Duke walked into its first real test of the season and walked out with a mess to sort through.
In Tuesday night’s State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago, Michigan State controlled the game from the opening tip and handed the Blue Devils a 79-73 loss at the United Center. Duke never led, and the Spartans made sure it stayed that way. For Jon Scheyer and company, it was a rough night with plenty of hard lessons attached.
The biggest problem was obvious early and never really changed: Duke’s offense bogged down badly once it had to operate in the halfcourt. When the Blue Devils couldn’t run, they had very little flow.
The ball stuck, the guards struggled to create separation, and too many possessions turned into isolation basketball. Duke shot 33% from the floor, 23% from three, and missed 11 free throws.
That’s not just a cold night. That’s a breakdown.
Michigan State deserves plenty of credit for making life miserable. But Duke also didn’t do enough to force the issue. The Spartans stayed in control because the Blue Devils rarely put them under real pressure.
Patrick Ngongba’s status only made things harder. There was talk before tip-off that the junior big man might miss the game because of an illness, and while he did suit up, he clearly wasn’t himself.
He looked a step slow on both ends and finished well below the level he showed in the exhibition slate and Duke’s first two regular-season games. He battled through it, but Duke needs him at full strength.
He matters too much to what Scheyer wants to do on both sides of the floor.
The backcourt, meanwhile, never looked like the strength many expected it to be. John Blackwell finished with 17 points, but much of that came late, after he had spent long stretches quiet.
Cayden Boozer, who had opened the season strongly and posted a double-double against Coastal Carolina, was nearly a non-factor with six points and two assists. Caleb Foster kept fighting his shot and went 2-of-10 from the field.
Deron Rippey Jr. gave Duke a little burst and looked like the best option for beating his man off the dribble, but Scheyer only played him 12 minutes, half of Foster’s workload. Against Jeremy Fears and Michigan State, the Blue Devils’ guards were outmatched.
Inside, the contrast between Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje and Drew Scharnowski was hard to miss. Boumtje Boumtje, the 17-year-old freshman, is clearly the long-term piece here, but he’s still coming along.
He had five points and four rebounds in 21 minutes. Scharnowski, a Belmont transfer still getting back into game shape after missing significant time in the preseason, gave Duke a better immediate lift with eight points and six rebounds in 15 minutes.
That isn’t a knock on Boumtje Boumtje. It just looked like Scharnowski might be the more reliable option right now in tight games.
Duke also couldn’t get the defensive stops it needed when the game started to tilt. Every time the Blue Devils made a small push, Michigan State answered with an open three, a clean drive to the rim, or a foul drawn at the right moment. Duke couldn’t string together the stops necessary to flip momentum, and that’s a problem for a team that usually leans on its defense.
Fears was a major reason why. The Spartans’ offense ran through him, and Duke had trouble finding a real answer even with Dame Sarr assigned to him.
It was a humbling result for the Blue Devils, but maybe that’s the point of nights like this. Duke got exposed early, and now it has a clear list of issues to clean up before facing Illinois next Tuesday in Cameron Indoor.
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