NCAA: Advantage Duke?

By Stephen Baker CPKSports Senior Writer

Like most of you, I spent the weekend watching the Final Four. About the time Lonny Baxter fouled out I started thinking, does Duke get every call or does it just seem that way? Since I’m the curious type, I looked through the box scores of every Duke game and look what I found:

Opp-Duke PF Opp-Duke FTA

Regular Season 661-513 539-776

Avg 22.0-17.1 18.0-25.9

Postseason 167-130 129-203

Avg 20.9-16.3 16.1-25.4

OVERALL 828-643 668-979

17.6-25.8

The numbers sort of leap off the page, don’t they? It looks like the officials call the tournament a little looser, but not significantly. Duke averages five less fouls a game and eight more free throws. That’s a huge advantage, and the picture gets even worse when you look at the game log.

The officials only called 17 fouls or less on Duke’s opponents six times. Only six times in 38 games did anyone even reach Duke’s average. Conversely, the refs only blew the whistle 22 times on the Devils six times as well. So Duke rarely approached their opponents average just as their opponents rarely approached Duke’s.

It’s the same story with free throw attempts. Only six times did the opponents reach Duke’s average number of attempts, while a whopping eight times Duke fell to their opponents average. One of those games is the Monmouth game, in which Duke shot four free throws. Even with such a paltry showing in game one, Duke averaged 25.4 free throws per game in the postseason.

Duke got whistled for more fouls six times in 38 games. In those games, the average margin between number of fouls was 3.4, and the largest margin a five foul edge by UNC. Duke went to the line less times in six games, the largest margin the twelve free throws by Monmouth.

It’s not like Duke plays conservative defense. They press frequently, use their hands a lot, and draw tons of charges. It’s a philosophy that would normally lead to lots of fouls both ways, but not for Duke. They play the cleanest style of press in basketball history.

Either Duke has mastered the art of going to the very brink of fouling without fouling, or they benefit from the officiating, which defers to the Duke legend. Call me a skeptic.

*Note: these numbers do NOT include the Arizona game.

Article courtesy of CPKSports.com