It’s time for Cameron to get crazy again.
No. 4 Duke will kick off its season Friday night when it hosts Davidson at 7 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Despite earning victories against Bowie State and Drury in each of its two exhibition games, the Blue Devils will open the season with plenty of improvements to make.
“By the end of the season, I feel like we’ll be a great team,” redshirt sophomore Rodney Hood said. “But right now, we’re still young and we’re still learning."
In many ways, Friday's season opener will be the dawn of a new day for the Blue Devils. This year’s squad features a new up-tempo offense and is missing the familiar faces of Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee. The game will also mark the regular-season debuts of Hood and Jabari Parker, two players who are expected to be focal points of this year's team but have not yet logged minutes in a Duke uniform.
Hood transferred to Duke from Mississippi State, where he averaged 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game during his freshman year. He was named a team captain by Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski after spending all of last year practicing with the team. Hood looked like a seasoned veteran in exhibition play, averaging 20.0 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
Parker, a freshman and the second-ranked player in his recruiting class, will get his first real taste of Division I basketball Friday. Touted as the top high school basketball player since LeBron James by Sports Illustrated, Parker spent most of the summer getting back into playing shape after being hampered by a foot injury for the majority of his senior season of high school.
The freshman has found his form thus far. In the Blue Devils’ two preseason tune-ups, Parker averaged 14.5 points and thrilled the Cameron Crazies with a few highlight-reel dunks.
With a heavyweight matchup looming Tuesday against No. 5 Kansas and preseason All-American Andrew Wiggins, the Blue Devils have to be careful not to overlook Davidson, a historically scrappy team. The Wildcats finished with a record of 26-8 last year and nearly pulled off a shocking upset of third-seeded Marquette in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“We feel confident,” Hood said. “But we also know that Davidson is more than capable of coming in here and upsetting us. We have to have their type of mentality as far as being hungry and having a competitive mentality. We have to do the little things just like they do.”
Davidson lost Jake Cohen, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward who was their top scorer and shot-blocker last year. The Wildcats are counting on two freshmen, Joe Aase and Andrew McAuliffe, to step in and help fill Cohen’s shoes.
Duke's toughest challenge in its season-opener could be senior forward De’mon Brooks. Last season, Brooks ranked was among the team leaders in almost all statistical categories, and led Davidson in rebounds and steals. At 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, Brooks can wreak havoc on both ends of the floor. He was recently named the Southern Conference Preseason Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.
One thing to keep an eye on is the stricter enforcement of hand-check rules by the officials, something that the NCAA has made a point of emphasis heading into the season. In an effort to increase scoring and open up the floor, the NCAA sent out memos to all Division I coaches reminding them that defenders will be whistled for fouls if they keep their hands on opponents. It will take time for teams to get acclimated to this new style of officiating, as evidenced by the Blue Devils' 36 personal fouls in their exhibition contests.
"It's definitely going to be tough," senior captain Tyler Thornton said. "Especially when you’re trying to apply pressure to a team—if they're attacking you and you put your hand on them, that’s automatically going to get called. It’s a change for everybody, so it's not like we're at an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to the hand-checking. But we just have to adjust and use it to our advantage the best that we can."
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