Observations from Duke's 76-54 thrashing of the Phoenix:
***In the immediate rush of things to do after the game (go the the locker room, listen to the coaches, try to read my notes, write, etc.), I failed to mention in the game story that the win over Elon marked Duke's 100th consecutive nonconference win in Cameron. The last such loss at Cameron? February 26, 2000, 83-82 to St. John's. that was nearly 13 years ago.
***In case it isn’t obvious, Mike Krzyzewski was in a reflective mood after the Elon win. Here’s another one of his reflections: “Overall, it’s a good game for us, we were fighting human nature, and you’re fighting the other team, and we won in both cases. The season is not going to be a perfect one, and I’m proud that we kept playing defense.”
***After the win over Cornell Krzyzewski has referred to Tyler Thornton as “workman-like,” and the moniker is a fitting one for the Duke junior that does a little bit of everything. Thursday, he hit back-to-back 3-pointers that pushed Duke’s lead back to double digits at 49-35 with 11:43 remaining. Thorton’s two treys started a run of seven consecutive made 3-pointers for the Blue Devils, who shot 57.9 percent (11-for-19) from deep for the game.
“You have to just muck things out for a while, and all of the sudden we got that spurt,” Krzyzewski said. “We were missing some wide-open shots, but then Tyler hit those two, and we just exploded.”
***One night after playing just two minutes in his Duke debut, Marshall Plumlee wasn’t dressed for the Elon game. Plumlee, who missed the first nine games of the year with a stress fracture in his left foot, didn’t play more against Cornell due to discomfort with that foot. Krzyzewski said he was held out against Elon as a precaution and expected him back at practice on the 26th. After the game, Marshall also said there wasn’t any significant setback with his health.
For all the latest Duke news, like Duke NOW on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.
