Bales leading Blue Devils

Beth Mowins said something to me the other night that, on the surface, seemed strange. The ESPN announcer said that the Duke women’s team had the advantage this season of flying under the radar.

Keep in mind how difficult it is for a team ranked No. 4 in the nation to fly under anyone’s radar, but then consider that, maybe, Mowins has a point.

Maryland is the defending national champion and is the top-ranked team in the country. North Carolina is No. 2 and the team many think will challenge the Terps. Duke, for now, is only the third best team in its own conference, and they lost a great player from last year’s national runner-up in Mo Currie. So, maybe they are a bit under some people’s radar.

Still, anyone who ignores this Blue Devils team does so at great risk. With a 55-46 win over No. 21 Bowling Green in Cancun, Mexico, Tuesday night, Duke has beaten four ranked teams in a row and has yet to lose a game. Or even come close to losing one. The nine-point win over Bowling Green was the first single-digit victory for the Devils this season. Before that the closest win for Duke was 21 against both Vanderbilt and Marist.

Alison Bales led the way against Bowling Green with 15 points, eight rebounds and six blocks. When Duke beat previously unbeaten Vanderbilt earlier this month, Bales had 16 points, nine boards and five blocks. Add that to an 11-point, eight-rebound performance in a win over Rutgers and 10 points, five rebounds and four blocks against Texas and its easy to see that Bales is one of the most important players for this Duke team.

After a breakout performance in last year’s NCAA Tournament, many wondered if Bales would maintain that level this season or regress to the player that some thought had underachieved for most of her first three seasons.

So far, so good this season for Bales.

“I would think she would be the most improved player in the county,” Mowins said. “Ali Bales has just picked up right where she left off.”

Coming into Tuesday night’s game, Bales was averaging 11.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and five blocks a game, all better than last season’s numbers. She’s also shooting 51.9 percent from the floor. But it’s something else that can’t be seen in the numbers that caught Mechelle Voepel’s attention.

“She also developed what I love to see out of a big woman, or a big man - the intelligent floor vision, the ability to pass out of double teams, not to force things when they aren’t there,” Voepel told ACC Nation when the ESPN.com writer appeared on the show recently. “I think that’s a real strength of hers.”

Her defense has improved also, according to both Voepel and Mowins.

“She is such a dominating, disruptive presence on the defensive end,” Mowins said.

Voepel said Bales has learned to use her size advantage – she’s 6-7 – to the maximum. That’s been a major plus on both defense and offense. On defense she is one of the top shot blockers in the game, while on offense she has made herself a nice target for her teammates to find under the basket.

Bales also worked hard over the summer to get in better shape. It shows.

“I think she’s in the best shape of her career which means … at times (last year) when the other four Duke players were running the floor she was still down at the other end,” Mowins said. “Now they can actually get all five players out on the break and run a little bit more.”

Voepel said Bales has improved every year on two or three aspects of her game, something the ESPN.com writer likes to see. Mowins seconded that opinion.

“She has just improved so much, not only from her freshman year to now, but from the middle of last season to now,” Mowins said. “She is obviously playing with a lot of confidence.”

If she continues doing that, and Duke continues routing opponents, they won’t remain under the radar much longer - if they ever were there to begin with.

- Patrick Hite