Saturday night, Duke lost its first game of the year. The loss came on a neutral site, by one point, to a Top 20 Texas Tech squad with a pre-season All American (JT Toppin) and a dynamic young point guard (Christian Anderson) who may himself challenge for similarly lofty accolades. Despite that star power, the Red Raiders still needed some otherworldly (borderline lucky) shotmaking from Anderson, combined with a questionable end-of-game foul call, to take down the Blue Devils. In isolation, this sounds like a reasonable loss—after all, Jon Scheyer put together Duke’s non-conference gauntlet specifically so his young squad would learn hard lessons before the calendar turned to 2026.
So why doesn’t it feel that way?
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A result that will appear perfectly reasonable come Selection Sunday feels like a harsh wakeup call for Duke fans in the moment. It’s because, in blowing a 17 point second half lead to Texas Tech, lingering concerns about this Blue Devil squad that were glossed over by victories have been put on display for the college basketball world to see.
Worried about the tendency for Scheyer’s teams to get out to slow starts? The Red Raiders were up 9-0 in a blink of an eye.
Worried about Duke’s free throw shooting? Duke shot just 58% from the stripe, including key misses down the stretch.
Worried about the lack of a consistent second option behind Cam Boozer? The prime candidates to fill that role—sophomores Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba—combined for a total of eight points.
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I could go on.
Perhaps most worrisome, and most triggering for Duke fans, was how familiar this collapse felt. The Blue Devils were more firmly in control of this contest than even a 17 point advantage would indicate. Anderson had been held in check in the first half, in large part due to Scheyer leveraging his team’s size advantage to guard the smaller guard with 6-foot-7 Dame Sarr. Toppin would pick up his fourth foul early in the second half, and the Red Raiders’ best first-half performer—Lejuan Watts—would foul out entirely. Yet, Duke didn’t put Texas Tech away, but instead allowed the Red Raiders to slowly chip away at the lead.
That lack of killer instinct was the biggest question mark followed last year’s Duke team, but the transcendent talent of Cooper Flagg and the other four Blue Devils drafted in the last NBA Draft kept the Blue Devils in the win column for most of the season. That is, of course, until the bill came due at the worst possible time—against Houston in the Final Four.
Perhaps that’s the exact reason why Scheyer created a non-conference slate that no reasonable fan expected Duke emerge from undefeated. This loss will undoubtedly leave a bad taste in these players’ mouths over the holiday break, and give the coaching staff ample ammunition for some needed hard lessons when they return. If handled correctly, this will merely be a one-point loss to a Top 20 team come March, when such things matter.
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But there’s no longer anywhere for these young Blue Devils to hide from these issues. The slow starts, the poor free throw shooting, and the search for a go-to secondary scoring option have now cost them a game they should have won. If they don’t fix those issues fast, 1 loss may end up defining this team more than 11 wins.
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