In 2005, Duke had a rarity: they lost back-to-back games, both on the road. The first was to Maryland, 99-92, and then to Virginia Tech, 67-65.
Wake Forest came to Cameron after that, and Coach K was pissed. He kept JJ Redick and Shelden Williams in the starting lineup, but sat Daniel Ewing, Sean Dockery and Shavlik Randolph.
In their places, he put Reggie Love, Patrick Johnson, and Patrick Davidson.
He did this because he felt that the three benched starters weren’t playing up to Duke standards.
The
walk-ons did their best and showed full commitment to the standards, but they could not keep up with Chris Paul.
Duke ended up winning, 102-92. Skip Prosser mused afterwards that the starting lineup was “curious,” something Wake fans picked up on.
They assumed the whole scheme was to get Paul, but it was really a motivational tactic.
And it worked: Redick scored what was at the time his career high, 38, and Duke won, 102-92.
Coach K probably wasn’t thrilled about the defense, but in the following three games, no one scored above 60.
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