Some other thoughts from Duke’s win at Kansas…
The last time – the only time – Duke won there, in 1988, Kansas shot out to a big lead before the Blue Devils strangled the Jayhawks on defense. Good thing, because that team struggled on offense. This one has a much higher ceiling offensively, but it gave up 84 points. Jon Scheyer will be talking to his team about that this week. There’s a lot to clean up on defense.
There was a lot of hype about JoJo Boumtje Boumtje and Deron Rippey, but they’re still freshmen, and Allen Fieldhouse is basically just a corn-fed version of Cameron (note to the Duke Chronicle: Kansas is not north of North Carolina). In this game, they combined to shoot 3-12 overall and all of the baskets they hit were threes. The Kansas crowd apparently made an impression.
Cayden Boozer had a quiet game on the surface, but look a bit deeper: Pat Ngongba and John Blackwell took 24 of Duke’s 60 shots. Toss in Boumtje Boumtje and Dame Sarr, and those four took 42 of Duke’s 60 shots.
This team doesn’t need Jason Williams at point. It needs a steady, pass-first point guard. It may end up that Boozer is the best candidate to fill that role.
If you read our Duke season preview, you may remember that we saw foul shooting as a potential weakness, and pointed specifically to Dame Sarr, Caleb Foster, and Pat Ngongba, as being potential problems.
Well, the problems were pretty minimal in Lawrence, as the Blue Devils shot 27-33. That’s 81.8%.
Foster didn’t get to the line, and we haven’t seen Drew Scharnowski yet, and he was dreadful at the line last season, hitting just 43.6%. He was better as a sophomore, hitting 57.4%, but still.
Speaking of Ngongba, we got used to seeing a smart big man who used his brain to outplay people. Well, the smarts are still there, but we saw a far, far more athletic version of Ngongba. Ngongba dominated inside.
One of the nicer things in the preseason is watching Sebastian Wilkins carve out a role. He’s strong, he can get to the basket, and he’s aggressive on both ends. It’s fun watching his game open up.
There were some flaws on Sunday. The defense wasn’t great at times, and Duke didn’t always take advantage of its strengths inside. Foster is back, but he’s not at his best yet. And the four freshmen who played, Boumtje Boumtje, Rippey, Bryson Howard, and Cameron Williams, were all a bit tentative, which is understandable.
We know what Cameron can do to people. It’s a very difficult place to play, because the crowd is right on top of you, and the noise can get in your head. It’s a very difficult environment.
So it’s not really a surprise that freshmen struggled at Kansas. It’s a learning experience, and it’ll pay off down the road.
Duke’s first five official games are Army and Coastal Carolina at home, Michigan State in Chicago, then SIU Edwardsville and Illinois at home.
We’ll get a good idea how far the freshmen have advanced, and how much the team can rely on them, by the time Michigan State rolls around.
However, there’s a good chance that Scharnowski will be back by then, and that will give Duke more experience down low. Foster will be/should be 100% by then. Watching Scheyer get this group organized is going to be fascinating.
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