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Duke's Best and Worst Lineups Against Georgia State

Coach K went back to some of his old favorites in game four

It seems possible that coach Mike Krzyzewski is nearing the end of his experimentation phase with this year’s roster.

The first three games of the season saw a revolving door at the scorer’s table, with players shuttling in and out in a dazzling array of lineup combinations.

Against Georgia State, however, Krzyzewski began going back to some of his old favorites.

Duke used 19 lineups against the Panthers but 11 of them were ones Krzyzewski had tried before, the most repeat lineups Duke has used this season, by far. Coach K even brought back the Alex O'Connell, Javin DeLaurier, Tre Jones, Cassius Stanley, Jack White grouping that broke open the Colorado State game. That grouping didn’t have quite the same success this time out, only outscoring Georgia State 3-2 over 57 seconds.

Javin Delaurier’s foul trouble—he picked up four fouls in two minutes in the first half—likely slowed the mixing and matching, since it kept a key component off the floor for much of the first 30 minutes of the game.

Tre Jones playing all 40 minutes also reduced the number of different combinations Coach K could use.

Most of the new personnel combinations involved making further use of Joey Baker and/or Jordan Goldwire.

new lineups ga st

Baker only had eight points in the game, but he was part of four of the five most productive lineups against Georgia State.

ga st lineups

Krzyzewski also stuck with lineups for longer than in the past. His five lineups with the most playing time were on the floor for more than 21 minutes, leaving less than 18 minutes for the other 14 lineups.

Here’s a look at Duke’s most productive lineups on the season.

top 20 ga st

And here are Duke’s negative plus-minus lineups for the year.

negative lineups ga st