Switch Up: Maliq Brown takes Louisville out of its offense, Kon Knueppel unlocks Duke's offense

Duke finds a groove on the road with Kon Knueppel as an off-ball mover, plus Maliq Brown and Sion James dominate defensively

When Cooper Flagg went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul at the 10:36 mark of the second half at Louisville, things looked suboptimal for Duke. The Cards were in the bonus, they held a five-point lead (after two Terrence Edwards free throws) at home and Flagg was only a foul away from disqualification.

Jon Scheyer countered with a lineup that — entering Sunday night — had played just seven minutes together all season: Sion James, Tyrese Proctor, Kon Knueppel, Mason Gillis and Maliq Brown, a blend of the three groups that compose Duke’s roster — three veteran transfers, one of the sophomore guards and a future lottery-pick freshman.

Over the next six minutes of game play, Duke took control of the game: Flagg returned to the floor with 4:42 left in the second half and the Blue Devils ahead by eight, 68-60.

Here’s how the Blue Devils — with Knueppel and Brown playing featured roles — roared back on the road, while managing some high-leverage minutes sans their best player.

He’s K-On One

Without Flagg to ignite actions as a ball handler or screener, Duke shifted to more of an off-ball motion approach from its 5-out offense. Scheyer brought Knueppel to the center stage.

On the very first half-court possession with this lineup, Duke went to its 5-out Delay offense; Brown initiated in the middle of the floor with Knueppel and Proctor in the corners. James passes to Brown and then drills Edwards with a screen, knocking down the defender and opening Knueppel up for an open 3-pointer.

Knueppel shot just 2-of-9 on his 3-point attempts in this game; however, he possesses a great deal of gravity as an off-ball mover. Defenses will always react to Knueppel as he runs off of screens, which opens things up elsewhere on the floor.

Here’s the very next possession: it’s another 5-out down screen for Knueppel, albeit with a slightly different setup. Instead of having Brown initiate things in the 5-out look, James handles the middle-of-the-floor facilitation. Brown spaces to the left wing, a key feature of Duke’s revamped 5-out offense this season. Knueppel comes off the pindown from Gillis, which forces a hard closeout from Reyne Smith and results in a foul.

Seconds later, after the ensuring inbounds pass, the Blue Devils return in the same setup. Louisville makes a substitution: J’Vonne Hadley enters for Noah Waterman, drawing the Gillis assignment. Once again, James initiates in the middle, Gillis sets the down screen and Knueppel curls off.

Brown mirrors Gillis and sets a down screen for Proctor on the left side of the floor, though this is really just dummy action. With four potential help defenders occupied by these two down screens, James has the middle of the floor to himself. He decides to dance 1-on-1 with freshman wing Khani Rooths and beats him downhill for a dunk.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Next trip down the floor, Louisville has gone with a smaller lineup; Hadley works as a small-ball 5, surrounded by four guards/wings. James Scott, Louisville’s 6-foot-11 center and best rim protector (6.8 percent block rate), is now on the bench. As Knueppel runs off of another Gillis down screen, Hadley, now on Brown, gets caught ball-watching. Immediately on the catch, Hadley’s eyes dart over to Knueppel.

Brown, an incredibly high-feel player, see this and takes advantage of Hadley’s lack of attention, cutting straight to the rim. Knueppel, who finished with a game-high six assists, hits Brown (78.6 FG% at the rim) for a cut layup.

With Duke now in the lead, Scheyer presses the same button. This time, though, Knueppel rejects the down screen from Gillis and cuts through to the left side. Louisville’s defense is cross-matched: Hadley, the de facto center, is on James. Duke counters with guard-guard screening action: James sets the pick for Proctor. Louisville opts to not switch the screen and Proctor is able to get Chucky Hepburn on his hip and drive downhill — finishing with his left hand.

A few minutes later, it’s a similar setup, although on this possession Gillis slips his down screen for Knueppel and cuts across to the left corner. Now, the right side of the floor is cleared for James-Knueppel two-man game, with the 6-foot-11 Noah Waterman on Knueppel. This results in another guard-guard exchange. As James sets the ball screen for Knueppel, the 6-foot-2 Smith is late to switch out as Knueppel performs a nifty pull-back crossover dribble to create space before hitting the 3.

Even after Flagg returned to the floor, Duke continued to spam versions of this 5-out down screen series for Knueppel.

Here’s the first possession with Flagg back in the game: Knueppel rejects Flaggs down screen and, again, cuts to the left side of the floor as Proctor replaces on the right. Knueppel exits off of a pindown from Brown. As soon as Knueppel receives a pass from James, you can see Edwards “jump to the ball” (JTB) to help contain a possible 3-pointer. The possession then flows into a empty-corner pick-and-roll with a step-up screen from Brown. When Knueppel drives, Hadley once again is caught ball-watching, which Flagg takes advantage of — darting in for a cut finish.

Knueppel does a nice job here attacking Louisville’s defense; Scott is initially in drop coverage, but he and Rooths end up switching the action, with Rooths going to Brown. Either way, Knueppel gets downhill and good things happen when an offense touches the paint.

Brownout: Duke’s Defense cuts off Louisville’s power

In his 28 minutes of action, Flagg was outstanding: 20 points (7-of-14 2PA), 12 rebounds, two steals and a block. The other gold star for this game, though, goes to Maliq Brown — who put together as destructive of a defensive performance as you’ll see this season in college hoops.

Brown’s been a game-wrecker on that side of the floor for several seasons; even by his lofty standards, though, this was an incredible effort. During Brown’s 29 minutes of action, according to CBB Analytics, Duke’s defense allowed only 0.77 points per possession on 9-of-35 shooting from the field (25.7 FG%), including 4-of-14 on 2-point attempts (28.6 2P%) and 5-of-21 on 3-point attempts (23.8 3P%). The Blue Devils also forced a turnover on 23 percent on Louisville’s possessions when Brown was on the floor. These are dominant numbers.

As Duke went with the James/Proctor/Knueppel/Gillis/Brown lineup (+11 in 6 minutes), the Blue Devils switched heavily on the defensive side of the floor — taking away some of Louisville’s automatics with a collection of gritty like-sized players. This group is made entirely of guys between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-9. Proctor is the only guy that weighs under 200 pounds; everyone else is above 215. These dimensions make a lineup that’s built to switch, which is something I wrote about this summer after the additions of James, Gillis and Brown.

All season long, Brown has bothered opposing centers — whether in the post or above the arc while trying to initiate 5-out offense — with his quick hands. It’s impressive, though, when Brown is able to flash his speed and anticipatory skills against opposing guards. Here, Brown switches out and picks the pocket of point guard Chucky Hepburn, a senior transfer who averaged a measly 1.6 turnovers per 40 minutes during the three previous seasons at Wisconsin.

As a team, Louisville posted a turnover rate of 22.3 percent, which charts as the team’s second worst number in a game this season. Hepburn finished with four turnovers, which ties for career-worst outing for the veteran point guard.

Brown finished the Louisville game with eight defensive rebounds, three steals and a block. It marks the seventh time this season (in nine games) that Brown has recorded 2+ “stocks” (steals + blocks) in a single game. Currently, Brown is one of only two high-major players in the country with 15 percent defensive rebound rate, five percent block rate and three percent steal rate — joined only by the amazing Cameron Matthews of Mississippi State.

This was an outstanding piece of defense from the Blue Devils. First, Louisville shifts from a Horns set into an elbow touch for Hadley, a talented mid-post scorer, as Waterman runs the baseline, clearing out the left side of the floor. Hepburn and Smith, two talented shooters, are now in the action. As Hadley looks to facilitate, Smith sets a flare screen for Hepburn, which Proctor and James switch with no advantage created. Smith flips his hips and re-screens with Hepburn, who runs toward Hadley — creating “Zoom” action (a down screen into a handoff). Smith slips his screen, so Proctor stays home on him. As Hepburn comes off of Hadley’s handoff, James (who is essentially the same size as Hadley) and Brown switch.

After having his pocket picked earlier by Brown, Hepburn opts to not try Duke’s center 1-on-1. However, once this possession turns into inverted pick-and-pop for Louisville with Waterman initiating, which Duke switches again, the possession is far less threatening. Ultimately, it results in another turnover.

With Brown on the floor this season, Duke’s defense has allowed only 0.86 points per possession (20.3% TOV rate) on 39 percent effective shooting — both of which rank in the 99th percentile nationally, per CBB Analytics. When Brown and James play together (103 minutes), the defensive efficiency number drops to 0.81 points per possession (36 eFG%).

Here, Louisville runs Edwards across some Iverson screens for Edwards before flowing into Spain pick-and-roll — with Hadley setting the ball screen and Smith aiming to deliver the back pick before leaking out atop the key. Brown, however, just decides to blow this play up. He switches out to Hepburn and immediately pushes the point guard away from the rim to his weaker left hand. Hepburn manages to turn the corner, but Brown is right there with him and there’s a wall of traffic in the paint. After dribbling it off a shoe, Hepburn turns it over and Duke has a transition opportunity — James hits ahead to Brown.

If that Euro-step dunk finish wasn’t graceful enough, what Brown did next exemplifies why he’s such a special player. Knowing that Louisville likes to push the pace — even off of makes — Brown sprints back. Duke’s defense is a scrambled, but Brown hustles from opposite rim all the way to the right corner — in the span of 7-8 seconds — to closeout/contest this corner 3-point attempt from Rooths.

Let’s flip sides of the floor and analyze one more Brown hustle play. With Duke hammering Louisville with Knueppel pindown actions, the Blue Devils stayed in the same neighborhood in terms of play calls — with a slight twist. It’s 5-out (Delay) Zoom action for Knueppel.

On this possession, Hadley tries to top-lock Knueppel (angling his body on the top side of Knueppel, between Kon and Proctor’s screen), but he gets smoked (again) and is stuck on Proctor’s down screen as Knueppel runs off the DHO from Brown. Knueppel misses this shot, but it’s great process from Duke — creating an uncontested 3-point attempt for an excellent shooter. This is where Brown takes over, though. After screening Knueppel open, Brown flies around and tracks down a contested rebound, one that’s well out of his initial area. Eventually, the ball finds James, and Brown launches screen-roll action with the Tulane transfer. As Brown slips downhill, Waterman literally slips to the floor after stepping on Smith’s shoe. This results in a wide-open dunk finish for Brown off of a line-drive pass from James.

Duke (7-2, 1-0 ACC) still ranks No. 1 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.