Duke Basketball Must Take 'Collective Responsibility' for Early Loss

Duke basketball never led against the No. 5-ranked Michigan State Spartans in the No. 2 Blue Devils' eventual 79-73 loss at the Champions Classic in Chicago's United Center on Tuesday night. Prior to that outing, the last time one of Jon Scheyer's squads failed to hold a lead against an opponent was on March 9, 2024, when the 2023-24 team fell to the archrival UNC Tar Heels at home, 84-79.

Not much went right for Duke versus Michigan State. The Blue Devils were unable to sustain any considerable momentum when trying to climb back from their deficits throughout the contest. As a group, they left themselves with little hope of emerging victorious by shooting a dismal 20-for-60 from the field (33.3 percent), 7-for-29 beyond the arc (24.1 percent), and 26-for-37 at the charity stripe (70.3 percent).

Outside of relatively encouraging performances off the bench courtesy of forwards Sebastian Wilkins and Drew Scharnowski, there just wasn't anything for Duke to be overly excited about afterward.

So, when asked in the postgame press conference about his message to the team in light of the fact that the Blue Devils still have to play three more top-five squads over the next three weeks, Scheyer suggested that his group, including himself and his coaching staff, must accept all blame as a unit.

"Look, anytime you lose, it's finger-pointing time, and you can either decide to make excuses, you can point the finger at somebody else, or we can take collective responsibility," Scheyer, who is now 126-26 overall (82.9 winning percentage) as head coach of the Blue Devils since succeeding Mike Krzyzewski aheaad of the 2022-23 campaign, explained to the media on hand.

"That's what I'm going to do. I'm responsible for how we played tonight. I'm going to watch the film. I'm going to live in it. And I'm going to move past it quickly because we can't just be in this moment. But we have plenty of things we can address and plenty of things we can get better in. Most importantly, we've got to play together. That wasn't Duke basketball tonight. We did not play together..."

Scheyer added that he and his Blue Devils "will make sure we're connected, playing the right way" moving forward.

Duke Basketball Preparing for Back-To-Back Home Games

Fortunately for the Blue Devils, their next two outings are back home in the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the famed Cameron Crazies are sure to be in attendance to support Scheyer's deeply talented bunch in its effort to bounce back from the disappointing defeat against the Spartans.

Duke hosts the unranked SIU Edwardsville Cougars at 8 p.m. ET Friday (The CW) before welcoming the No. 3 Illinois Fighting Illini to Coach K Court at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN).

After that, the Blue Devils will head out west for neutral-site matchups against the unranked Washington State Cougars, set for Saturday, Nov. 21, in Palm Desert, Calif., and the No. 4 UConn Huskies, set for Wednesday, Nov. 25, in Las Vegas.

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