There’s a reason by 4th year coach Jon Scheyer scheduled aggressively, and it’s not because he knows what he has with his team but really the opposite of that: he doesn’t know and aims to find out as soon as possible while also putting his young team through their paces against high level competition. The often overlooked aspect is that Scheyer is also putting himself through the paces, the more differing styles he sees, the more high level coaches he faces – he grows and learns. It’s how you find out who you can trust with your team and how well you, as a coach, can prepare them for the unknown.
Without blinking and eye, Scheyer scheduled Texas, who despite axing their coach last season, hired up and leveled up in that department in Sean Miller. A veteran team builder with who has produced wherever he’s landed. It’s easy to write off a brand-new team but with the portal being as prevalent and the great equalizer in college basketball team building comes together much quicker nowadays.
Tuesday night, Texas didn’t feel overmatched in any way, they were steady defensively and opportunistic offensively – even after going down 9, the Longhorns battled back and showed they are a team to be reckoned with. The defensive pressure the Longhorns put on the Blue Devils, choking off passing lanes and being physical, was reminiscent of Sean Miller’s teams at Xavier. The Longhorns held the Blue Devils to one shot per possession more often than not, and held Duke without a field goal for the final five minutes of the half. The guards for Texas understood the assignment and crashed the boards hard, using a 25-15 advantage on the glass – including a 12-6 advantage in offensive rebounds, to take a 1 point lead into the break.
The Blue Devils exploded out of the locker room to start the second stanza, scoring the first 10 points of the half. Including 6 from Cameron Boozer, who was scoreless in the first half. But each time the Blue Devils tried to put the game away, the more experienced Long Horns found a way to keep it close, leaning on senior guard Jordan Pope who poured in 15 points and versatile forward Dailyn Swain who lead the Horns with 16. The Blue Devils countered with Isaiah Evans from the perimeter, who scored a game high 23 points, hitting 4 of his 8 shots from beyond the arc. Cameron Boozer, held scoreless at the half, came alive in the second pounding his way to the paint and getting to the free throw line time after time scoring 15 points, hitting 9 of his 11 free throws in the second half and adding 13 rebounds to notch his first double-double. Less flashy a stat-line was Caleb Foster, who seemed to struggle with finding his footing in the first half, going 0-2 from the floor, with zero assists and 2 fouls. Foster also came alive in the second half when Duke needed him the most. When Texas responded with five quick points to cut Duke’s 10-point lead in half with 10 minutes remaining. Caleb Foster ended the Longhorns’ scoring run with a pull-up jumper at the 9:05 mark. Foster stood out on both ends of the floor, locking up guard Jordan Pope, who was finding a rhythm being guarded by a freshman Cayden Boozer – Foster stepped in and made Pope’s life difficult, which aided in choking off the Texas run. Foster also hit some big shots in the second half, going 3 of 4, hitting his only triple of the game and adding 2 assists. As a team, the Blue Devils shored up their defense in the waning moments of the second half and stretched their lead to 15, winning 75-60.
Of Note
- The Blue Devils shot 39% from 3pt range to 29% from Texas.
- Duke was out-rebounded by Texas 41-37, but held a 22-16 advantage in the second half.
- Duke had 8 steals and forced 16 turnovers while turning it over 10 times.
- Isaiah Evans set a new career high, finishing the contest with 23 points.
Thoughts
Duke is obviously a work in progress, and there are a lot of things from this tape that they can teach to. There are some things that Jon Scheyer found out about his team that cannot be taught – and that is they battled consistently through the game, it wasn’t always pretty, but they responded to every run. Offensively there is a lot to work on in terms of timing, movement and spacing but that is to be expected, nearly everyone on this team is either new or in a new role. Defensively, they’ll get there, but they are far from where they can and will be. Some things to note regarding the bigs, who both fouled out in the second half. How does Jon Scheyer guard against two defensively aggressive big men, picking up needless fouls early? It’s going to be a story line to follow and something to watch for throughout this season.