There are plenty of reasons Duke lost to Michigan State in last night’s Champions Classic. Duke’s primary offensive engines—John Blackwell and Patrick Ngongba II—combined to shoot 8 for 23 from the field. As a team, the Blue Devils shot below 25% from beyond the arc while missing 11 free throws. Despite being smaller almost across the board, the Spartans out-rebounded the Blue Devils by one. Similarly, Michigan State frustrated Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje to the point that the 7-foot-2 freshman was unable
to generate any offensive momentum despite typically being guarded by players on which he had more than half a foot.
But all those reasons are secondary to this: Michigan State had the best player on the floor in Jeremy Fears Jr.
Fears lived up to his lofty reputation and then some in this contest, leading the game in scoring by living at the free throw line and adding an absurd 11 assists. Every other Spartan played a complementary role, and did so with aplomb—Jordan Scott was a defensive menace, Jesse McCulloch provided toughness off the bench, and a host of secondary scorers made key shots facilitated by Fears.
This was, undoubtedly, a shock to the Duke fans who have grown accustomed over the past two seasons to always having the best player on the floor. It was, after all, Cameron Boozer’s transcendent play that was the impetus behind one of Duke’s best ever non-conference performances last season. A season before, Flagg’s dominance in ACC play was the driver of one of the best statistical seasons in recent memory.
It’s easy to forget, though, how different the Boozer-led team and the Flagg-led team were in November. And that comparison is particularly apropos for understanding last night’s Blue Devil loss.
Boozer was the rare freshman that stepped onto campus (nearly) fully formed. He didn’t follow the typical freshman learning curve, but instead was the team’s alpha from the start. That meant that not only did Duke have the best player on the floor in all of it’s early-season non-conference matchups, but the team’s roles were also easy to define: complement Boozer’s ball-dominance with shooting, passing, and defense.
The Flagg squad took longer to find those roles, and Flagg himself was not the same player in November as he was in March. Flagg became a strong three point shooter (shooting 38.5% from deep during his lone season in Durham) but struggled from deep early in the year: he made just one three pointer in both of Duke’s early losses to Kentucky and Kansas. Meanwhile, Kon Kneuppel was still adjusting to the college game and was nowhere near the player who would eventually get drafted No. 4 overall in the NBA draft, while Sion James was still Duke’s sixth man. The Blue Devils’ roles were less established, in part because Flagg had not fully evolved into the well-rounded superstar he would eventually become.
To be clear, there is no Boozer nor Flagg on this year’s Duke squad. But in many critical ways this year’s team is much more like Flagg’s than Boozer’s. Key roles are not yet established, including the all important role of a late-shot-clock scorer. The starting lineup could arguably be in flux with Caleb Foster and Sebastian Wilkins pushing for more time with their strong early-season play. Boumtje Boumtje has looked very much like a 17 year old playing against players many years his senior.
Those growing pains can be masked by having the best player on the floor. A transcendent talent can also outweigh a poor shooting night or playing in a semi-hostile environment. But last night, for the first time in nearly two seasons, Duke didn’t have the best player on the floor.
None of that changes the fact that the Blue Devils may still be the best team in the country; instead, it emphasizes that it takes longer for that team identity to develop. Cam Boozer was Cam Boozer in November of last season, and Duke won because of it. This year, the Blue Devil team that could conceivably play Michigan State again in March (or April) will in all likelihood be very different than the team that just lost to them in November.
And as Duke fans know all too well, at that time of the year the best team more often triumphs over the best player.
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