Every week throughout the basketball season, The Blue Zone will name the highest-performing Blue Devil the Duke basketball Player of the Week.
Quinn Cook
Statline: Friday vs Arizona: 13 points, 6-for-9 from the field, three rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.
Tuesday vs. Michigan: 24 points, 6-for-11 from the field, 10-for-10 from the free throw line, nine assists and four rebounds in 37 minutes.
The good: Cook put on a dazzling display in the second half against Michigan. He scored all of his 24 points after halftime, ensuring that the Wolverines never seriously threatened the Blue Devil’s lead. Cook also provided great energy on defense and clogged the passing lanes so that the Michigan offense could never get into a rhythm. Cook’s all-around performance and leadership on the court elevated the entire team’s effort and intensity—exactly what the Duke coaching staff has been looking for from their point guard.
The bad: At times, Cook was still plagued by the passiveness that has affected most Blue Devils not named Jabari Parker or Rodney Hood. Despite an efficient 6-for-9 shooting performance against Arizona, he was not a major offensive threat in the second half even with Parker going through an off shooting night. And as great as Cook’s second half was against Michigan, his first half was equally puzzling—no points on only three field goal attempts. There was also the technical foul in the first half.
The bottom line: Cook clearly has the talent and skills to be a legitimate third option complementing Parker and Hood. In order for Duke to live up to its reputation as one of the nation’s top teams, he will have to be more aggressive and establish himself as a consistent scoring threat from the point guard position.
Honorable mention: Andre Dawkins scored only eight points against Michigan, but those eight points were about as clutch as they come. With the Wolverines slowly chipping away at the Blue Devil lead, Dawkins came in off the bench and put any notion of a comeback to rest. He immediately hit two 3-pointers and then added another bucket to give Duke a 15-point lead and put the game out of reach. Dawkins is regaining the shooting touch he had prior to his absence last season, and could prove to be a key weapon off the bench for the Blue Devils moving forward.
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