Chief Editor
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Red-hot is the only word that can be used to describe how the Duke Blue Devils have been playing, which continued on Thursday as they dominated a good Oral Roberts team. Inconsistency has defined the Tennessee Volunteers as the Vols got a huge lead in their first-round game against Louisiana only to see them go cold and have to fight to finish the game off at the end.
The Blue Devils never let Oral Roberts off the bus.
On the first tip, Duke took an early 11-0 lead and never looked back. From that point forward, it was all Duke all the way.
Duke showed no sign of slowing down after their dominance of the ACC Tournament and their ten-game winning streak with this win.
The offense is hitting everything with excellent ball movement, few mistakes, and plenty of easy plays as the team plays with unwavering confidence.
The Vols may be great at defending the three, but Duke doesn’t need that outside shot to pull away for a victory.
Tennessee’s offense has remained resilient even when there were setbacks the last couple of weeks.
From the outside looking in, this team doesn’t appear to be a major threat at shooting the ball well. Still, it had hit ten threes in three of its previous five games coming into its game against the Ragin’ Cajuns and still managed to come out on top even though it didn’t shot well in the opening round game.
For the Vols, it’s a simple formula – they must dominate defensively. Their record stands at 21-2 when keeping opponents to 40% or under from the field.
Duke doesn’t force enough turnovers to stay on the move and create easy points, leading to missed opportunities.
These two teams have not played this season.
Duke is on fire, and the Volunteers aren’t. If Tennessee is to win, they will have to hold Duke to around 40 per cent shooting, and I don’t think any team can do that right now.
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