It wasn’t an inspirational season opener or anything, but Duke beat Army, 84-50. And while it wasn’t a beautiful game – in fact, there were some obvious flaws – there was still a lot to discuss. So let’s just jump in.
First, Duke held Army to 18-52 from the floor (35 percent) and 8-30 from the line (27 percent). Yes, it was Army, yes Duke had a major talent and size advantage, but even so, that’s indicative of pretty good defense. Army is a disciplined team, as you might expect, but even so, Duke’s
defense was solid. Army had a total of 24 turnovers and at least six shot clock violations. There was some serious pressure on the Black Knights.
Of the Army starters, Kevin McCarthy hit 6-11. The rest of the starters hit 7-40.
Duke also had 16 steals and 6 blocks.
Offense was another matter.
Duke did start off with a 12-0 lead and shut Army out for nearly six minutes. The Blue Devils outscored Army in the paint, 50-20, and won the boards, 37-25.
Dame Sarr, with 16 points, and Patrick Ngongba, with 10 points and 7 rebounds, led the way for the Blue Devils.
Duke hadn’t had a game with zero made threes since December 30, 1989, against Hawaii. Jon Scheyer was two years old at the time.
For a long time, it looked like that streak might come to an end. Duke missed all of its attempts in the first half before Cayden Boozer hit one. Duke wound up shooting 4-22 from behind the line. JoJo Boumtje Boumtje hit 1-4, and John Blackwell hit 1-5. He was back on the court after the game, ironing out the bugs.
He’s also strong enough to drive successfully, and now that he can hit from the line (last year he shot 53.2 percent from the line. He’s a vastly more versatile offensive weapon now.
So offense wasn’t that great. But here’s something interesting: Against Army, Dame Sarr hit 6-6. In the three preseason games, he hit 9-10 against Belmont, 2-3 against Tennessee, and 8-11 against Kansas. Obviously, the exhibition games don’t count, but still, over those four games, he’s shooting 83.3 percent from the line.
We also saw Drew Scharnowski make his season debut. He got eight minutes off the bench, had 4 points, 2 rebounds, an assist and a steal. He looked pretty solid.
Deron Rippey had two spectacular plays: on one break, he bobbled the ball, caught up to it, and nailed a behind-the-back pass to Sarr for a layup, and got a dunk on a rebound.
Caleb Foster came in and played hard, especially on defense. At one point, he was guarding Army’s 6-9 Tate Laczkowski, and while he was at a disadvantage, the way he kept waving his arms made us think about what he must have been like as a little kid. You could imagine him doing the same thing with a big brother or an older kid down the street.
So it wasn’t a perfect game, but it’s also not much to worry about. The defense is fine, and we’ve already seen the offense at a high level against Tennessee and Kansas. There are a lot of new players on this team, and getting everyone working together, and getting roles established, will take some time.
It’s very likely going to be worth the wait.
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