A Devil of a Time

DURHAM, N.C. – While offense puts points on the board and fans in the seats, the foundation for any team that wants to compete for a championship in any sport can be found in that two-syllable word usually chanted when the home team needs a big stop: De-fense.

So when the Boston University men’s basketball team held Duke University – a team with more offensive firepower than the Spanish Armada - to less than 65 points in a 64-47 loss, it can be seen as a small victory.

Defense was a staple of last year’s Terrier squad that led the nation in field goal percentage defense and ranked third in scoring defense. BU held opponents to a 37.1 shooting percentage and 55.7 points per game.

In fact, in head coach Dennis Wolff’s tenure, BU has held the opposition to fewer than 55 points in 76 of 325 games (almost a quarter of the games), winning 72 of them.

Although BU failed to keep Duke under the magic number of 55, it did keep the No. 1 team in the nation - one that averaged almost 80 points a game last season – partially in check.

“I thought Boston University played outstanding defense,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Historically they have played well defensively, and they did again tonight.”

Although first team All-Americans J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams scored 19 and 17 points, neither dominated.

The Terriers marked Williams with either Ibrahim Konate, Kevin Gardner or Ben Coblyn, putting their biggest bodies on the 6-foot, 9-inch, 250-pound senior, depending on who was in the game.

“Our coaches stress defense,” said Terrier sophomore swingman Tony Gaffney. “They always have and they always will. We stressed the defense of Redick and Williams for the last three weeks. It was a good experience and we’re gonna learn from it.”

Shaun Wynn carried the dubious responsibility of guarding Redick. But Wynn held his own, staying in the face of the 2005 National Player of the Year all night. Duke repeatedly set picks for Redick in the first half, looking to get Wynn off him and get their main scorer going after a slow start. But Wynn pushed through, keeping the lethal shooter without a 3-pointer for only the fifth time in 104 games at Duke.

“[Redick] was wrapping off screens and curling into the lane more than fading back [for a three-point shot],” Wolff said. “Shaun Wynn is a strong kid and a good defender. We did a pretty good job of showing on the screens which enabled us to have two guys on [Redick] when he caught the ball.”

While Redick and Williams had marginal success, the rest of the Blue Devils didn’t fare nearly as well. Besides those two, who shot a combined 50 percent, the rest of the team only made nine of 29 shots (31 percent) from the floor.

The Blue Devils missed their first nine field goal attempts and didn’t score until a Josh McRoberts putback at 16:17 of the first half.

Krzyzewski said a lot of that had to due with the pressure the BU defense was applying.

“I think BU puts pressure on you in two ways,” Krzyzewski said. “First of all, they just play good defense. And then secondly, you know this isn’t going to be a high-scoring, run-up and run-down game, so each possession becomes a little bit more important. So there’s a little bit of game pressure on, and we haven’t had that this year. Our two exhibition games were blowouts. I mean, I probably could have hit a three. Maybe not, but it’s different circumstances.”

The two exhibition games Krzyzewski referred to were romps over North Carolina Central University and Canada’s Concordia College. Duke annihilated Concordia, 126-66, and trounced NCCU, 102-42. So, clearly, this was Duke’s first look at a top-tier defense.

“It was the first team we’ve played this year who was collective on the defensive end,” Williams said. “They play team basketball on the defensive end, and that’s something we haven’t been accustomed to.”