It was a game so raggedy its mascots should have been Ann and Andy. It was a game speckled with moments of borderline brilliance but many more of staggering incompetence.
It was a game that featured guys named Bassett and Suhr and McClure, bit players who took turns on center stage. It was a game whose two purported stars floundered, combining to score only 14 points while going 5 of 19 from the field.
All this was not unexpected.
It was not unexpected because this is what happens in a game featuring two teams in search of an identity, which was the case Tuesday night when Indiana visited Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I’ll be interested to see how our kids respond,” Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski had said. His curiosity was matched by his counterpart.
“Before you can be a good road team, you have to have a foundation of how it is you want to play,” Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson said. “That’s the thing we’re still searching for, something that we can say, `This is who we are. Every game this is what we’re going to be.’
“There have been flashes that we’re pretty good at different things. But there hasn’t been one common thread in any of the games we played.”
That was still true for both after this game, which Duke escaped with a 54-51 victory when Hoosier Errek Suhr missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.
More telling than the result, however, was the way the game unfolded in bumps and lurches.
Duke surged early and Indiana floundered as the Blue Devils rushed to a 12-point halftime lead. Then Indiana rallied and Duke stumbled as the Hoosiers tied it 40-40 with just over 12 minutes to go.
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Finally, despite scoring only one point in the final 5:03, Duke grabbed the victory by holding Indiana to five over that stretch. So has Duke found its identity?
“On defense,” Krzyzewski said. “I think we’re playing great defense. For a young team to play this well on defense, it’s off the charts. When they make a mistake, they know it and get angry about it. We don’t have that on offense. Right now we don’t have a real cocky offensive player.”
Sampson said: “We’ve got to find something we’re good at. We can’t spend the season walking through someone else’s living room with a blindfold on. We’ll keep hitting things. We’ve got to find an identity.”
Forward D.J. White was expected to give the Hoosiers that. But he finished with seven points after going 3 of 11. Forward Josh McRoberts was expected to do the same for the Blue Devils, but he, too, finished with seven after going 2 of 8.
That left this game to Hoosiers freshman Armon Bassett, who played fearlessly and scored 16 points, and to Suhr, who energized his team and lifted them after their first-half collapse.
They were the catalysts of the surge that dragged Indiana out of its deep hole, and the Hoosiers were there again in the final frantic 60 seconds.
Bassett missed a jumper. Duke’s DeMarcus Nelson missed a pair of free throws. Suhr turned it over, stripped by Duke’s David McClure. Duke’s Gerald Henderson made one of two free throws. Bassett was blocked by McClure, Nelson turned it over and Suhr missed his final three.
That’s what happened in those final 60 seconds, which was fitting for a game so ragged and for teams so far from being finished products.
But on this night, in a meeting rife with emotion and sweat, each took a step toward reaching that state, which is one reason for these murderous games of November. They may leave you with a defeat, but they also provide a glimpse of the future.
“We’re growing. We’re learning,” Sampson finally said, making this point at the end.
“I’m certainly disappointed we lost, but I’m not disappointed in our effort. I think we’re getting closer to having an identity. I think our kids showed some resolve.”
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