Date 10/26 || Time 7:00 || Venue Food City Center || Video ESPN2
Next up for Duke is the second and final exhibition game, this time a trip to Knoxville to play the Tennessee Volunteers, where Rick Barnes has done something pretty unusual.
We’ve written before about how difficult it is for older coaches to stay at the top of the game. Mike Krzyzewski did this at Duke, partly because he kept learning. Most coaches trail off at the ends of their careers. Just look around. Gene Keady had a solid career,
but at the end, he was a mediocre coach at best. Jim Boeheim’s career really fell off after 2015. Gary Williams started to fade after he won the national championship in 2002 (our theory is that happiness made it more difficult for anger and resentment to fuel his drive). Ol’ Roy Williams quit when he felt he wasn’t coaching at an elite level anymore. You may be seeing the same thing happening at Kansas now with Bill Self.
It’s kind of natural for coaches to get settled in their ways and to fall off. Barnes has not done that. Quite the opposite in fact.
We didn’t expect much out of him at Tennessee, but he’s been great there. It took him two seasons to get the program on track, but since then, the Vols have rolled. The two most impressive things are that a) Tennessee got through the Covid era in fine shape compared to a lot of programs, and b) in the last three years, when Barnes was 68, 69 and 70, his team has gotten to the Sweet Sixteen and two Elite Eights and has won 25, 27 and 30 games in those seasons.
As noted, that’s pretty unusual.
He loses a lot from last season though. His starting guards, Chaz Lanier and pocket rocket Zakai Zeigler, are both done. Justin Gainey’s kid Jordan (the former NC State guard is a Barnes assistant now) is also gone. Igor Milicic, a 6-10 big man, is too. So are Jahmai Mashack, Darlinstone Dubar, Cameron Carr and Ben Linnemeyer.
Only four players of consequence are back: Felix Okpara (6-11/243 senior), JP Estrella (6-11/240 sophomore), Cade Phillips (6-9/221 sophomore) and Bishop Boswell (6-4/sophomore).
The transfer portal brings Ja’Kobi Gillespie, (6-1 senior) from Maryland, Jaylen Cary (6-8/267), the brother of former Duke star Vernon Carey, who comes over from Vandy (Duke saw him in the NCAA tournament when the Blue Devils played James Madison in 2024, winning 93-55) and Amaree Abram (6-3 senior) from Louisiana Tech.
The freshman haul includes DeWayne Brown (6-8/251), Amari Evans (6-5/220), Troy Henderson (6-1), Clarence Massamba (6-5) and the jewel of the class, Nate Ament (6-10/207).
Ethan Burg, a 6-5 Israeli, is also new but he arrives as a sophomore.
Also listed on the roster: Campbell Duncan (6-6/sophomore) and Grant Hurst (6-2/senior) and Gavin Paul (5-11 sophomore). None were particular factors last season.
If you haven’t noticed, Duke coach Jon Scheyer has scheduled exhibition games against physically tough teams.
Last season, Arizona State lost but was aggressive. The year before that, Duke scheduled Houston in a secret scrimmage, a NCAA stupidity that thankfully is now gone.
This year, Duke brought in Johnny Dawkins’ Central Florida team, and they were certainly physical.
Tennessee will be as well.
When the Blue Devils met the Vols in the 2023 NCAA tournament, Tennessee gave Duke a rough lesson.
That team had some serious muscle. So does this year’s Tennessee squad.
Carey is 267, Brown, 251, Okpara 243 and Estrella is 240.
For the most part, we don’t know that much about his squad, but Barnes has what he likes: a big, physical team that can beat you senseless.
It’s not dirty; it’s just true.
The wild card is Ament. He’s very slim, but highly gifted. Like his new teammate Estrella, he was avidly recruited by Duke. He’s nearly certain to start and if he doesn’t, he’ll still play a lot. He’s going to be a problem.
Actually, come to think of it, Estrella is a wild card too. He missed most of last season with an injury but was highly regarded out of high school. No one outside of Knoxville knows what to expect.
To us, the thing to watch here is simple: how to counter Barnes’s aggressive style, especially inside. Duke struggled in the paint against UCF, also a very physical team. We don’t expect we’ll see Maliq Brown, which would be too bad, because he would help, and we’re not sure about Dame Sarr, which is also too bad. You need extra bodies against a team like this.
Just as a reminder and for anyone who doesn’t know, while he was at Clemson, Barnes finished a game against UNC with three players because everyone else fouled out.
It’s his style and you have to adapt or go home.
Whatever happens in Knoxville, it’s an exhibition and given how Duke struggled in the paint against UCF, there are good lessons to be learned Sunday.
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