After a month of practice and a brief but successful exhibition season, the 17th-ranked women's basketball team will take the court Saturday in its regular season debut. The Blue Devils will host UNC-Asheville at 4:30 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium, beginning what head coach Gail Goestenkors referred to as "phase three" of a season-long mission.
Duke will be without leading scorer and rebounder Tye Hall, who is suffering from a stress fracture in her pelvic bone. Hall is expected to be out of action until at least December 2. Hall started all 33 games last season, and the Blue Devils will miss her leadership Saturday as well as Sunday, when they travel down I-85 to face UNC-Greensboro at 3:00 p.m.
However, Goestenkors is confident that her squad is ready to kick things off after a week of fine tuning in practice. Duke's dramatic 94-93 exhibition win over the Chinese National Team last Sunday was a good measuring stick for the Blue Devils.
"It gave us a lot of confidence," Goestenkors said of the win. "It helped us to understand how good we can be when we put it together, both offensively and defensively. But it also helped us see some of our weaknesses."
Goestenkors was most concerned with Duke's defensive breakdowns, both in transition and in half-court play. The Blue Devils yielded 42 points to China's Hai-xia, and appeared unable to stop the 6-foot-8 center. And though neither of Duke's weekend opponents will boast a big gun like Hai-xia, extra practice time was spent on the defensive end all this week.
"I feel better than I did a week ago," Goestenkors said of her defense. "We're going to trap a lot [this weekend]... and put a lot of pressure on the ball. We're also fine tuning our quarter-court defense."
Duke leads the all-time series against UNC-Asheville 7-0. The Blue Devils won last year's meeting 95-57 over a Bulldog team that finished with an unimpressive 6-21 record. But Goestenkors stressed that her team is not looking ahead to Sunday's game against a more proven UNC-Greensboro team.
"Really, we need to focus on ourselves," Goestenkors said. "We're just anxious to play a real game, and both [of] these games will be competitive. These games are [important] to help us prepare for ACC play-our fourth phase of the season."
That fourth phase will not begin until December 12, when Duke hosts Georgia Tech. By that time, Hall should be back in action for the Blue Devils. In the meantime, Goestenkors' team embarks on a seven-game non-conference swing with several players still looking to define their roles. Goestenkors has not named a starting five for this weekend's opener.
"We're hoping that everyone who's healthy gets to play," she said. "The great thing about our team is the depth."
Sophomores Hilary Howard and Payton Black are expected to pick up some of the slack in Hall's absence. Howard is battling the flu, but should be healthy enough to play this weekend. Black's height advantage at 6-foot-4 is one area the Blue Devils hope to exploit against the smaller lineups of UNC-A and UNC-G.
Black averaged 10.6 points-per-game last season coming off the bench, good enough to make the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman team. Moving into the starting lineup, she has shone in the two exhibition games, averaging 22 points and eight rebounds.
Saturday's contest will mark Duke's return to real action in Cameron for the first time since a disappointing second-round NCAA tournament loss to San Francisco ended the Blue Devils 1995-96 campaign. Duke has put that loss behind it, and will be looking for a return trip to the NCAAs-phase five-come March.
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