Before his sister's fatal car crash, which began his downward spiral of production and therefore playing time, Dawkins was shooting 20-of-36 from beyond the arc (61%) through seven games, which was good enough for No. 1 in the ACC and among the best percentages in the nation. His PPG clip during that stretch was 11. Pretty damn good numbers. One game, he went off for 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from three. In another against UConn, he went 2-for-3 from long range and scored 11. So his 4-of-4 effort from beyond the arc for 12 points at Wisconsin hardly translates as an aberration.prescott wrote:Let's be honest, Dawkins hasn't had that kind of impact on a big game since that night in Madison.That shooting display was aberration for a player who has made (3) 3-point shots in the ACC.
Before he became pressed grief from that unimaginably horrible family tragedy on top of his already exhausting schoolwork and never-ending team travel that is life in ACC basketball, Andre was averaging over 20 MPG and never once saw less than 17. After the tragedy, Dawkins did have one or two decent games, but his overall play began to slip increasingly and thus his PT became almost non-existent for awhile. Coach K also cited bad practices as cause for decreased minutes. One can reasonably assume that depression and/or demanding focus on other things more important than basketball have had a big effect on Dawkins' slip in productivity.
As I said, he's a tremendous athlete (he's Duke's best leaper, IMO, even better than Mason Plumlee) and can shoot the lights out of the basketball. His breakout performance isn't too far off. When he finally "gets back," I think many will be surprised with just how good he is.
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Duke will win by double digits.
