Date 9-11 || Time 7:00 || Venue Christl Arena || Video CBSSN
Duke visits Army on Veteran’s Day to honor those who volunteer to serve and also to honor Duke’s historical connection to West Point through
former coach and G.O.A.T. Mike Krzyzewski.
Coach K of course graduated from West Point in 1969 and after fulfilling his service requirements, went into coaching. He said something, in one of his books perhaps, about questioning all the rules West Point had and that was one reason why he sort of substituted standards and expectations for rigidity in his Duke program.
Nonetheless, he learned many valuable lessons at West Point and it just built on to the sturdy character his parents instilled in him.
All that said, playing at Army is a bit of a tricky proposition. Duke will have vastly more talent, to be sure, and is a ranked ACC team and yada, yada, yada.
However, Army has some advantages that can’t be ignored.
First, they have more upperclassmen than does Duke. There are three seniors and two juniors. How much they play is less relevant than how much they instill the values of the program and at West Point, they do things a bit differently, of course. Well, a lot differently.
In one of his books, Coach K said that there was not enough time in the mornings to get uniforms on, and that this was by design. It forced roommates to help each other to be on time.
There is an entirely different concept of discipline at service academies and that is another advantage West Point has.
And here’s one more: Christl Arena seats just 5,043. Most of those will be Cadets, obviously, and they will be tremendously passionate fans, and more so if Army is playing well. That’s a huge advantage against a young team.
Which leads us to Coach Kevin Kuwik. A Notre Dame grad who went into the military by the ROTC path, Kuwik has worked for Brad Stevens at Butler, Thad Matta at Ohio State, Archie Miller at Dayton, and Bob McKillop at Davidson. If he didn’t learn a massive amount from those guys, he’s in the wrong profession.
In his first season at Army, Kuwik turned in a 10-22 season, but last year, he got to 17-16 and to the CBI quarterfinals. And that’s impressive at a service academy.
More to the point, the bulk of this year’s team are his recruits: Kuwik has nine sophomores and four freshmen. He may also have the only team in the nation with three Dylans (okay, two Dylans and one Dillon. Close enough).
Kuwik goes with a nine-man rotation, listed here by minutes played:
- Ryan Curry/6-1 junior
- Jorn Everson/6-8/210 lb. senior
- Tate Łączkowski/6-9/218 lb. junior
- Kevin McCarthy/6-4 sophomore
- Jacen Holloway/6-4 sophomore
- Jackson Furman/6-2 freshman
- Dayon Polk/6-0 sophomore
- Alex Engro/6-1 sophomore
- Dillon Watt/5-10 freshman
McCarthy and Furman score 16 per game, while Holloway gets 14.5 and Everson 12.5.
Łączkowski is the primary rebounder with 8.5 per game while Everson gets 6.5 and Curry 6.0.
Curry has been impressive at the point with 7.0 per game.
Army started with a 73-49 win over SUNY-Maritime and an 83-76 loss to the St. Thomas Tommies.
We know Duke has some work to do. Rebounding was a concern for Jon Scheyer after the Western Carolina game. The Catamounts got 15 offensive rebounds to Duke’s 13 and Texas won that battle, 18-11. Scheyer lauded his team’s willingness to dive on the floor, but said that keeping the other team off the boards would be good as well.
Dame Sarr has dazzling speed, but he hasn’t figured out how to finish yet, or at least he hasn’t shown that he can yet. Danny Ferry had this problem as a freshman too and got over it.
We’re excited to see how he grows and some of the others as well. Cayden Boozer showed a lot against WCU, but there’s a chance Army gets in his face in a way he hasn’t experienced yet. For Khamenia, Army is likely to be a sort of doppelgänger no matter who guards him. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts to that.
Kuwik is more of an offensive-minded coach than we might have expected at Army. His team averaged 75.1 points last season and they are right about there so far this season too. They forced 19 turnovers against SUNY-Maritime, but just 7 against St. Thomas. Winning the turnover battle is key for Kuwik’s approach.
Of course, Duke is on a different level. The Blue Devils have NBA-level talent at several positions and Cameron Boozer is in the mix to be a top three pick.
Still, basketball is about momentum, and as Kuwik surely learned from McKillop, it’s about deception. No one outside of the Army locker room is going to give them much of a chance here, but given the culture of the military, which emphasizes teamwork and accountability much more so than most college basketball programs, you have to give them at least a puncher’s chance just out of respect for the principles of the program.
More links to come when they are available.
- Duke’s trip to West Point brings together two programs that share unexpected DNA
- Duke basketball rolls in home opener, set for Veterans Day trip to Army with Coach K to join
- Blast from the past: Duke men’s basketball and freshman Carlos Boozer demolish Army
