Duke Dominates Pitt In Classic Cameron Blowout, 76-47

We’re going to be talking about this one for a long time.

That dunk.

Everyone is going to be talking about That Dunk. Not just tonight and tomorrow but for a long time. Why? Because it was freaking incredible. But there’s a catch: it was only part of an astonishing performance by Cooper Flagg that helped propel Duke to a 76-47 win.

Flagg picked up two early fouls and spent a fair amount of the first half on the bench as a result.

It could be just a perception , we could be wrong about this, but in the second half, Flagg played like he was really pissed off.

Seriously.

Flagg owned the first 10 minutes of the second half and on both ends of the court. He was unbelievably vigilant. On defense, he was picking up guards and playing a little off of his guy, even when the guy was under the basket, and still controlled him.

Guy drove? Flagg stepped up and altered the play.

Shot went up?

Flagg got the rebound.

Flagg brought the ball up. Flagg made smart passes. Flagg scored or got the ball someone else to score pretty much at will.

Do you remember what people said about him at the Olympic trials this past summer? That for three minutes, he was the most dominant player on the court?

That guy showed up. It was the most complete...well it wasn’t a whole game. But the last time we saw a Duke player play the whole game at that level was Shane Battier’s last game, when he helped the Blue Devils win the 2001 national championship.

If you didn’t realize it or haven’t seen the game, go watch about the first 10 minutes or so and focus on Flagg. You won’t believe it.

Not that the first half was bad or anything.

Duke started off 3-3 and then fell into a deep freeze, hitting just 1-13 after that. Fortunately, Pitt wasn’t any better. Both Jon Scheyer, who was back after missing the SMU game due to an illness, and Jeff Capel, who like Scheyer played for and later assisted Mike Krzyzewski, are outstanding defensive coaches. Part of it was missing shots but a bigger part of it was just tough, physical defense from both teams.

And when Flagg picked up his second foul at the 12:30 mark, he departed for a good while.

Thing is, Duke started to pull away when Flagg was on the bench. The Blue Devils pulled back ahead at 15-14 on a Mason Gillis layup and then just steadily pulled away.

By the time Kon Knueppel hit a pair of threes with the second one coming at the 4:33 mark, the Blue Devils were up 29-19, it was hard to imagine Pitt coming back. Stranger things have happened, but it just seemed unlikely.

And then the second half started and Flagg took his game from wicked good to unbelievable.

Take a gander at ESPN’s second-half play-by-play:

• 19:49 Cooper Flagg made Jumper. 24-36
• 19:30 Cooper Flagg Defensive Rebound. 24-36
• 19:25 Cooper Flagg missed Layup. 24-36
• 19:14 Cooper Flagg Defensive Rebound. 24-36
• 18:45 Cooper Flagg Block.
• 17:35 Cooper Flagg Steal. 26-37
• 17:32 Cooper Flagg made Dunk. 26-39
• 17:32 Cooper Flagg made Free Throw. 26-40
• 16:47 Cooper Flagg made Dunk. 28-42

It was one of the most dominant stretches of basketball we’ve seen in years. Flagg is typically content to just see his team win and he doesn’t care about his personal stats if they do.

Whatever happened, for the first time, we got to see him in takeover mode.

Not that he was perfect. He still doesn’t understand that he can’t spin into defenders without getting his pocket picked. One shot was essentially an airball.

In general, though?

The positives wildly outweighed the negatives.

Okay, Flagg rave over for now.

The rest of the team was pretty solid too, not least of all Khaman Maluach, who appears to be taking his game to a different level. We saw signs of this at SMU Saturday and more Tuesday night.

A lot of times he has been tentative underneath the basket, unwilling to get physical. Well, that may stage may be over. Malauch was much more physical here than we’ve seen him. He also was more aggressive on defense. It’s not that he blocked more shots - he was only credited with one block. But he’s got more of an attitude about it.

Before SMU, he often just put his hands up, and since his standing reach is almost rim height, that’s a factor.

Lately though, he’s not settling for that, and in the second half especially, SMU really didn’t take as many shots when he was nearby. That changes things.

Maluach finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

Kon Knueppel played well too, hitting 4-7 on threes and 5-12 overall.

Tyrese Proctor finished with 13 points and Sion James with 10 and seven rebounds.

The bench didn’t contribute a lot offensively but it didn’t need to this time. That’s nothing to worry about.

Ultimately, Duke held Pitt to 6-20 from three point range - there would be no repeat of last year’s brilliant three point shooting by Blake Hinson who hit 7-7 from deep - and just 31 percent overall (18-58).

Duke also hammered Pitt on the boards, 41-26 with both teams getting nine second chance shots.

The most impressive part of the night though might have been the last 7:59, because that was the last time Pitt scored.

Duke was up 58-47 and outscored the Panthers 18-0 in the last eight minutes of the game.

As brilliant as Flagg’s performance was for the first part of the second half, what Duke did, collectively, against a very good Pitt team down the stretch was amazing.

There are certainly things about this game that can be improved. The 1-13 stretch in the first half was pretty bad. That Duke ended up shooting 50 percent overall (26-52) and 55 percent from behind the line (11-20) is kind of crazy after that long, cold stretch.

And Duke had 14 turnovers, including Flagg’s spins into traffic.

Those things you can work on and get better at.

Holding a team scoreless for 8:00 (just grant the second, it’s no big deal you tightwad), for the final 8:00, is something that former Virginia coach Tony Bennett would love.

Duke has shown tremendous growth in the last two games. We can’t wait to see what’s next.

Notes - we watched the late flagrant call against Damian Dunn and still don’t understand it...as Corey Alexander suggested, it was just a tap, but a tap below the belt can be devastating...but it didn’t look like a Chris Paul special...Proctor seemed to be in pain so maybe video didn’t show it as well as it might have...Duke shot very well despite Isaiah Evans not scoring at all...lately he’s shown an ability come in and just light it up...James had five rebounds in the first half and seven for the game...he has been able to get to the basket quite a bit lately....in his post-game comments, Capel said that was makes Flagg special is his competitive desire and that that permeates through the team...

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