The future of Duke Basketball was on display Friday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
With starters Nolan Smith and Mason Plumlee out for the season opener Friday against UNC-Greensboro, Duke relied heavily on underclassmen Olek Czyz, Andre Dawkins and Ryan Kelly en route to a 96-62 win over the Spartans.
Perhaps the most surprising performance came from the sophomore Czyz, who started the first game of his Duke career after seeing only limited action in 13 contests last season. Czyz recorded six points, six rebounds and two steals in 24 minutes of action and showed off his athleticism early in the first half when he intercepted an errant UNC-Greensboro pass and emphatically slammed home a tomahawk dunk on the ensuing breakaway.
“Olek did extremely good—he didn’t take an outside shot,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He gave a lot of energy, and he just did well in what he was supposed to do. I was really happy for him. He played more minutes tonight than he did all last year, or close to it.”
Czyz—who learned that he would be stepping into the starting lineup only a few days prior to the game—had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to clear out loose cartilage in June but has bounced back to earn the early nod through a strong preseason. Once news that Smith would be suspended for the first two games broke, Czyz honed in on doing all he could to seize the opportunity for some significant playing time. Although he had some first-game jitters, Czyz felt that he quickly found his groove in his first career Duke start.
“I thought I was calm out there for the first time to be put in that situation,” Czyz said. “I’ve never started in a ballgame at Duke in my life. It was a different feeling, but I thought I handled it well.”
Krzyzewski noted that had he been able to go back a year, he likely would have opted to redshirt Czyz in his freshman season as the native of Poland adjusted to academic life and collegiate basketball.
“He had so much to learn,” Krzyzewski said. “Not just basketball, but language, academics—he was making a big step forward in a lot of areas. But he’s made it, and he’s a really good kid, and he’s an outstanding athlete.”
With only two returning scholarship guards this season, Krzyzewski had no such redshirt option with Dawkins. Despite a condensed preseason due to his decision to graduate high school early and enroll at Duke mid-summer, Dawkins looked sharp in his first game with the Blue Devils. The 6-foot-4 guard from Chesapeake, Va. scored eight points and shot 2-for-4 from beyond the arc.
He also contributed an impressive highlight-reel play late in the second half when he blocked a Spartan forward along the baseline and snared the loose ball to start a Duke fast break.
After the game, Dawkins said that he wasn’t too nervous about his first official collegiate game, especially due to his role as a reserve.
“Coming off the bench, you really don’t have time to [think about it],” Dawkins said. “You have to go in there and give it your all. Coach K says to play your butt off, and that’s what I tried to do.”
Kelly, a freshman forward from Raleigh’s Ravenscroft High, also chipped in with eight points, three rebounds and a block. Kelly’s capability to play both inside and on the wing in certain situations will help ease the loss of Plumlee, who is expected to miss a few weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his left wrist.
Krzyzewski was ultimately satisfied with the play of his freshmen in their debuts, particularly with how each knocked down key 3-point baskets after UNC-Greensboro narrowed the Duke lead down to 17 points early in the second half.
“Andre and Ryan gave us a lift,” Krzyzewski said. “Those two threes when they got it down to 17 or 16, those were big plays for freshmen to make. I was pleased.”
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