Things were not going well.
The men's basketball team had arrived in Atlanta Saturday fatigued, sick and injured. Duke had to play a motivated Georgia Tech squad--likely the quickest team in the ACC--only 41 hours after a hard-fought win against the emerging Florida State Seminoles. The Yellow Jacket fans came just as prepared, perhaps even more so, as their basketball team, buzzing inside the steamy Alexander Memorial Coliseum two hours before the 5 p.m. tip-off, heckling every Blue Devil warm-up shot.
Once the game began, Georgia Tech applied its substantial kinetic energy in what had the potential to be a blow out against a Duke team it had not defeated since 1996. The Yellow Jackets held a 15-8 lead, and the Blue Devils desperately needed a boost before things got out of hand. With 12:22 remaining in the first half, Daniel Ewing missed a short jump shot, and it appeared Georgia Tech would turn its defense into offense once again, sprinting up the court for another shot at increasing its lead. But a gangly arm appeared out of no where, coming from under the basket, grabbing the ball, and in one motion slamming home two points. Luol Deng roared after his timely put-back, and then calmly ran down the floor for another round of ferocious defense.
Deng's athletic tip keyed a 13-2 run that led to Duke's 82-74 win, and the Sudan native finished with a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.
"Luol's very talented, and he's still learning how to play college basketball," Duke's leading scorer J.J. Redick said. "The way he played tonight...he played aggressive. It was almost like he wasn't thinking out there, he was just playing by instincts, and when he plays like that he's a great player."
Games like these were expected by Deng, the most highly-touted recruit that decided to play college basketball this season. But things have not gone completely smooth for Deng, as his freshman season has been more up-and-down than the up-up-and-away many expected from him immediately.
While the Carmelo Anthony comparisons have stopped, Deng often shows glimpses of why he was originally compared to the former Syracuse freshman who led his team to a national title as a freshman. At 6-foot-7, with ball-handling skills of a guard, Deng can score nearly anywhere on the court. This ability has allowed the Blair Academy graduate to score 15 points or more in nine of Duke's 18 games thus far this season. But despite his talent, Deng has often struggled to assert himself within the Duke system, scoring only eight and six points, respectively, against Georgetown and Florida State in the two games prior to the Georgia Tech matchup. Deng blames his inconsistent play with his reluctance to be aggressive while surrounded by a team filled with McDonald's All-Americans.
"In college tough games are not easy at all," Deng said. "You've just got to come out aggressive. That's why I've been up and down and something that I've learned."
Although his numbers are not as impressive as Anthony's, at 13.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, Deng leads all ACC first-year players. His teammates are more than happy with the progress the potential superstar has shown.
"He's developing well," senior captain Chris Duhon said after the Georgia Tech game. "The last couple of games he wasn't himself. Today he was just an entirely different player...a player we need him to be. He carried us a lot in that first half. That's something special with him being a freshman."
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski feels the steepest part of Deng's learning curve is getting accustomed to the demands of the ACC, saying "It takes a little while to get used to conference play, it's just a different game."
Deng understands the difficulty of becoming a dominant player in the relentlessly competitive ACC, and is willing to do what is necessary to get his game to the next level.
"It's just a learning process," Deng said. "I'm not going to come in know everything. I'm going to learn from it. I just love learning, and when you learn it's just amazing what you can add to your game."
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