The Duke and Villanova men’s basketball teams played a secret scrimmage a few weeks ago. The goal of these things is to work on lineups and sets against another opponent hopefully good enough to expose weaknesses that can be shored up sooner rather than later.
That’s kind of the same goal for a high-profile, early-season matchup like last Friday’s Duke-Arizona game.
Only it isn’t secret and it isn’t a scrimmage. And as early as it is in a season that won’t end until April, at least for somebody, it still counts as a loss for Duke, a good loss, inasmuch as there’s any such thing. But a loss, nonetheless.
So, what did we learn about Duke?
The post-game media availability was focused largely on two things.
One was rebounding. Actually, first-half rebounding. Duke had a slight edge on the boards in the second half.
But the first half was ugly. Arizona outrebounded Duke 29-15, 11-2 in offensive rebounds, 10-0 in second-chance points.
It was a team effort. All eight Wildcats who played had a first-half rebound, seven at least two, five at least three. Keyshawn Johnson had more offensive rebounds-three-than the entire Duke team.
Jon Scheyer cited some familiar themes.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JimSumnerSports to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.