Duke appeared in control up eight with eight minutes left against Texas Tech, but Christian Anderson flipped the game on its head. The Red Raiders stormed back for an 82-81 win, handing Jon Scheyer his first loss of the season. Scheyer admitted the defeat would linger. The collapse also exposed issues that Texas Tech and Grant McCasland were quick to address.

Duke was wobbly pretty much the entire game. They started by conceding a 9-0 run to Texas Tech. After taking the lead with 7 minutes to go in the first half, Duke looked in cruise control until the final 8 minutes, when Christian Anderson scored 3 clutch jumpers from outside, along with a layup to complete Texas Tech’s comeback.  

“There are things that I think Texas Tech exposed and things that have been exposed as the season’s gone on a little bit defensively,” Sam Ravech said on the Field Of 68 podcast.

“I think this is a very, very high-level team defense, but when you have teams like Christian Anderson, some of these guys that can matchup hunt that want to get switches and put some of these guys on an island, that’s where it gets a little bit tricky for this Duke team.”

Remember, Duke is the youngest team in the country, by a mile. Despite that, they have a top defense rated 5th in the country on KenPom with an adjusted defensive efficiency of 92.4. That youth comes with a few drawbacks, as the players are not as physically developed as some of their opponents. It leads to a weak 1v1 defense. 

Apart from Maliq Brown with a defensive box plus minus of 6.4, there is no Duke player in the top 15 on Barttorvik. The next best is Cameron Boozer at No.19 with a DBPM of 5.7. Boozer’s only downside so far has been a lack of athleticism, which the quick and agile guards could exploit. 

Grant McCasland showed why he was signed to a $31.5 million, 6-year deal by effectively exploiting this fatal flaw for Duke, despite having three players out with injuries and a couple in foul trouble late in the game. He used Anderson to the full extent as he finished with 27 points and 5 assists.

Caleb Foster and Brown did a great job guarding Anderson in the first half. But Texas Tech changed its tactics in the second half. McCasland had multiple guard-to-guard screens for Anderson, which switched defenders like Cameron and Cayden Boozer on him.

It was easier for the point guard to go past them. Texas Tech ended up shooting a whopping 55% from the field, their second-most accurate game of the season. This Achilles heel could haunt them come ACC play, according to John Henson.

“I think the ACC is really strong right now, stronger than it’s been in the past, and their ceiling is a little lower than last year’s team, so there’s less margin for error for them,” Henson said. 

The ACC has noticeably improved this season. Duke is traditionally the behemoths but the middle and low-tier teams are better this season. With the regular season back to 18 games, the ACC teams have more freedom in the non-conference to prove themselves. In the non-conference schedule, ACC squads are 38-39 against P5 opponents, essentially playing even with the rest of the power structure.

In Quadrant 1 games, the league is 16-31, still lagging, but a lot better than the 10-50 record last season. There are four teams in the top 30 of the NET compared to three last season. Going up against an improved conference, Duke will need immense improvement in their offense as well. 

Jon Scheyer needs to find an offensive contributor beyond Cameron Boozer 

 There were multiple red flags in this game. The Blue Devils missed 12 shots from the free-throw line. Seven of those failures came in the second half at crucial points in the game. They finished the game at just 58.6% from the line. When the offense is built around a superstar like Cameron Boozer, you can’t afford to have offnights like these.

Comparing this Duke team to last year’s, Mike LaTulip said, “Kon Knueppel is not walking through that door this year. Maluach is not walking through that door in Cameron indoor. So, they’re going to have to find a second and third option who can maybe go get them 20.”

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 Jon Scheyer already has a replacement for Cooper Flagg in Cameron Boozer. While their styles might not match, their production does. Flagg averaged 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 4.2 assists. This season, Boozer is averaging 23.3 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists in 12 games so far. The disparity is visible in the second-highest scorer. 

Last year, Knueppel averaged 14.4 points, 2.7 assists, and 4 rebounds. The 2025-26 second option for Scheyer is Isiah Evans, who is averaging 11.8 points, 1.7 assists, and 3.3 rebounds. Scheyer has multiple problems to ponder. It’s still just one loss, and Duke can still recover and find solutions. However, if they don’t, a similar or worse fate than last season awaits Jon Scheyer.