More On Duke’s Win Over Tennessee

SB Nation

It wasn’t a perfect game (not that there ever is such a thing), but Duke’s exhibition win over Tennessee, in Knoxville, was highly impressive. Let’s dive back in.

First thing first: Cameron Boozer had a tremendous

game. He finished with 24 points, 23 rebounds, six assists and two blocks. About the only things you can criticize are that he shot just 7-20 and had his only turnover at a critical moment late in the game.

It’s stuff you can live with when a guy gets 23 rebounds against Tennessee.

In his first two games, Boozer has racked up 57 points and 35 boards. That works out to 28.5 points and 17.5 rebounds.

That won’t count in his stats of course because these are exhibition games, but these aren’t the exhibition games of yore when Duke would play D-II teams and the like. UCF and Tennessee are both talented and well-coached teams, and a freshman just had his way with both of them.

But it was more than that.

Isaiah Evans had five rebounds of his own and he took the ball right into the teeth of UT’s defense on several occasions. This was not something he was willing to do last season.

Pat Ngongba was limited to 23 minutes by foul trouble, but he had nine rebounds and while he was not very effective against UCF, against Tennessee, he was an emotional leader. At one point he chased a ball into the stands and that kind of thing gets noticed by coaches and teammates. He really showed something we haven’t seen from him before: fiery passion.

Nik Khamenia wasn’t overly productive on offense, but he played hard and he helped harass Tennessee’s star freshman Nate Ament into a 5-19 night. Ament’s really talented and he’ll play better when he settles in, but he didn’t Sunday night and Khamenia was a big part of that.

The first half was a bit rocky but despite starting two freshmen and two sophomores, one who is still quite thin in “Showtime Slim” Evans, Duke stood up to Tennessee’s very physical style well.

In fact, while Tennessee mostly outplayed Duke in the first half, in the second, the Vols seemed kind of baffled and had real trouble scoring.

Part of this is because Tennessee, like almost every team not named Marquette, has a ton of new players who have to get used to each other. Rick Barnes is an excellent coach and he’ll have his team playing well in March, but right now, Rocky Top is, well, a bit rocky.

But Duke has a lot of new players too and a lot more of them are freshmen and sophomores.

One, Dame Sarr made his debut in Knoxville and while he is still feeling his way, he had a tremendous fast break. You can imagine that as things go on, Boozer, who has a beautiful outlet pass, will find him often. The guy runs the court beautifully.

Darren Harris got 15 minutes and while he didn’t shoot that well (1-6/1-4), he was not a liability. He’ll be fine.

Sebastian Wilkins got a couple of minutes and didn’t do much, but it’s still early. He’s got plenty of time to improve.

That leaves us with the point guards, Caleb Foster and Cayden Boozer. Foster got 30 minutes to Boozer’s 15, largely because he defended really hard. Ja’kobi Gillespie shot 5-21/3-13 and Boswell Bishop was 0-2.

Boozer has to adjust to the college game, but he’s barely got his toes wet, and we’ve seen some nice moments from him. He’ll be fine in a few weeks.

What we like first is the growth since the UCF game. In that game, Duke seemed to back down from the physical game inside. That happened somewhat in the first half, but it really didn’t in the second. Actually, Duke seemed to be the more aggressive, more physical team. You can’t really say they punked Tennessee, but did they beat them at their own game?

Yeah, they did.

Not that everything was perfect of course.

Boozer, as imposing as he was, still shot just 35%, but Tennessee had a lot to do with that. Ngongba picked up three fouls in the first half and finished with four in 25 minutes. Sarr topped him here, racking up four in just 17 minutes. Evans and Khamenia got three each.

It’s not a surprise against a physical team like Tennessee, but still, it’s a concern.

All of that though pales before this: Duke went into a difficult arena with five freshmen, three sophomores and just one junior and out-toughed a very tough team. We weren’t sure they’d be able to do that. Remember the Duke-Tennessee game from the NCAA tournament in 2023? Tennessee just…well, they pretty much punked the Devils.

Again, like Duke, UT is rebuilding with a lot of new players. The difference is that Tennessee has mostly older and proven players who took that midnight portal train to Knoxville (apologies to Gladys Knight and the Pips). Duke’s team is much younger.

Both teams will get better and for the Vols, Ament is going to be a real star. He’s immensely promising.

Overall, Duke’s potential is probably significantly higher though, and keep in mind that Jon Scheyer said that although Maliq Brown could probably have played against UCF, he has opted to keep him out in both exhibitions. Why take chances for games that don’t count?

When he does get back though, Brown changes things. For one, Cameron Boozer had to play 39 minutes Sunday night. He did well, but Brown playing means he gets a blow. It also means that Ngongba probably gets subbed out sooner when he got in foul trouble.

But that’s later. What we saw on Sunday night was a Duke team that not only faced up to bullyball but actually turned the table on the bullies. And it also looks like Duke has a rare star in Cameron Boozer.

Duke’s single-game rebounding record was set by Bernie Janicki, a 6-4 forward who pulled down 31 against UNC in 1952.

He also has the single-season record for Duke with 15.9 per game. It’s wildly early and these games don’t count, but Boozer is well ahead of that pace. We knew he would be good, but this good? This early?

We didn’t expect that.