Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Rebels gearing up for explosive Duke offense

UNLV Beats WKU BBall

L.E. Baskow

UNLV players gather around the basket to defend it from WKU forward Justin Johnson (23) driving in during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016.

Duke comes to Las Vegas for Saturday’s 25 years-in-the-making-showdown with UNLV not just as one of the best teams in the country (No. 5 AP, No. 1 KenPom.com), but also sporting what looks like the best offense in all of college basketball.

And that’s a big problem for the Runnin’ Rebels.

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the glory days of the early 1990s, but those UNLV squads — the Tarkanian-led buzz saws capable of putting up triple figures on any given night — are long gone. The Rebels team that will take the floor on Saturday isn’t an offensive juggernaut and almost certainly cannot win a shootout against Duke.

That means UNLV’s best (and only) chance of pulling off the upset is to get after it and defend like this town hasn’t seen since the likes of Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony were clamping down.

Duke presents a ton of challenges on that end of the floor. Pick any statistical metric and the Blue Devils are at or near the top: They rank No. 1 in adjusted offense, No. 12 in points per possession, No. 17 in free throws, and they’ve got four players averaging 14.0 points per game or better. Simply put, this Duke offense is lethal.

The star power is dazzling. Junior guard Grayson Allen is a national superstar (15.9 points, 4.0 assists), and he’s probably only the third-best player on the team, behind sophomore guard Luke Kennard (20.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 41.0 3FG%) and senior big man Amile Jefferson (15.6 points, 10.3 rebounds, 2.0 blocks). Throw in stud freshman guard Frank Jackson (14.0 points), and you can see why it’s almost impossible to stop the Devils once they get rolling.

UNLV senior guard Uche Ofoegbu said it’s not the Dukies’ individual stars that he’s worried about, but how well they play together.

“I just like how unselfish they are,” Ofoegbu said. “They pass the ball around. It kind of reminds me of watching the Spurs. They really don’t care who gets the credit … We can’t really key in on one player against Duke. It’s all a collective effort for them. Any given night, anybody can go off.”

Because of the Blue Devils’ versatility, familiarity and unselfishness, they are capable of recognizing and breaking down just about any defensive scheme. They’ve been particularly effective in picking apart zone defenses this season, scoring 1.26 points per possession against zones, according to Synergy Sports data. Against man-to-man defenses, they’re scoring a merely great 1.00 points per possession.

That’s relevant for the Rebels, who have been attempting to mix in more zone defenses of late. They oscillated between man and zone against Arizona State in their most recent game and gave up 18 3-pointers in a 97-73 loss.

Coach Marvin Menzies knows there is no magic formula for keeping Duke in check, no gimmick scheme (with all apologies to the amoeba defense) that is going to confound Mike Krzyzewski or his veteran scorers. Instead, Menzies has spent the week preaching fundamentals to his players.

“We’ll do some different things [on defense], but we’re not going to get too far outside of our box,” Menzies said. “We want to improve on the things that we showed as major weaknesses in the last game.”

UNLV’s season-long defensive numbers aren’t impressive. After the letdown against Arizona State, the Rebels are No. 163 in KenPom.com’s adjusted defense rankings, and they rank 197th in points per possession allowed (0.877). UNLV does have a defensive difference-maker in junior forward Dwayne Morgan, but on paper UNLV looks exactly like the kind of team that Duke can clinically dissect while flirting with the century mark.

If there is a blueprint for defending the Blue Devils, no opponent has discovered it yet. Duke has scored 90 or more points in four of its 10 games, and the Devils been held under 80 only four times. In their only defeat, a 77-75 loss to Kansas on a neutral court on Nov. 15, they still shot 48.9 percent from the field — only a slow pace and 16 turnovers kept the final score somewhat depressed.

“Listen, they’ve got good players,” Menzies said. “They not only can shoot it, they can drive, make plays for their teammates. They’re one of the best assist teams around. They really make the extra pass, get into the paint, make good decisions, and they stay in their boxes. They understand their roles. They’re a tough team, for obvious reasons.”

Limiting the Duke offense is a tall task, but if the Rebels want to claim the upset and satisfy two decades' worth of pent-up blood lust among the UNLV faithful, defending is the only option.

Notes

Before Thursday's practice, Menzies said that everyone was healthy enough to participate, including senior forward Christian Jones, who has missed the past five games with a foot injury. Jones shed his walking boot this week and took part in noncontact portions of practice that were open to the media.

Menzies was coy about Jones' status for the Duke game.

"Getting him back will be a big surprise," Menzies said. "Who knows when that will be. Maybe sooner than later. You never know."

Menzies also said sophomore wing Kris Clyburn is almost back to 100 percent after an illness forced him out of the starting lineup against Arizona State.

Follow Mike on Twitter at Twitter.com/MikeGrimala

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