Duke keeping things positive with Paolo Banchero

The phrase often associated with Duke’s lineup that closed out its win at Virginia on Wednesday night is “pick your poison,” and those were exactly coach Tony Bennett’s words in describing his team’s defensive approach.

When Duke goes without a center and deploys its ball-handling lineup – Jeremy Roach, Trevor Keels, Wendell Moore Jr., AJ Griffin and Paolo Banchero – it opens up the floor offensively.

(to the detriment of lacking a rim protector on defense, but that’s a story for another day)

“It just worked – you know, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t work,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his late-game adjustment to use that lineup in the closing minutes.

The poison, based on recent numbers, for teams to pick is Banchero – as crazy as it sounds for opponents to want the shots to come from Duke’s most-talented player.

But Duke’s star freshman is fighting through some prolonged struggles.

The 6-10, 250-pounder is scoring 13 points per game in February (seven games) and shooting 34.5% (30 of 87), and is 5-for-24 on 3-pointers. While it’s still better than the average player’s production, Banchero is obviously not an average player – he averaged 17.8 points per game on 49.6% shooting (31.8% on 3s) in Duke’s first 21 games.

What started with a 13-point showing at UNC, which went under the radar because of Griffin’s big night, has become a monthlong slump.

“I think he’s going through a growth period right now,” said coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer on Thursday. “I’ve been there before as a player, you miss a few shots and it turns into – whether you want to call it a slump or not – you probably start overthinking it a little bit, which for him, he just needs to shoot and let it go.

“And that’s going to come.”

The only two single-digit scoring games of Banchero’s season have come against Virginia – nine in the Blue Devils’ loss earlier this month, and eight on Wednesday night.

Through it all, the Blue Devils’ staff has kept things positive with Banchero.

“My thing and our thing with him, we’ve talked to him as a staff, Coach K would echo the same thing, is just let it go, man,” Scheyer said. “Next play, let it fly, be aggressive. And he’s done that, but he needs to take that next step.”

Part of the calculus in keeping things positive with the 19-year-old is that he’s already hard enough on himself.

“He’s just so hard on himself. That’s part of the reason he’s so good, he’s a perfectionist,” Scheyer said. “When he misses a shot that he knows he should’ve made, he’s kicking himself because he demands a lot from himself.”

In Scheyer’s eyes, Banchero is doing other things well while he searches for some offensive consistency.

“Early in the game he had five assists and made some really nice passes, they were double-teaming him on the block,” Scheyer said. “His defense has been terrific. The defense that he played on (Jayden) Gardner last night was really good. I thought his length bothered him, he was physical inside.”