There are only 10 days until the basketball season begins.
At that point, the student section will be filled with royal blue and yelling Cameron Crazies. The stadium will be echoing with cries and cheers from lifelong Duke fans. Even Crazy Towel Guy will make his presence known after every Blue Devil basket.
But before all the intensity completely kicks in, Duke will face one last team in an exhibition game to prepare for non-conference play.
The Blue Devils square off against Findlay—the defending NCAA Division II National Champions—tonight at 7 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Even though the Oilers pulled off a perfect 36-0 record last season and are ranked No. 4 in the Division II preseason poll, they likely won’t be much of a problem for No. 8 Duke, which sees this game as an opportunity to work on plays and defense.
“It’s good to play a school which won the national championship in their division,” said senior forward Lance Thomas, who was unable to play in the Pfeiffer exhibition game because of an illness. “We know they’re a really good team, and it’ll be good to play against a team with a very big ego who knows how to win.”
The Blue Devils tend to schedule exhibition games against highly-ranked teams in lower divisions to get used to playing against winning teams who consistently perform well.
Two years ago, the team played its last preseason game against Barton College, the 2006 NCAA Division II champion.
“These games are a big help, and it’s good for us to keep working on the things we’ve been practicing,” Thomas said.
To gear up for this season, Duke hopes to capitalize on its taller players and work on passing the ball into the middle for more shooting opportunities and rebounds.
“We have a lot of improvements to work on, and defensively we need to get a lot better and know our rotation,” senior point guard Jon Scheyer said. “We need to get the ball inside more... to our big guys. This gives us more dimensions and more ways to score, and that’s just something we need to keep working on.”
The players also emphasized the importance of the freshmen this year and their performance in previous and future games.
The three newcomers—Andre Dawkins, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee— seem to have generated instant camaraderie with the older players and have gained their respect.
“One thing I like about all of them is that they’re not tentative at all,” Scheyer said. “They’re really aggressive, which I really like.”
With all these advantages, the Blue Devils are looking toward a convincing victory that will set the tone for the beginning of the season.
And with Thomas recovering from his illness and returning to the court, the team can look forward to having a stronger offense and increased enthusiasm as well.
“We’re looking good, and we’re working really hard,” Thomas said. “We’ve been working on being consistent. We have a lot of height and we have a lot of experience in the backcourt.”
That height and experience could spell trouble for the Oilers.
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