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Mason Plumlee's 'bad game' is bad news for ACC opponents

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mason Plumlee had a bad game Wednesday.

Those were his words, free from any sugar-coating or attempt to hide the truth. As his coach, Mike Krzyzewski, held court on the other side of the Time Warner Cable Arena after Duke's 67-50 victory over Davidson, Plumlee sat in the Blue Devils’ locker room and gave an honest, bare-bones assessment of his performance.

Mason Plumlee and the Blue Devils are SN's pick to win the ACC. (AP Photo)

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"I have to be better," he said. "I have to be more poised. I can't turn it over. I had a lot of travels. I just have to be better. I have to play better going forward. Just in terms of how I played, I had a bad game."

Plumlee wasn't dejected. The athletic 6-10 senior didn't look frustrated, and he wasn't moping around the locker room. The confession was just his matter-of-fact mindset after a game in which he had almost as many turnovers (six) as rebounds (seven). The nation's leading player of the year candidate, with eight double-doubles in his first 12 games, finished with just 10 points—easily a season-low—and four fouls as he fought through a brilliant defensive scheme devised by longtime Davidson coach Bob McKillop.

The "quick doubles," as Plumlee called them, worked wonders, especially in the first half. The Duke big man was suffocated by undersized Wildcats defenders—often, it was 6-7 De'Mon Brooks as the primary defender, with the closest guard dropping down to harass Plumlee. "They did something different defensively in that they double-teamed the post every time he got it, and they doubled it on the low side," Duke senior Ryan Kelly said. "That's something you don't see very often. You can practice it for a few days before, but you're not really going to experience it, except when you get on the floor."

The idea was, as McKillop said after the game, to throw a "team of defenders" at Plumlee. In theory, it's a blueprint for how teams might try to slow him in the future, no doubt. Doesn't mean it will necessarily work.

"You may see it, but it's not as good, and they don't have the rotation like Bob's team," Krzyzewski said. "That's what Bob's team does. They have a veteran team, so I thought Mason overall did OK. When he kicked it out, I don't know if we were ready. We didn't cut, and we kind of left him stranded there a few times. It's a difficult thing. I thought in the second half we did a much better job of getting open looks."

In fact, Plumlee had both of his assists in the second half. And he played a huge role in getting Davidson's versatile big man, Jake Cohen, in foul trouble. Cohen was remarkably effective when he was on the court—scoring 19 points and grabbing eight rebounds—but he only played 19 minutes in the entire game, including just five in the first half.

Plumlee also came up with three blocks and a pair of steals.

"He does so many things for us on the floor that even when the ball isn't going in the basket, he's such a presence," said Kelly, who led Duke with 18 points. "… Any player, you have to learn when defenses are going to key on you more, what you can do to help your team. But even when he isn't getting as many shots or making as many shots, he does so much for our offense. There's so much focus on him, it opens up things for other people."

And even though that first half was pretty regrettable for Plumlee, he came through with two key buckets to quell a budding Davidson rally right around the eight-minute mark of the second half. "When it came down to crunch time, though, he made that dunk and he made that short jump hook, so at crunch time he did deliver," McKillop said. "He certainly is a serious candidate for player of the year. He's very talented, and he plays as hard as heck."

One 10-point, seven-rebound, six-turnover game obviously isn't going to crush Plumlee's player of the year candidacy. In fact, the idea that he had a subpar game and still was able to help his team stay undefeated with a 17-point victory against a very good squad speaks volumes as to his maturation.

"I mean, it's one game and you can't dwell on it," Plumlee said. "You've got to move forward. I'm not all of a sudden questioning everything good that's been happening. I know that I always come back strong, and I know the next game's going to be a good one."

That next game is the ACC opener, against Wake Forest at noon Saturday. The Demon Deacons should consider themselves warned.

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