Experience is often seen as being better than youth, but Monday night both were effective for the men's basketball team.
Led by freshman Jeff Capel in his first collegiate start, the fourth-ranked Blue Devils soundly defeated South Carolina State 97-61 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke (4-0) was able to move the ball effectively on offense, making numerous passes in order to gain the best possible shots. This patience showed in the final statistics, as the Blue Devils shot 63.6 percent from the floor for the game.
"We played very well," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I was pleased with our concentration throughout the whole evening. We made extra passes.
"I liked the way our team played tonight. We were ready to play."
S.C. State entered the game without its best inside player, Desi McQueen, who was out with a shoulder injury. To make up for their lack of size, the Bulldogs slowed the tempo of the game on offense and forced Duke to shoot from the outside. The strategy did not work.
"Duke University is a very fine basketball team," S.C. State head coach Cy Alexander said. "They execute well, and they wore us down. We tried to utilize our quickness and perimeter offense. We took a calculated risk to make them shoot from the perimeter."
"We can't win many games when we allow our opponents to shoot sixty-four percent from the field. They'll win the national championship if they shoot like that all year."
The game began with a jump shot from Capel, showing that the freshman wasn't intimidated by his first crack at the starting five.
Capel's play in practice and the three previous games earned him Monday's starting role. In 20 minutes of action Monday night, Capel scored 12 points, had two assists and committed only one turnover.
"It's hard to think that Jeff's a freshman," senior co-captain Antonio Lang said. "Jeff has done a lot of great things. Jeff has done some things that I haven't seen anybody do. He's a great player, and great players make great plays. He's not afraid to make a mistake."
Krzyzewski also went back to Duke's version of the twin towers, with junior Erik Meek starting along side junior Cherokee Parks. The Blue Devils have had a different starting lineup in each of their four games this year.
The Bulldogs stayed with Duke for the first five minutes of the game, taking their final lead of the game with 15:03 left in the first half. Sophomore guard Chris Collins then tied the game at 12 with his first of four three-pointers on the night. After a Bulldog miss, the Blue Devils raced down court, and with 13:55 left in the game, Eric Meek put back an offensive rebound to give Duke the lead for good.
Despite the lopsided score, the game was filled with exciting plays that drew loud cheers from the Cameron crowd. On one possession, senior co-captain Marty Clark lofted a pass over the Bulldog defense and into the hands of freshman Greg Newton for an alley-oop slam dunk.
Duke's big lead for most of the game also allowed Krzyzewski to give his bench much-needed playing time. Freshman Carmen Wallace, who had played a total of two minutes this season, made the most of his six minutes on the court Monday night. Wallace scored seven points, including a spectacular dunk off of a steal.
"I'm not really worried about myself as much, as long as we play hard," Wallace said. "You always really want to play, but you just have to be patient."
Both Capel and Wallace have became instant heroes with the Cameron crowd. For example, the Crazies often shouted "CAA-pel, CAA-pel," reminiscent of similar cheers for former point guard Bobby Hurley. But Capel understandably wants no part of these comparisons.
"Don't even -- please, no comparisons. No one can compare to Bobby Hurley," Capel said. "I don't think that's fair. Bobby was a great player here. . . I really don't consider myself just a point guard, I consider myself a guard. Maybe some of the passes might remind some people of Bobby, but not the way I play."
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