Duke Basketball vs. Virginia: 69 - 63

This was the game after Rasheed Sulaimon became the first player ever kicked off a Mike Krzhzewski Duke team.  I personally always had a soft spot for Rasheed Sulaimon as I have fond memories of his freshman year.  So how would the team respond against the #2 ranked team?  They responded just fine.  Duke jumped out to a quick lead, but Virginia slowly pulled closer and the 1st half ended 26 - 25.  What I found interesting was how Duke was able to drive the basket.  Last year, Virginia's defense looked really stingy against Duke, but in the 1st half Duke seemed to breakdown that defense with ease.  That speaks more to Duke's offensive abilities versus Virginia's defensive demise as in the last two games Virginia held their opponents to 28 and 47.  What was concerning in the 1st half was that Duke wasn't able to hit a 3 pointer and Jahlil Okafor was having turnover problems.

The second half hit and Duke's offense stalled out.  At the 9:15 mark, Duke was down 47 - 37.  Around this time, one of the announcers mentioned that being down 10/11 points to Virginia was more like being down 19.  Well, Duke's offense finally started to heat up.  Okafor's turnover problems ended and he started to score.  Three point shots started to fall.  Duke finally took the lead with 1:20 left in the game.  Then Virginia had a bad offensive series that took up 34 seconds.  Duke got the ball back with 0:46 seconds left.  Virginia decided not to foul and with the clock running down, Tyus Jones hit a 3 pointer with 11 seconds left.  That provided Duke with a  6 point lead and so Virginia was dealt their first loss of the season.

Potential major future concern as Duke has lost 2 players this season: with 8 scholarship players left, one has to be concerned about how the team can appropriately prepare for opponents in practice.