The Blue Devils took the home court against another opponent for the first time since last year’s abrupt season ending.
They did not disappoint.
Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski began his final run at a sixth national title Saturday as the Blue Devils beat down Winston-Salem State 106-38. Although this was just an exhibition game, Cameron Indoor Stadium was packed with eager students ready to see their Blue Devils play some basketball once again. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the pre-COVID-19 days and the players responded to it appropriately.
"Really what our game is about is the intimacy of the guys on the court, women on the court and the fans. It's really the closest environment in sports," Krzyzewski said about the fans in Cameron. "It's one of the beauties of the game."
It is hard to pick just one or two key elements that aided in the Blue Devils’ success since everything was working for them. Duke dominated the attack, especially on the inside with Mark Williams, Theo John and Paolo Banchero. Perhaps even bigger than that though was the 3-point attack that Duke unleashed from the get-go. Trevor Keels and Wendell Moore started what could nearly classify as a 3-point contest as they knocked down back-to-back threes within the first two minutes. By the game's end, the Blue Devils had drained 11 shots from behind the arc—a significant contribution to their 68-point win.
"Just being confident; everybody can shoot on the team. We don't try to just tell somebody, 'you can't shoot threes, you gotta get to the lane,'" Keels said. "Everybody can shoot threes and we're confident they fall. We're gonna shoot a lot of threes this year. We're going to make a lot threes."
Despite the offensive outburst, it was actually the defense that stole the show. Duke took the air out of the Rams’ offense before it ever had a chance to get going. Winston-Salem State shot just 4-of-30 in the first half and 14-of-63 in the game, and that was courtesy of truly everyone on the Blue Devil roster. By the final buzzer, Duke forced 19 turnovers through a flurry of steals and shot-clock violations.
Williams emerged as a certified force in the paint, swatting away five shots in just 19 minutes. In perhaps the play of the first half, Williams erased a dunk attempt for his fourth block of the game before moving the ball up the court to a driving Banchero for the layup.
On the offensive side, Banchero’s first game action accurately reflected the hype he received entering this season and placed him at the center of Duke’s offense. He posted eight field goals, 21 points and nine rebounds, all team-highs. The former five-star recruit displayed his power with a pair of vicious dunks that had the whole stadium rocking.
In an unexpected turn, four-star freshman AJ Griffin entered the game five minutes into the contest and just a few weeks after spraining his knee. He played 17 minutes, mostly in the second half, and finished with 10 points. His court time was an encouraging sign for his availability in the future, which was much more uncertain prior to this game.
"We were fortunate that with the sprained knee, there was not any ligament that damaged, nor when you get an injury like that, you can kind of move the kneecap and you can get a bone fragment," Krzyzewski said on Griffin's injury. "He had none of those, so therefore it was just a matter of him... and it's just a matter of rehab."
By the end of the first half, Duke commanded a 50-point lead and with the game already in a blow-out stage by the start of the second half, Krzyzewski allowed guys further down his bench to see significant minutes. The head coach rolled out his expected starting lineup of Roach, Keels, Moore, Banchero and Williams, with John and Baker, among others, subbing in occasionally.
With that rotation, this game got out of hand quickly, as Duke opened up a 10-point lead by the 18:40 mark. Krzyzewski’s squad immediately went into the up-tempo offense that set the tone for the afternoon. Additionally, they didn’t leave anything to chance by enacting a 3/4-court press that completely neutralized the Rams’ attack.
The one area that where the Blue Devils struggled was from the charity stripe, with a 19-of-29 clip not being exactly what Krzyzewski wanted to see out of his squad. Duke has a little over a week to correct that before playing No. 10 Kentucky Nov. 9 in Madison Square Garden in their first official game of the season.
"I think when you're playing this fast, and it's hard, kind of sometimes that affects your free throw shooting," Krzyzewski said. "We wouldn't shoot that well from the floor if we weren't good shooters. So now it has to translate."
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