KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matchups between top-five teams aren’t supposed to be this one-sided.
One team isn’t supposed to dominate the scoreboard from start to finish, force its opponent to commit 21 turnovers and hold a preseason All-American guard to 1-of-12 shooting.
But that’s what No. 1 Duke did against No. 4 Kansas State Tuesday night in a game that cements Duke’s claim as the early season favorite for the national title.
Behind CBE Classic MVP Kyrie Irving’s 17 points, five rebounds and six assists, along with double digit performances from four other scorers, the Blue Devils (5-0) defeated the Wildcats 82-68 to earn head coach Mike Krzyzewski his 800th victory at Duke.
“They knocked the living piss out of us,” Kansas State head coach Frank Martin said. “If there’s one better then them I don’t want to play them.”
While Irving was the star of the night for Duke, coming back from a turnover-plagued performance against Marquette to dominate the fast break against Kansas State, Duke’s offense was distributed well among its plethora of scorers. Senior Nolan Smith also overcame a subpar performance against the Golden Eagles with 17 points of his own.
Not to be outdone, fellow senior Kyle Singler added 11 of his own, including a contested fade-away jumper with 12:53 remaining in the second half that spurred an 8-2 Duke run. Andre Dawkins continued his stellar play in the early season with 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the three-point arc.
But perhaps the most encouraging sign for the Blue Devils was the continued production from their players in the post. Coming off of his finest performance at Duke, Mason Plumlee scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and was named to the All-Tournament team. His older brother, meanwhile, made the most of his limited playing time.
After allowing an offensive rebound to slip through his hands with 13:45 left in the second half, Plumlee trapped his opponent along the sideline and forced him to lose the ball. He then saved it from going out of bounds and hit Smith underneath the basket for an easy two that put Duke’s lead back in double digits at a time when the Wildcats were threatening Duke’s momentum.
“The main thing I saw was that our big guys really played well,” Krzyzewski said. “You don’t know until you are in these situations how your kids will react. Playing a good team in an outstanding environment, you can’t practice this. Our kids responded at a very high level.”
Duke’s outstanding play was compounded by Kansas State’s struggles. The Wildcats shot 3-for-17 from beyond the arc, were forced into many turnovers by the Blue Devils and disappointed from the charity stripe.
“You can’t turn it over 21 times and be 11-for-23 from the foul line and have any chance to beat the No. 1 team in the country,” Martin said.
Kansas State’s star, guard Jacob Pullen, epitomized those issues. The normally sharp-shooting senior was 1-for-12 from the field, including 1-for-8 from beyond the arc, and turned the ball over four times.
Pullen was hounded by both Irving and Smith all night and was unable to find any open looks given the Blue Devils’ ability to switch off screens.
Even when Pullen did find an open look, he couldn’t to knock it down. He even airballed an open look from beyond the arc immediately following a Kansas State timeout late in the second half.
“It wasn’t a single job on my part, it was really a team effort,” Irving said of his team’s game plan against Pullen. “We had to really lock in on him and learn his game. We did a great job on him defensively, which gave us offensive momentum.”
This dominating performance also came in an arena in which Wildcat fans outnumbered Duke fans by a wide margin—Irving said the contest “felt like a road game.” That should prove useful this weekend, when the Blue Devils face their first true road game in Oregon.
But more importantly for Duke, the game served as a statement to the country that the Blue Devils seem not to be easily intimidated, either by a hostile environment or an imposing foe.
“They’re very well deserving of the ranking they have,” Martin said.