On paper USC Upstate is one of the worst teams on Duke’s schedule.
For almost four minutes they made the pundits look wrong, jumping to 7-0 lead over Duke Friday night, a lead fueled when Jeremy Roach turned it over on Duke’s first two possessions, both live-ball turnovers that turned into layups at the other end.
Roach said Duke was lackadaisical at the start, while Jon Scheyer said Duke was knocked back by the Spartans physicality.
But Duke answered with two touchdown drives--sorry a 14-0 run--and put an end to that nonsense.
It was 43-18 at the half, 84-38 at the end, despite Duke playing 14 players.
So, the real story might be the slightly belated appearance of Dereck Lively II.
It was still 7-3 when Dereck Lively II made his first appearance of the season, his calf wrapped and his conditioning not up to snuff but otherwise at least resembling the player many believed to be.
He didn’t stuff the stat sheet, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 blocks and a steal in 15 minutes.
But Scheyer said Duke and Lively got what they needed from his appearance.
“Really happy with Dereck being able to play 15 minutes,” Scheyer said. “His biggest thing is getting back into game shape. He has a live body. He got those dunks running the floor and that’s something he can really do that allows us to play really fast.”
After that slow start Duke did pretty much what it wanted with an over-matched team that has been dealing with some injury issues of their own. Kyle Filipowski and Ryan Young got the starts inside and again both were dominant.
Filipowski put together his second double-double, 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’m doing what I should be doing,” he said. “That’s what I need to do for my teammates to get open on fast breaks.”
Duke had a 52-27 advantage on the boards, with seven blocks.
But Duke’s advantage on the perimeter was just as impressive. Duke had 15 steals, forcing 23 turnovers, while generating 16 assists. Upstate was only able to assist on six field goals as Duke’s disruptive defense stymied their ability to string together sequences.
Mark Mitchell had another solid game, 13 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, while helping hold a D-1 team to less than a point per minute.
“We’re so long and athletic,” he said, “especially with having Dereck back. A lot of teams we get will kind of just get swarmed on the court when we’re playing and defending collectively. We came out kind of lackadaisical but after that we just kind of put it on them and just tried to follow the game plan.”
Roach recovered nicely from that slow start and finished with 10 points and 7 assists, 6 in the first half. But Scheyer credited Jake Grandison (12 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) and Jaylen Blakes (6 points, 2 steals) with jump-starting Duke’s first-half run, citing “the energy they brought, the defensive intensity, I thought they really sparked us. From there we were off and running.”
Scheyer added that Roach looked at him after those two early miscues and said “I gotcha.”
As with the season opener against Jacksonville, nobody played a lot, Roach leading everyone with under 26 minutes played. But Jaden Schutt scored his first five points of the season, Kale Catchings had 4 points and 3 rebounds, Christian Reeves grabbed 3 rebounds in 7 minutes, the kind of productive PT that helps morale and gives the staff some data points if and when they’re needed for bigger roles.
So, two games, two impressive wins and on to the Kansas game.
Mark Mitchell is the early season leader for the “Bob Green’s favorite player” label. He plays with energy.
Color me optimistic and excited. This team is super talented, motivated and team oriented. So many talented players who, early in the season, play with team cohesion.