What a difference a year makes.
The new-look men's basketball team, show casing its deep bench and full-court style of play, cruised to a 93-82 win over the Upstate All-Stars Saturday night in its exhibition opener.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski quickly wiped away memories of last year's 18-13 squad, which was hampered by a lack of depth and injuries. Five minutes into the game, Krzyzewski removed his starting unit and replaced it with five players who kept up the pace for the next five minutes, until the starters came back in. With all these substitutions, there was no visible drop-off in play, as each new unit was able to come in and give its all until the other unit returned.
"With the number of people that we have, it helps us because we can just pick them up and wear the other team out," senior Greg Newton said. "Some teams aren't going to have as deep of a bench as we are, and if they've got to face 10 guys for 40 minutes, it's going to be tough."
Although Saturday's pattern of five-for-five substitutions will not be maintained during the regular season, it, combined with the team's full-court press and transition game, gave hints of how the Blue Devils will differ from last year. All of this was done without Duke's best defender last year, junior Ricky Price.
Price broke the little finger on his right hand in last Thursday's practice, and is expected to be out 2-3 weeks, most likely missing Duke's first few regular season games. The Blue Devils will miss Price, but will try to use their depth to compensate for his loss.
"Ricky is an important guy because he's our best athlete," Krzyzewski said. "All of a sudden, he's out in the passing lane. Ricky is a game player. He gets very excited about games. I missed having him in there. We want him in the mix quickly."
Nevertheless, the Blue Devils did not miss a beat. The Blue Devils jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead and never looked back. Newton and sophomore Taymon Domzalski keyed Duke's inside attack throughout the game. Newton showed a variety of moves on the inside, leading the squad with seven rebounds. Domzalski, who scored 14 points, worked effectively in tandem with junior guard Steve Wojciechowski on a series of effective seal-off plays in the second half that led to four baskets.
"I thought Wojciechowski's play was excellent, especially getting locked in on some of his passes to Taymon," Krzyzewski said. "Taymon showed better poise in the post-the best poise in the post that he's had since he's been at Duke. It looked like he felt real comfortable in there."
Duke also received fine performances from its freshman class of Mike Chappell, Nate James and Chris Carrawell. Chappell started for the Blue Devils and was one of the leaders out on the break, while Carrawell was often a whirling dervish on the court, slashing through the lane and leading the trio with 13 points and six rebounds.
"I thought all three of our freshmen did well," Krzyzewski said. "Mike was one for seven, but he took good shots and he's going to hit those shots. Carrawell made a couple of spectacular plays-he's got such good movement... All three freshmen are very competitive for starting assignments or extended playing time."
The Duke defense played a solid game, pressuring the ball the full length of the court. However, the Blue Devils were unable to shut down guard Dan Cross, who was a star on the Florida team that Duke played in the 1994 Final Four. Cross notched 31 points, including five three-pointers.
The only other major downside of Saturday night's game for Duke were the injuries that continue to plague redshirt sophomore Trajan Langdon and senior Carmen Wallace. Wallace and Langdon both had surgery on their left knees in the offseason, and are still not 100 percent. Both players were forced to sit for the last five minutes of the game because they began tightening up.
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