Blue-White Scrimmage

There’s nothing like sitting 3^rd row behind the bench for the Blue-White scrimmage. I had the pleasure of doing just that on Saturday and served as the eyes and ears for Scrapper Nation. Enjoy the videos, pictures, and interview with heralded Duke recruit Ryan Kelly (all courtesy of The Scrapper's blackberry).

Format of the Scrimmage

The scrimmage was organized into two “second halves.” Each team started out with 45 points and every player started with 3 fouls. It’s obvious the major goal of the scrimmage was to work on late-game situations, a problem for recent Duke teams.

Notes

First Half-The Teams

Blue Team- Lance Thomas, Greg Paulus, Olek Czyz, Marty Pocius, Brian Zoubek, Jordan Davidson, and Elliot Williams
White Team-Nolan Smith, Gerald Henderson, Dave Mcclure, Jon Scheyer, Miles Plumlee, Kyle Singler, and Steve Johnson

1) It quickly became obvious that the white team’s roster was stacked. The trio of Henderson, Scheyer, and Singler, proved to be unstoppable.

2) In his first exposure to a true Cameroon-like atmosphere, Elliot Williams looked passive (not necessarily a bad thing at this stage, especially so considering he was being hounded on defense by Gerald Henderson).

3) Miles Plumlee appears very skilled for a freshman big man. He has a good left hand and looked confident in taking the ball, spinning, and kissing a left hand hook off the glass and in.

4) Everyone looks a little stronger and seem to be bearing the fruits of an intense summer workout regimen.

5) The new 3 point line (moved back a full foot) doesn't look like its going to affect shooting percentages too much.

At halftime the coaches switched the teams. New teams:

White-Paulus, Scheyer, Gerald, Lance, Singler, Elliot Williams
Blue-Jordan davidson, Marty, Nolan, Mcclure, Plumlee

6) Suprisingly, the blue team pulled of a shocking victory. How?

Nolan Smith looked great handling the ball and scrapped on defense (including blocking a 3 point shot attempt by Gerald Henderson). It was also great to see a healthy Marty Pocius play. He really contributed to the Blue Team’s victory in the second game. The big question is whether or not a healthy Marty will be given the opportunity to contribute.

Interview with Ryan Kelly (interview conducted by my friend Sumesh)

Ryan Kelly is a 6-9'', 210 lb. forward from Ravenscroft high school who is rated as one of the top players in next year's recruiting class and will be enrolling at Duke next fall.

Q: Ryan, are you going to be turning out to a lot of Duke games this year?

A: I'm going to try to go to as many as I can. Obviously my first priority is to my own games.

Q: When you're here watching the game, how do you think you watch the game differently than the average fan?

A: Once you've been playing for several years you get a better understanding of it all. You see the whole game not just the guy with the ball, you see the whole thing. I'd say a better understanding.

Q: How do your friends react to finding out that you're coming to Duke, any North Carolina fans?

A: Some of them love me some of them hate me. You know I think most people, even if they're Carolina fans, are going to root for me.

The Scrapper’s starting lineup:

Greg Paulus, Jon Scheyer, Gerald Henderson, Lance Thomas, and Kyle Singler.

Singler, Thomas, Zoubek, Plumlee, and Mcclure will form the rotation up front. Also look for Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams to be major contributors to the backcourt (hopefully Marty will also be able to contribute here).

The football game

I ended up going to the football game and although we lost, I think Duke really showed something by having the lead deep into the 3rd quarter against an extremely talented Miami team. Check out the video of the football team being recognized as they walk through Cameroon before the game.