This year's men's basketball team is like a remodeled car-some old parts combined with new parts that will hopefully produce a better looking product.
Duke showed its new look for the first time in last night's 112-87 exhibition victory against High Five America in Cameron Indoor Stadium. From just looking at the starting lineup, with the likes of Bobby Hurley and Thomas Hill replaced by Chris Collins and Erick Meek, one could see that this year's team was going to be different.
The Blue Devils displayed their potential by being very unselfish with the basketball, a fact seen in the scoring stats where every player scored and six players were in double figures.
"I was real pleased. I thought that it was a good ballgame," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I thought we were trying to do good things all the time. It didn't always turn out that way. We were very unselfish. In the second half, for about a five minute period, we had numerous beautiful exchanges on the offensive end, where four, maybe five great passes could lead to a bucket."
While their offense remained consistent throughout the whole game, the defense looked out of synch at times. High Five America stayed with the Blue Devils early in the game, taking an early 11-8 lead by consistently pushing the ball up the court on fast breaks. Duke eventually adjusted to its opponent's up-temp game, and eventually took the game into its own hands.
"I didn't think we reacted well to how they were getting the ball down the court," Krzyzewski said. "You don't practice against that, and then all of a suddent they're coming down our throats like crazy. It really tests your communication, and we didn't have as good of communication as we needed."
Duke's control of the game early on was sparked by the excellent outside shooting of Collins. Collins, the 6-3 sophmore guard, took advantage of his new role as a starter by scoring 15 points while shooting 4-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc. Collins had been in a heated battle for the fifth starting spot with junior Kenny Blakeney and senior Marty Clark, and his effort on the court last night definitely helped his chances to stay in the top five.
"I think there's always competition on the floor," Collins said. "Myself, Marty and Kenny were all having great preseasons, and there wasn't really a clear-cut starter. It's a spot that I wanted badly. I want to be in the starting lineup. I want to produce a lot for this team. Hopefully now I'll continue to work hard, and hopefully be a starter for the rest of the season."
Collins was not the only player who showed that he was hungry for playing time. Freshman Jeff Capel showed that he was ready for college ball by scoring seven points overall and making numerous behind-the-back passes.
"I thought I played pretty well," Capel said. "It's just a different feeling to get out there, in front of the crowd, the crowd's going crazy. My adrenaline was flowing, and I was really pumped up."
Another freshman that showed poise throughout the game was Greg Newton, scoring 12 points in just 10 minutes of action. Newton suffered from a case of pregame jitters early on, but eventually made the most of his limited playing time to show that he was ready to make an impact on his rookie season.
"I was nervous in the beginning," Newton said. "I was still nervous a little bit, but this was the first time we played somebody else other than ourselves. I was a little scared at first, but I got into the flow and things just happened."
Krzyzewski was very pleased with the effort of his 6-11 Canadian.
"Newton, even when he missed, he just pursued the ball," Krzyzewski said. "You have to like his gung-ho effort. He's just going to be a really good player."
Newton also felt that his play last night helped define his role on the team in the upcoming season.
"When I do get in the game, then I'm going to work my butt off," Newton said. "Basically what my role is-I think that's basically any freshman's role-is to just give 100 percent, and what happens, happens."
Now that the team has found a rhythm while playing together as one unit, Krzyzewski will be challenged to find a substitution pattern that works for his team. Krzyzewski admitted that he is going through a learning process in finding the best times to substitute.
"We do have good depth," Krzyzewski said. "I have to learn how to use the depth. I'll need to keep doing a better job learning about my team and how to use them. I have to remember that this is an entirely new team, it's a new system. I have to learn how to coach this system and then figure out the rotation. When we scrimmage, everybody gets equal playing time. That's not how it is in regular competition. I have to figure out how we keep up a high level of performance with our substitutions. That will take some time."
NOTE: Junior Stan Brunson, who walked on to the men's basketball squad last season, was back in uniform Wednesday. Brunson also plays for the men's soccer team, whose season just ended last weekend.
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