Yesterday Duke beat Notre Dame 88-66 in a game where we saw the bench get more minutes than any other real game this season. Of course we’ve seen the bench get some playing time against cupcake teams but never against a real opponent and this was a first.

Coming off a loss to Virginia where the bench played a combined six minutes, Coach K and Duke needed to figure something out. That something happens to be something a lot of us have been saying since the PK80, bench players. A team can have all the talent in the world but you can’t play a few players for 40 minutes straight and expect them to perform how you’d like.

This was the first game where we’ve seen bench players not named Javin Delaurier or Alex O’Connell get in during a close game. In the first half Jack White and Marques Bolden entered the game while Duke was up only two and that was something we’ve never really seen.

Against Notre Dame we saw six bench players check into the game for a combined 44 minutes. 44 minutes, if you look at most other games you would see that Duke plays at most three guys for maybe 15 minutes off the bench.

This was a significant improvement and it was visible on the court with the starters. Gary Trent Jr. had arguably his best game of the season, scoring 22 points while going 8-16 on field goals and 6-10 from beyond the three point line. When the starters aren’t playing 40 minutes each you can see a significant improvement in their performance.

By giving them time to rest other than half time you get more hustle and more heart out of them and it is evident. I think the key to winning games we should win against cupcake opponents, is the bench. Obviously this isn’t the only thing, but it is a good start.