On Saturday, less than 24 hours after hosting media day in Durham and less than a week out from the official Blue-White scrimmage at Countdown to Craziness, the Duke basketball players competed in an intrasquad scrimmage in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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It appears the first half of action featured the Blue team’s lineup of Khaman Maluach, Isaiah Evans, Kon Knueppel, Cooper Flagg, and Caleb Foster — that’s four freshmen and one sophomore in Foster — versus a considerably older White bunch consisting of transfer additions Mason Gillis, Maliq Brown, and Sion James, plus junior Tyrese Proctor and rookie Darren Harris:
The one-minute video above shows scores from Proctor, Harris, Foster, Evans, Gillis, Knueppel, Maluach, and Flagg. And at least in those highlights, Proctor and Knueppel had the hottest hand, as each knocked down attempts beyond the arc and crafty shots in the paint.
However, judging by a few pictures that the Duke basketball social media team posted minutes later, the long-armed defensive efforts of five-star freshmen Cooper Flagg and Khaman Maluach were also on full display on Coach K Court.
Here’s one of Flagg, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound phenom forward, rejecting Evans from behind:
As for Maluach’s block party, the 7-foot-2, 250-pound center from South Sudan exhibited his rim-protection prowess at the expense of Proctor and Flagg:
Duke basketball begins the 2024-25 season, Jon Scheyer’s third campaign at the helm since succeeding Mike Krzyzewski, when the Blue Devils welcome Maine to Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 4 (ACC Network).
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