No. 8 Duke Blue Devils avoided an upset Thursday, escaping their meeting with unranked Oregon State Beavers with a 54-51 victory. Duke basketball had a hard time pulling away from the Beavers, which many expected the Blue Devils to do. One huge reason for that was the Blue Devils' historically atrocious accuracy on offense.
As noted by Brendan Marks of The Athletic, Duke basketball's 26.7 percent shooting from the field against Oregon State was the worst the program has ever had in a game.
“Wow: The 26.7% shooting Duke had tonight is the lowest EVER in a win in program history. Had only shot under 30% and won three other times, period.”
Naturally, not a few Duke basketball fans are left thinking about the Blue Devils' former head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, who has just retired from coaching college basketball. Against Oregon State, the Blue Devils shot just 16 for 60 from the field. That's 17 more field goal attempts Duke basketball had than the Beavers, who went 14 for 43. The Blue Devils also shot just 5 for 29 from behind the arc, while Oregon State was 6 for 21.
Kyle Filipowski led the Blue Devils with a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds in 31 minutes, while Ryan Young came off the bench and posted a double-double as well, scoring 11 points to go with 15 rebounds.
Duke, now coached by Jon Scheyer, is ranked 13th by KenPom in terms of adjusted offensive efficiency, so the Blue Devils are hoping that their forgettable shooting splits versus Oregon State were nothing more than just an aberration.
Duke basketball next plays the Xavier Musketeers Friday.
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