Duke Basketball made its public debut in Saturday’s Countdown to Craziness, as Team White won, 29-24, on a game-winning three by Deron Rippey (see link below for that play).
The second play of the game was very encouraging, as Dame Sarr drove to the basket and hit a layup. As you may recall, he struggled with that last season.
Overall, things weren’t necessarily smooth, which is not surprising this early, but there were some really positive things.
For the White team, Rippey and Sebastian Wilkins scored
7 each. Unfortunately, Patrick Ngongba went down in a scary moment, but apparently, it’s nothing serious.
Good thing, because he looked great early. He had some really sharp passes, which could give Jon Scheyer a conundrum: Ngongba is likely to be Duke’s primary inside player, but might be better in the high post. It’ll be interesting to see how Ngongba’s used when Drew Scharnowski is back, because the Belmont transfer is a bruiser and we could see a high post/low post scenario with those two.
Rippey also looked good, even on unsuccessful plays. He’s a tremendous athlete. We were really impressed with Wilkins, who, among other things, got a breakaway steal and a nice dunk.
As for the young bigs, JoJo Boumtje Boumtje seemed a bit tentative, but that’s fine. It’s just a scrimmage. You could see the fluidity in Cameron Williams’ game too. He’s going to be a factor. Maxime Meyer got a basket off an offensive rebound, and a solid block on Caleb Foster.
John Blackwell had two drives that seemed unlikely at first, but, with some veteran savvy, he got the shots to fall.
Foster was solid, as you might expect, and Boozer didn’t necessarily have a great scrimmage, but he’ll be fine.
Finally, Bryson Howard was mostly quiet, but he hit one outside shot that was really nice.
It’s a scrimmage, so it’s not much to worry about. They’ll start exhibition play next week against Belmont, and we’ll get a much better idea about where things stand then.
- Cam Williams intro
- JoJo Boumtje Boumtje’s intro
- 2025-26 Countdown to Craziness Intros
- Deron Rippey Game Winner!
- Duke basketball’s Countdown to Craziness introductions full of fire, dance moves
- Check out our Duke basketball Countdown to Craziness photo gallery’
- Men’s Basketball Debuts at Countdown to Craziness – Duke University
- 5 Duke basketball observations from Blue Devils’ scrimmage at Countdown to Craziness
- NCAA Basketball: Duke Countdown to Craziness
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