When he was at Duke, it was easy to underestimate Jared McCain. First, at 6-3, he was relatively small and never seemed hugely athletic. And in some ways, like the nails and the TikTok career, he might have been a guy that Mike Krzyzewski might have passed on. That’s just a hunch, and we have no idea. He just seems to fit the Scheyer era better.
But despite the relentless cheerfulness, the lack of size and all of it, make no mistake: McCain is an absolute killer.
We saw this at Duke on numerous occasions,
notably when the Blue Devils went to Florida State, where McCain shot 8-11 on his threes, and 12-20 overall, finishing with 35. It was so impressive that the FSU fans actually cheered when he finally missed.
However, the game where we realized he was different was when Duke beat Clemson in Cameron.
He finished with 21 points, but Duke was behind late and McCain snatched that game back with three consecutive steals.
Clemson fouled Tyrese Proctor with one second to play, and he hit both to give Duke a dramatic win. Tiger coach Brad Brownell didn’t like that at all: “I’ve been here in this same situation about four times, within a possession. I haven’t won one yet. Tonight was as close as we got. We got to 1 second and had it taken from us.”
Well, Mr. Big Shot, you wouldn’t have been in a position to have it “taken” from you if your team hadn’t coughed the ball up four times in the last 2:02 (Mark Mitchell got a steal too).
Anyway, as it turns out, McCain is much more than a guy with a golden arm. He is small by basketball standards, and always will be. But he’s insanely competitive and smart, and his teams usually seem to win. That’s not a coincidence.
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