How To Beat Duke

Image by emurray via Flickr

Duke forces teams to guard useless players like Zoubek. The way to beat them is to guard the three point line and force Shcheyer and Singlar to shoot off the dribble. Singlar can barely hit the rim off the dribble from outside.
Next Zoubeks is no threat to shoot when he is more than 5 feet away from the basket, so let him run around all he wants. Keep your bigs under the basket.
Next when Duke's big body up let them knock you into an official or two. You can also fly into another Duke player when they cross block you.
If Duke get's physical, take every opportunity to subtley give them a shot while the ref is not looking. If you can't do that step in when they are at full speed, so that they hit you and go flying.
Next every time one of your guys gets hit point at them and look at the ref.
Nolan Smith can shoot off the dribble, so force him to shoot twos.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Duke: The Final Four's villain? (cnn.com)
• Andy Staples: Villains or not, Duke did the dirty work for this Final Four trip (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• Coaches' takes on how to stop the Final Four (tourney.si.com)