At ACC Tipoff in October, senior guard and captain Jeremy Roach called the Blue Devils’ backcourt the best in the nation, saying that “it’s not even close.”
If Monday’s season-opening 92-54 win against Dartmouth was any indication, he may very well have been right.
With all three of its starting guards picking up two first-half fouls, the unit’s depth was tested immediately. No. 2 Duke responded emphatically, with freshman Caleb Foster and junior Jaylen Blakes stepping in without missing a beat and helping lead the team on both sides of the ball. By the end of the game, Roach, sophomore Tyrese Proctor, freshman Jared McCain, Foster and Blakes combined for 55 points — more than the Big Green’s entire roster.
Each guard brings a unique twist to the game, creating a pick-your-poison, impossible choice for opponents.
Proctor, the starting point guard, handled the pick and roll perfectly; he had a team-high eight assists while shooting 3-for-6 from the field in limited playing time. By his side is Roach, whose experience and knack for knifing through the defense led to a quiet 14-point performance on 7-for-11 shooting.
“Both those guys bring toughness in the backcourt for me as the coach. Tyrese did a great job of letting the game come to him. He took six shots, shot just 50% from the field, 50% from three, but he's eight assists [and] one turnover,” head coach Jon Scheyer said of Proctor after the game. “I think he can be one of the best passers in the country, maybe the leading assists guy in the country.”
“And then Jeremy, just I mean, he's Jeremy,” Scheyer added. “His poise, his maturity, the presence had over the team is really, really key.”
While both Proctor and Roach were standouts for the Blue Devils last season, the new additions of Foster and McCain have taken the backcourt to another level. McCain, the lone freshman starter Monday, struggled with fouls — he had to sit throughout the game and eventually fouled out in the second half — but was one of Duke’s most effective scoring options early in the game. The Sacramento, Calif., native knocked down two big triples in the first 20 minutes.
Foster, on the other hand, stacked the scoresheet by bullying his defenders. He drove through everything in his way en route to 15 points, and he was especially effective in the transition game, often taking the ball coast-to-coast and finishing at the rim.
“The thing with Caleb and Jared [is] they're not afraid at all,” Scheyer said. “They've been battle-tested. Playing in this environment, I thought they were really ready to go.”
Rounding out the Blue Devils’ outstanding guard rotation was Blakes, who made a name for himself last year as a lockdown defender. Scheyer spoke of the complete trust he has in Blakes on the defensive end, and it was apparent Monday, as he led the team in both blocks and steals with two and three, respectively. If that wasn’t enough, Blakes also had a perfect night offensively, knocking down all three of his attempts from the field and three free throws for 10 points.
While he does not have the same pedigree surrounding his name as his counterparts, Blakes showed his worth Monday, and made Scheyer’s job managing the rotation moving forward much more difficult.
“If someone goes down, it's next man up,” Blakes said. “I think we're all confident in each other that whoever's out there on the floor, we're going to do what we do and be producing.”
As dominant as its opening performance was, Duke still has plenty of room for growth — which makes things all the more daunting for opponents. Namely, unnecessary fouls on ball handlers prevented the Blue Devils from realizing their full potential. Despite Duke having the clear athletic advantage over Dartmouth, the Big Green shot five more free throws.
Some of these mistakes are easily fixable — the Blue Devils got called for a number of blocking fouls due to the new rule for what constitutes a defender in legal guarding position — but the backcourt does not have much time to shore things up. Two ranked matchups lie ahead: No. 12 Arizona comes to Durham Friday and Duke will travel to Chicago to take on No. 4 Michigan State Nov. 14. In both of those performances, Proctor missing extended time or McCain fouling out could mean more to the box score.
Still, Scheyer has to be pleased with the production from his guards up and down the lineup. Even senior guard Spencer Hubbard, who was awarded a scholarship after joining the team as a walk-on, scored. And, none of this even mentions sophomore center Kyle Filipowski, who scored a team-high 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting.
Teams will have to gameplan around stopping the Preseason All-American, who stretches the court at 7-foot and has the range to guard the perimeter. Then, they will have to find a way to contain at least three Blue Devil guards simultaneously. This almost automatically creates a mismatch somewhere on the court, and Duke has countless ways to take advantage.
“[Playing with three guards] helps us play with pace, coach wants us to play fast and get up and down,” McCain said. “And especially with defense, I think it'll help a lot because their third defense will be guarding one of our starting guards. So, it's probably me. That's gonna be fun for me.”
Monday was only the first game of 31 regular-season contests for the Blue Devils, and the competition will only get steeper. But, if Duke can bring five top-end guards on any given night, it has to be confident against any opponent it steps on the court against.
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Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity sophomore and an assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.