Duke men’s basketball began the non-secret,[ not-entitely-regular-season portion of its 2023-’24 campaign with a 109-64 exhibition victory over UNC-Pembroke Wednesday night.
There wasn’t much surprising about the outcome. Jared McCain was the fifth starter. But we knew that. Or at least suspected it.
Caleb Foster and Ryan Young were the first off the bench. Then Jaylen Blakes, then freshmen T.J. Power and Sean Stewart, then Jaden Schutt. Christian Reeves felt a tweak in a knee in pregame and didn’t play.
Nobody played more than 21:24 (Caleb Foster) and 10 players played at least 12:15, with lots of lineup experimentation.
UNC-P was never going to win this game. But they were 26-4 last season, good enough to hang around for awhile.
Duke didn’t even let them hang around until the first media timeout.
Tyrese Proctor channeled his inner J.J. Redick by knocking down four 3-pointers before the first media timeout, prompting UNC-P to call a timeout down 14-2.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any Duke player make four 3-pointers in the first three minutes and I’ve seen my share of great 3-point shooters.
Proctor ended with 15 points, all in the first half.
Duke went with three guards most of the game and the results were encouraging. Jeremy Roach--22nd birthday today--was one of those three guards and notched 13 points in less than 20 minutes, 9 for 10 from the foul line.
“I knew the ref had a happy whistle a little bit,” he smiled, “so getting into the paint seemed like a good idea.”
That 3-guard lineup?
“So dynamic that we can have three guards who can bring it up,” Roach said. “Makes our job so much easier and makes it a helluva job trying to guard all three of us.”
Kyle Filipowski had 17 points and six rebounds in 21:10 and said he benefits from the open court.
“On the offense, I think it’s incredible because we have another shooter on the floor. It opens up the paint for players like myself and Ryan and I think it’s going to be really good for our team. I think there are a lot of offensive weapons on this team.”
Jon Scheyer’s thoughts on the 3-guard lineup?
“I thought it was great. No matter who it was, Jeremy, Tyrese, Jared, Caleb coming off the bench, they’re all just smart basketball players. They’re tough. I don’t think we’re giving up a lot with that [on defense] while on offense we can space the floor.”
Duke had 20 assists against five turnovers, while forcing 22 turnovers, with 12 steals. Filipowski said Duke committed too many turnovers last season and cutting back is a priority.
Roach agreed.
“When the ball’s moving, you’re going to hit some shots. That’s been a big thing for us in preseason, moving the ball, letting all five guys touch it.”
“They all can score,” Scheyer said of his core group. “I wouldn’t be surprised if any one of them were a leading scorer for us in a different game. You can’t get antsy because depending on how the game is going you may not get a shot for a little bit, you may not touch it as much but when you’re scoring so easy like that you’ve got to stay with the flow.”
Scheyer said the defense faded a bit in the second half—Duke led 59-24 at intermission— and he didn’t get the full 40 minutes he wants. “A lot to clean up, a lot to work on.”
Of course, all five starters scored between 11 and 17 points. I don’t usually talk much about +/- but the top six players had a +/- of 24 to 39 while most of the bench was in single digits.
Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Duke is going to need more than seven players and the younger guys still have to learn something about ignoring the score and staying focused.
So I’ll let the birthday boy, Jeremy Roach have the last word.
“A good first step.”
I watched most of the game and was impressed with ball movement and intensity. Not a lot to learn when playing an overmatched opponent but I give the team credit for being focused.