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Trouble in paradise was apparent during the eye-popping March Madness first-round matchup of the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils and No. 16 Siena Saints. Coach Jon Scheyer was expected to only have a hard time when they end up facing Coach Rick Pitino's St. John's Red Storm or Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans. However, those hardships came in early when Maliq Brown, Cam Boozer, and Cayden Boozer among others started to struggle in the first half.
Brown gets real on Duke's near elimination in March Madness' first round
It was a rough scoreboard to look at after the first half for the Duke basketball faithful. The ACC champions and expected winners of the big dance. Yes, those huge historical giants and are the top-seeded Blue Devils. They were trailing 43-32. Coach Scheyer scoured for answers but it was to no avail in the earlier minutes.
At the half, Brown was asked about the intensity of this Duke vs. Siena game. He was very honest about how Coach Scheyer and Co. thought that they would be dominating the Saints but were falling short, via Bryan Fischer of Sports Illustrated.
"We thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into this game," the Duke big man declared.
Brown was right to make the realization. Siena only played five guys in their rotation while the Blue Devils had a wealth of talent which were all going to be in the NBA at some point. Coach Scheyer needed his players to work harder and they did, despite the struggle. Cayden Boozer was a top-notch all-around player for Duke. He finished with 19 points, five assists, two steals and two rebounds. Not to mention, he was only taken out of the game for one minute of rest.
Cam Boozer led the scoring with his 22 points and 13 rebounds but the Siena defense clearly bothered him. He only knocked down four of his 11 field goal attempts and went 20% from three-point range. Furthermore, he turned the ball over a whopping five times which prevented Duke from gaining early momentum in this March Madness game. The only reason why they caught up through him was because he went 13 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Brown, on the other hand, was the one who was clearly held back in production. Despite 26 minutes of playing time, he only scored six points and grabbed eight rebounds against Siena. More than that, they also forced him to commit two turnovers.
It was a rough watch until the final minutes of the game. Duke did come out of this game against Siena but those struggles only mean that Coach Scheyer's squad needs to work on a lot of things before facing the No. 9 TCU Horned Frogs.
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