After a dominating 68-59 victory over UConn to win the NIT season tip-off in Madison Square Garden, Duke once again proved it’s going to be a formidable force this season.
The key to this Duke win was its early domination on the boards. Even though the Blue Deveils shot 29% from the field in the first half with Kyle Singler largely ineffective and in foul trouble, they still managed to have a 9 point lead going into the break thanks to a number of second chance points from its work on the offensive glass.
While many expected Duke to struggle in the backcourt after losing Gerald Henderson to the NBA and Elliot Williams to Memphis in the off-season, the hot shooting of Andre Dawkins has been a nice addition to the steady play of Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith in the backcourt.
For a complete breakdown of the game, listen to the podcast below:
Game balls
Jon Scheyer
Scheyer took care of the ball all night and lead the Blue Devels with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. You can’t be any more solid with the ball than Scheyer has been since he took over point guard duties and with a sweet shot to boot, Scheyer is one of the most complete players in the country.
Lance Thomas
Lance was a menace on the boards and filled up the stat sheet with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Lance is a guy that can guard all 5 positions on the defensive end and has been an energy guy that has set the tone on both ends of the court.
Looking into the Future
Kyrie Irving, Duke’s incoming 6-foot-2 point guard rated as the No. 9 overall player in the Class of 2010 by Rivals.com, has been compared to John Wall in the effect he will have next season. Considering Duke’s backcourt next year will feature Irving, Liberty transfer Seth Curry, Nolan Smith, and Andre Dawkins, the Blue Devils will certainly be loaded in the backcourt next season and finally have the athleticism in its backcourt that it has lacked for so many of the past few years. While this current Duke team will certainly be tough to beat, there’s a lot to look forward to with next year’s squad.
26 comments:
Scrap, where did you go for so long man? Disappeared on us? Thank god I got this on my RSS feed and had it emailed too.
Duke looked so good tonight. What do you think about Harrison choosing UNC? That rat.
Hey Jake,
Great to hear from you. I'm sure I mentioned this in a post last year but I'm in med school so time is a little hard to come by at the moment. But with Thanksgiving break I had a little time so I decided to re-connect with Scrapper Nation. I appreciate your support through the years.
In regards to Harrison, I think I'm still a little shell shocked. The kid was a Duke guy all the way and everyone thought we had the inside track. He's no doubt going to be a good player. But after the drama with the signing party and with Roy Williams showing up on Skype, it was all a little too much. Can you imagine Coach K taking part in a Skype phone call for a recruit's signing party? Think not. Carolina can have him. We are going to be lights out good next year with or without him.
LT had a monster game for us. If we can get that from him every night we are going to be tough to stop. We need to give Andre some more shots, he can really stroke it.
Where was Kyle tonight? He didn't show up. He had NO impact. Thank god Nolan and Jon (and andre) showed up.
Why is Zoubek so unathletic? He has the size. He's always in position. But he can't jump at all. It's pitiful.
ANDRE DAWKINS IS GOING TO BE A STAR.
I see Coach K hasn't done away with the stall four corners offense with 10 minutes to go. Not another year of that. Please...
We are pretty good now but how good are we going to be when Kyle plays like himself and MASON comes back? Mason is supposed to be a FREAK, FREAK athlete. We are already good but we are going to be SCARY in a few weeks.
Whoever said Andre Dawkins is going to be a star, I wouldn't be so sure. He had a good shooting night. But he is still really raw. And next year he is going to be the 4th best guard behind Nolan, Seth, and Kyrie.
WHAT? Did you see the look in Andre's eyes? His first shot he swished in Madison Square Garden. I think he's already our best pure shooter. And he's only going to get more PT.
How did we shoot 28.4% for the game and win? And not just any win, we beat a top 20 team at a neutral site.
25 offensive boards is why. 56 rebounds overall. With the studs UConn has, I don't know how we killed them on the boards.
There's a lot to be excited about with next year's squad but the team won't have Scheyer. That is going to be a huge loss. I like this team's chances, especially when Mason comes back, to contend for it all come March.
Kyrie's going to make an impact. St. Pats just started practice yesterday. I'm sure to see many Duke fans at Pats' games this year.
The Wall/impact comparison might be a little lofty, because Kyrie is not quite in his extra-terrestrial category. But considering how much Duke can use a player of his abilities I can see him being national newcomer of the year candidate.
I'll show you some game balls. Balls in your face. Balls in your mouth. Sweaty balls. How bout those balls?
HAHAHAHAHAH look at Scrapper whining like a baby over the fact that Roy Williams can actually recruit. He can recruit in all 5 positions too...what a concept! Dook is going to need a front court to go deep in the tourney...not just a nice backcourt.
You have a great sports blog here. I have a sports blog myself, but we focus specifically on the New York Giants football team. I was wondering if we could do a link exchange to help spread some traffic around between each other. All you have to do is simply place a comment on my site letting me know when you have added my link to your page and I'll return the favor immediately. Please let me know if this is possible.
Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Jason
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