This is true. However, at the same time, Duke became a much worse defensive team. Duke got off to that great start at 14-2, and a large part of it was due to Jones ability to defend. We had a few turnovers to start that game because of Jones' on ball pressure, and it set the tone early as our offense was completely out of sync. Even with JB putting up '17 point underdog's tonight' in the locker room for his team to see, and advising them this is what people currently think about you, they still came out and started the game badly.
After Jones went down, it did seem to change the complexion of the game. We went on to score 88 points in regulation. The team played superbly from that point forward, showing their grit and perserverance. That game was our highest scoring output all season. I can't recall when we last won a game giving up 91 points, especially since being a 100% zone team. Prior to the game, if someone said Duke scored 91 points tonight against us, and that someone hadn't seen the game, etc., they would've presumed we would have lost, as most here would have.
It was a monumental win, no doubt...season changing. And, I would agree with JB that it was possibly the best regular season win ever for the program. But, just as JB also stated in the post game presser, Jones going down was a blow for sure, and he even mentioned if they had Reddish available, who knows if they come away with the W, or along those lines I recall. Reddish's replacement, White, went 0-10 from 3 land.
If we were down say Howard and Battle and or Hughes and Battle, or similar and got beat by a team, especially at home which was thought to be somewhat inferior, I don't think many here wouldn't argue...well it was because we didn't have so and so, etc.