Duke's win sets up a dream match-up in the NIT Final

For the first time this season, Duke faced a challenge.

Arizona State jumped on the Devils early. Undeterred by the name on the front of the white jerseys, the Sun Devils gave Duke their first real test of the season, jumping out to a 15-7 lead in the first five minutes. Freshman Trent Lockett scored 11 of his 13 points in the run.

"You play four games at home, and you're running and shooting and things are going easy," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game.

"Then all of a sudden, you're in a possession by possession game against a defense that you haven't played against before."

It wasn't just on the offensive end that Duke struggled early.

With just three guards on their roster, Coach K has been forced to use a bigger line-up this season, starting Kyle Singler at the three. Against a team that plays four guards, this provided quite the mismatch.

Early in the game, Duke's four man, 6'8" Lance Thomas, was forced to match-up with Arizona State's Jamelle McMillan, a quick, 6'2" combo guard who is the son of former Sonic and current Trail Blazer's coach Nate McMillan.

As you might imagine, McMillan had a field day in the early going.

"Jamelle really played well. We couldn't keep him in front of us," Coach K said.

So Krzyzewski made an adjustment.

He brought in freshman Andre Dawkins, moving Singler to the four. Not only did Dawkins help to slow down the Sun Devils penetration, he knocked down a couple big early jumpers to get Duke into a rhythm on the offensive end.

"We were in kind of a funk as far as scoring," Coach K said. "It was big for a freshman to come in and [hit those shots]."

Duke really shut down ASU defensively after a sluggish start.
(photo credit: AP)

Once the Devils woke offensively, their defense came around as well. ASU scored 15 points in the first six minutes of play. They managed just 38 points the rest of the way, as Duke's defense held the Sun Devils to 38% shooting on the night.

The Blue Devils broke this game open midway through the second half with a 9-2 spurt.

And it was none other than Kyle Singler that sparked the run.

Mired in a cold shooting night as he missed eight of his first nine shots, Singler scored back to back buckets, the first on a 15 foot elbow jumper and the second on a tough lay-up in traffic. After Scheyer knocked down a jumper of his own, Singler buried a three to give Duke their largest lead of the game up to that point.

Guess who got the assist?

Scheyer.

Playing strictly the point this season, Scheyer, who finished the night with 16 points and 6 assists, has excelled. Not only did he come into this game averaging 16.5 ppg and 5.3 apg, but in 131 minutes of basketball, Scheyer had not committed a turnover.

That streak ended tonight at the 8:02 mark of the first half, as Scheyer stepped out of bounds catching a pass.

Scheyer laughed about it after the game.

"Everybody looked at me when it happened," he joked. "I just wish it could have happened on a cool pass, not stepping on the line. It's something that just happened but I'm blaming everybody on the team because they started talking about the streak after last game."

He finished the game with two turnovers.

It will be quite a task for Scheyer to keep his 13.5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio intact on Friday afternoon against the Huskies.

UConn's strength is their defensive pressure, as Kemba Walker and Jerome Dyson are as good defending on the ball as anyone back court tandem in the country. Scheyer and his back court mate Nolan Smith, who had 14 points against Arizona State, will have their work cut out for them.

"Jim has won a lot of games doing it the way he's doing it," Coach K quipped after Duke's win. "I'd be shocked if we didn't see a three-quarter court press, a 2-2-1."

While both Duke and UConn will head into Friday's 5PM final feeling confident, one thing that will be ingrained into the minds of both teams over the next 36 hours is that neither has faced this level of competition yet during this young season.

The starting line-up that UConn trotted out tonight went 6'9" (Stanley Robinson), 6'9" (Alex Oriakhi), and 7'0" (Charles Okwandu), with 6'8" Gavin Edwards coming off the bench.

Stanley Robinson and the UConn front line will have a challenge awaiting them on Friday.
(photo credit: ESPN)

That's bigger than the Knicks front line.

But for the first time this season, the Huskies will face a team that can match-up with their altitude. Kyle Singler and Lance Thomas are both 6'8". Ryan Kelly and Miles Plumlee are both 6'10". And Brian Zoubek is a full-fledged 7'1".

Will the energy and aggressiveness that the Huskies front line displayed against a weaker LSU team provide the same lift against the Blue Devils?

Duke will have their own match-up issues.

A huge reason for the Blue Devil's early season success has been the play of Scheyer, Dawkins, and Smith in the back court. But how well are those three going to perform when they have Kemba Walker and Jerome Dyson hounding them for 75 feet on every possession?

We find out Friday.

Every time these two programs lock horns, it seems to be a classic on a big stage. In 1990, Christian Laettner's heroics sent Duke to the Final Four. In 1999, it was Khalied El-Amin providing the clutch, late-game buckets that led to the Huskies "shocking the world." And in 2004, UConn went on a 12-0 run at the end of the game to erase an eight point deficit with just over three minutes left in the game.

While this isn't the NCAA tournament, this is Madison Square Garden.

This is ESPN.

And this is Duke-UConn.

So come Friday, find a comfortable spot on your couch, fix a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers, and enjoy the show.