Welcome to Cameron, Luol Deng.
Duke's freshman forward scored the team's first eight points and the men's basketball team never trailed in a 105-69 victory over Team Nike Elite Wednesday night.
Deng finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
"Luol, he's got such good fundamentals, he understands the game so well, it's just very rare," Duke shooting guard J.J. Redick added.
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski was also pleased with the freshman's performance.
"[Luol's] coming along real well...he's an excellent player already and he's only going to get better," Krzyzewski said. "We do have some guys on the bench that make us a little bit deeper team, but if we didn't have anybody, he's the kind of player that makes us deep even with six guys."
Deng remained modest about his game.
"I thought today I showed a lot of [improvement], which was a good thing," Deng said, adding, however, that there were a number of things he needed to work on.
"I could go on forever," Deng laughed. "I've got to make wiser decisions...being patient, making the right reads, and just being aggressive at the right time."
Additionally, Shelden Williams had 17 points, nine rebounds, six blocks, and four assists in just 23 minutes before leaving the game with 2:53 remaining. 14 of Williams' points came in the second half.
"In the first half I was doing well on the defensive end and that contributed to my offensive play in the second half," Williams said.
Krzyzewski said he was "especially proud of Shelden," adding that the sophomore big man's performance comes on the heels of the death of his grandfather last Sunday.
Williams added that working with talented, yet oft-injured power forward Shavlik Randolph is helping him to improve his game. One of Williams' four assists went to Randolph for a dunk late in the first half.
"We're going to start looking for each other," Williams said of Randolph. "Now we're concentrating on working with each other for us to be productive."
Randolph scored 18 points on seven of eight shooting.
"I thought Shav was really assertive tonight; that's the kind of performance he needs to build on," Krzyzewski said about Randolph's performance. "He and Shelden, that's what we're going to need if we're going to become a really good team."
J.J. Redick paced the Blue Devils with 23 points and six three-point shots to lead five Blue Devils in double digits. As a team, the Blue Devils shot 50% from beyond the arc, led by Redick and three three-pointers from Deng.
"I've got a lot more confidence and security in my game where if I miss a shot I'm not thinking, 'Is my shot on tonight?'" Redick said about his improved all-around game. "I feel very fresh right now going into the season."
Former Arkansas-Little Rock standout Stan Blackmon led a cold-shooting Nike Elite squad with 22 points. Team Nike Elite shot just 41.8% from the floor as the Blue Devils outpaced their opponent in virtually every statistical category.
"I was really pleased with our defense on the ball," Krzyzewski said about his team's defensive effort. "We kept people in front of us, and with extended dribbles a couple of times our guys were able to come up with some steals, which turned into fast break points."
Nike Elite never really threatened Duke after the Blue Devils opened the game with a 12-2 run, though the semi-professional team stayed in the ballgame thanks to six steals and the Blue Devils' anemic 45.5% free throw shooting percentage in the first half.
Jason Jennings scored on a fast break dunk with 4:37 remaining in the first half to bring Nike within seven. However, the Blue Devils closed the half with an 11-4 run and the rout was on.
"In the first half we probably should've been up by 20 points, so it wasn't like we played a bad first half, but it was slippage," Krzyzewski said about the Blue Devils' first half performance, which was marked by significant use of a trapping full-court press. "We had five plays that produced ten points for them...that should have produced points for us, and when you're playing in a hectic manner like that you sometimes overrun, and that's what we did."
Krzyzewski felt the second half improvements had to do with the standard man-to-man defense.
"In the second half we didn't overrun as much and got more rebounds and just played better," he said. "Everything was smoother."
Over all Krzyzewski seemed very pleased with the Blue Devils' performance.
"It was a nice improvement over last week," Krzyzewski said, referring to a 105-74 Blue Devil victory over the EA Sports All-Stars. "We are getting better."
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