Duke's quiet leader will have to shout out the plays when Duke tips off its season Saturday. Senior Daniel Ewing-a natural shooting guard who has run the offense sporadically during his first three seasons-will be the Blue Devils starting point guard. Sean Dockery will play significant minutes off the bench, giving the team an energy boost as he did frequently last season.
Duke’s quiet leader will have to shout out the plays when the team tips off its season Saturday.
Senior Daniel Ewing—a natural shooting guard who has run the offense sporadically during his first three seasons—will be the Blue Devils starting point guard. Sean Dockery will play significant minutes off the bench, giving the team an energy boost as he did frequently last season.
“It is one of the roles the coaches have placed on me,” Ewing said of the point guard position. “It is something I have been working on since the season started so far. I am pretty comfortable in it, and I am trying to go and lead the team.”
For almost a decade, Duke has not entered a season with questions about who would be the starting point guard. 2003 graduate Chris Duhon started at the point for more than three seasons and provided tremendous continuity at the position.
“It has been an adjustment for me because I played with Chris for two years, and Chris really knew how to run a team,” junior J.J. Redick said. “Right now Daniel and Sean are both learning how to do that and different players have had to make an adjustment to them.”
Ewing played the point during an intrasquad scrimmage Monday in front of students at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The team of Ewing, Redick, Shelden Williams, Shavlik Randolph and David McClure took on bench players and Krzyzewski indicated that this would likely be the starting lineup for Saturday’s game.
Dockery appeared to be Duke’s next point guard after backing up Duhon for the last two seasons. The junior, however, has not proven his ability to score, averaging only 3 points per game in his sophomore season. His failure to hit shots from the perimeter has allowed defenses to key in on Duke’s post players or double-team Redick.
“I wouldn’t say disappointed,” Dockery said of not getting the starting nod. “Daniel is a great guy and he is going to run the team well. At this point I think I will be out there a lot too.”
Dockery adds defensive intensity and will often guard one of the opposition’s primary scorers. Duke will be able to give opponents different looks when he comes into the game.
“When I am running the point, Daniel can score more and then we have two guys on the perimeter that are great scorers—Daniel Ewing and J.J. Redick—so it gives us more scoring ability out there,” Dockery said. “When Daniel is running the team he puts pressure on the ball well, and he is running the team well because he is a senior and has that mentality to run the team well.”
Ewing, who will often remain on the court when Dockery runs the point, has spoken extensively with head coach Mike Krzyzewski about the adjustment. Since Duke’s second exhibition game, a 95-58 win over N.C. Central, Ewing said the two talked primarily about executing offensive sets.
Ewing said having a scorer like himself at the point will “make the defense have to adjust.”
“With me being able to score the way I can playing the point, then the point guard has to worry about me especially when I give up the ball being able to come off screens and stuff like that,” he said. “It helps our team a lot with me playing point and having J.J., Shelden and Shav in the game as well.”
Freshman DeMarcus Nelson is a third option for Krzyzewski at the point. The guard had surgery after injuring his thumb during the Blue-White Scrimmage Oct. 25 but returned to practice a week ago. Nelson has jumped back into the flow of the team’s workouts and is expected to play in the season-opener against Tennessee-Martin.
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