Jahlil Okafor
Statline: Monday, Dec. 29 vs. Toledo: 27 points, 12-of-15 shooting, eight rebounds; Wednesday, Dec. 31 vs. Wofford: 24 points, 11-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds, two blocks, two steals; Saturday, Jan. 3 vs. Boston College: 28 points, 7-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds, four blocks, 14-of-17 free throws
The good: Okafor carried the Blue Devils to three wins coming out of their holiday break, leading the team in scoring in all three games and racking up more than 20 points in each one. Even more impressive than Okafor’s raw point totals is the efficiency with which he recorded them—he shot better than a 60 percent clip from the field in each of the three contests and his field goal percentage for the season now stands at 68.2 percent.
The Chicago native continued to impress with his all-around game, contributing in a variety of ways in addition to dominating in the post. Okafor snagged eight rebounds in every game this week, and remains the team leader in boards at 8.7 per game in addition to leading the ACC in scoring at 19.5 points per contest.
Okafor passed the test of his first career ACC game with flying colors, turning in what may have been his most complete performance in an already impressive rookie campaign. The traditional numbers of 28 points (a career-high) and eight rebounds he posted against Boston College are dazzling enough, but Okafor was also able to negate Dennis Clifford—the Eagles’ 7-foot-1 center who fouled out and scored just eight points in 17 minutes of play. He even excelled in at the free throw line—where he entered the game having made only half of his attempts—knocking down 14-of-17 shots from the charity stripe and stymieing Boston College’s strategy of daring him to beat the Eagles from the line.
The bad: Even though his work from the line Saturday was exemplary, that was Okafor’s first truly impressive performance in that area. He hit a combined 5-of-11 free throws in the week’s first two games, which was more in line with his body of work than Saturday’s numbers. With Okafor shooting nearly 70 percent from the field, teams will likely still look to put him on the line as often as possible, making it imperative that he continues to hone his free throw stroke.
Okafor turned the ball over a total of seven times in the three games this week, a figure that is a bit too high considering he had only three assists to go along with them. He is now averaging 1.5 dimes and 2.3 turnovers per game—indicating that Okafor could use a little work on his ball control down low, especially as teams continue to constantly throw double teams at him. However, his assist numbers are especially misleading because of the number of hockey assists and successful possessions he creates with pinpoint passes when defenses collapse, so again this is more nitpicking than anything else.
The bottom line: Okafor is still the engine that makes the entire Duke team go, and these three games might very well be his most dominant stretch to date. Almost everything the Blue Devils do on offense runs through him, but he is so efficient with his shots that he leaves plenty of opportunities for his talented teammates and sets them up when opponents are forced to double. Okafor continues to show why he was showered with accolades before even playing a minute for Duke, and why he will almost certainly be a top pick in next year’s NBA Draft.
Honorable mention: Justise Winslow poured in 13 points—including a couple of monstrous dunks—on 5-of-7 shooting in Saturday’s win against Boston College, the first game in more than a month in which he shot better than 50 percent from the field. The Houston native also scored 16 against Wofford, when he had a perfect 4-of-4 day from the free throw line.
In addition to being one of the Blue Devils’ top defenders, Winslow continued to fill out the rest of the stat sheet—averaging more than six rebounds and three assists in this week’s action. The swingman may not be receiving as much attention as some of his classmates, but he is still a great asset that Duke will need to play well as it rolls deeper into conference play.
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