INDIANAPOLIS—It might not have been the performance everyone is waiting for, but Duke still made sure to impress Friday.
The Blue Devils held a 50-minute open practice in front of several thousand fans at Lucas Oil Stadium prior to Saturday's Final Four contest with Michigan State, which will be for a spot in Monday's national championship game.
Duke ran through positional drills to begin the session, with assistant coaches Nate James and Jon Scheyer heading up the guards and associate head coach Jeff Capel and head coach Mike Krzyzewski focusing on freshman center Jahlil Okafor and the post players.
The team then went into team drills, running full-court motion drills before ending with a few run-throughs of plays and concluding the session.
The session was not just there to make sure Duke was crisp come Saturday, though.
The sky cam, which will patrol the rafters for both games in the Final Four as well as Monday's national title contest, covered the first half of the Blue Devil practice, allowing the fans to get a bird's-eye view on the stadiums two 37-by-97-foot video boards in the northwest and southeast corners of The House That Manning Built.
The Duke band was also on-hand to tune up for the big game and provide the Blue Devils with a loud atmosphere, much like will be the one tomorrow night when they tip off against the Spartans at 6:09 p.m. The practice performance from the band even garnered a shoutout from Krzyzewski in his post-practice on-court interview with CBS' Jim Nantz.
The fans filled up the entire lower bowl on both sidelines, though they were not close to providing the same cheering and jeering the Blue Devils will expect tomorrow.
Krzyzewski also made sure to have some fun with the fans on hand.
Wisconsin and Kentucky had yet to hold their open practice, leaving plenty of dark blue from in the stands waiting to cheer on their Wildcats. But the Blue Devil head coach was not as quick to accept anyone as Big Blue Nation.
"We think everyone in blue today is a Duke fan," Krzyzewski said to Nantz.
Amile Jefferson, Justise Winslow and Quinn Cook closed the session by showing off their cannons, tossing several Duke Final Four shirts into a frenzied crowd.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.