Duke Stampedes Howard, 96-53

SB Nation

Duke played Howard in Cameron Sunday and built up a 50-point lead before ultimately winning by 43.

There was a lot to like in this game and one thing that wasn’t that great.

On an individual basis, Cameron

Boozer racked up a double-double with 26 points and 12 rebounds. He also shot 10-12/2-3 and had 4 assists and 2 steals.

Patrick Ngongba had 16 points on 8-9/01 from the floor and pulled down 5 boards. He had 2 assists.

Dame Sarr defended well and at times superbly, but continues to have trouble handling himself in the open court. Defense will probably keep his minutes.

Isaiah Evans had 11 points on 4-8/1-5 and took the ball to the basket aggressively on several occasions. Remember when we saw him as pretty much a three point specialist? He’s becoming much more than that.

Caleb Foster had 6 points, 2 boards and 1 assist.

We’ll come back to the bench in a few minutes.

Collectively, the team shot 61% overall and 28% from behind the line. Of some concern: a mediocre 14-22 from the line. That didn’t matter in this one, but it will at some point.

And remember, Howard played two games in two days, with one against Niagara Falls in Cameron on Saturday. That’s pretty demanding.

Still, for most of the game, we saw a Duke team that played hard, was willing to share the ball and that defended well, holding Howard to just 30.4% from the floor. It wouldn’t have gotten that far up if the Bison hadn’t started scoring in flurries late in the game.

And it wasn’t just sharing the ball, it was moving it. The ball movement at times was really, really good.

Getting back to the bench,

Maliq Brown, Nik Khamenia, Cayden Boozer and Darren Harris all had some very, very nice play. Brown continues to work his way back into game shape and, as always, defended beautifully.

Boozer had 6 assists in 24 minutes and was willing to bang with some physical Howard defenders. He has shown in recent games that he can work down close to the basket and take some difficult shots.

Khamenia had some ying and some yang here. He shot well (3-4/1-2) and he’s clearly feeling more comfortable at this level. However, he had nearly half of Duke’s turnovers with 5. Sarr had 3 and the team had just three.

That part wasn’t great, but you are starting to see what he can do on offense. The guy is a beautiful passer but he hasn’t felt fully at ease there yet. In fairness though, some of the turnovers were on the intended recipient, not the passer. That guy is going to be one of the best passers on this year’s team before it’s all said and done.

The one thing we didn’t like, and Scheyer addressed it afterwards, was that when Duke was running away with the game, the intensity waned. We’re okay with Howard getting a 10-0 run in general if they earn it, but not if it’s because you sort of fell asleep. That wasn’t good and Scheyer called a late second half time out to address it.

That’s not a difficult thing to correct though, least of all with a group of guys who are largely as self-motivated as this one is.

Think about that for a second. Start with the five-star players – Cam Boozer, Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr, Nik Khamenia and Caleb Foster. All of those guys work. None of them seem entitled. Boozer, for instance, had every advantage as a young player. Well, no one forced him to learn the fundamentals the way that he has. That’s a result of passion and intensity.

Go down a bit from there. Patrick Ngongba has transformed his body in the last couple of years. Maliq Brown is not the most hugely talented guy in the world, but he may be the most feared defender in the ACC. Like his brother, Cayden Boozer works hard. He could be the pampered nepo baby of an NBA star, but he’s not. He’s worked hard to become an unusual player. And then Darren Harris, who after the game said that he doesn’t want to be known just as a shooter.

Now the guy is taking the ball to the basket on fast breaks. He’s diving on floors after loose balls. In general, he’s playing a sort of kamikaze style of basketball where he doesn’t appear overly concerned with his personal safety, and that’s inspirational.

All of these guys seem like workers and all of them are willing to be part of something greater than themselves. You can’t predict the future or how far this team might go, but a team that works on defense, that shares on offense, and where everyone appears to be highly self-motivated, well…any team like that has the potential to be very, very good.

Notes – one mild criticism of Ngongba….he runs downcourt a lot faster after he makes a basket than when someone else does…Sarr at times is still very coltish..he missed another layup/dunk and that’s at least the 5th he’s blown this season…late in the game he threw a pass that was wildly too high…Evans could probably have been drafted simply as a shooter last season….he’s much more than that now…some people thought that Kenny Blakeney might be wearing Meta glasses which might be a first…