The play starts with the ball in Dez Wells' hands - exactly what the Terps want. What's interesting is that Duke leaves the inbounder open to double team...Seth Allen. Dez gets the ball easily and then moves it into the frontcourt.
The first action of the set is a screen by Charles Mitchell. It might not be a bad idea, but it's terribly executed. Chuck does nothing to screen Thornton. Instead, he brings a second defender over to clog Wells' path to the basket, and then on his roll action, Chuck doesn't look for a pass. At this point Dez doesn't have many effective options.
Dez's move is to handoff to Seth Allen. Layman and Smot are in the corner, and Chuck still hasn't gotten himself into scoring position. Seth initially faces the same double team as Dez
But Seth sees something! Amile Jefferson is still on the double. Rodney Hood and Jabari Parker let Chuck get himself unmolested in prime scoring position. They have to respect Layman and Smot as shooters, but neither Smot is out of the play and Layman is well behind the line.
Chuck catches and all he needs to do is finish...but he can't. We all know how the game ends - that's not worth rehashing. There it was a matter of a shot that couldn't have been much closer to two points before popping out. On this penultimate play of the game, it's not that Mitchell can't convert - it's that he gives himself no chance to. Another opportunity lost, but hopefully another step on the long road to improvement.
