkansas for the first time in 2016, and the Cats only gave up a combined seven 3s in those games. The swagger of this team seems to be back, but Kentucky has much left to prove in the remaining twelve games this season. They have a chance for a statement win at Kansas on January 30th. The Cats must play with passion on defense and get more production from Labissiere if they want to make a deep run into the tournament.
