Julius Hodge is now the coach at CIAA school Lincoln and he brought his Lions into Cameron Saturday for an exhibition against the Blue Devils which at first went surprisingly well.
The Lions did okay for a few minutes, but Duke had more talent and depth, and it was really only a question of time before the Blue Devils turned on the afterburners, winning 107-56.
It marked the debut of many players in a Duke uniform, not least of all Cooper Flagg, who put his mark on the game rather quickly, and showed why the hype is justified.
Flagg scored the first basket of the game, which was cool, then blocked a long shot but it was the next block that caught your attention. Not to say that it was Zionesque, but it would have impressed Zion because he could have blocked it with his elbow. He had to bring his arm and hand down to get it.
He picked up two quick fouls and banged his hand up a little and left the game for a bit after that, but he made his point: the guy can play. He finished with 22 points, two rebounds, six assists and four blocks.
Kon Knueppel can play too. He started along with Flagg, Maliq Brown Sion James and Caleb Foster and in the first half in particular, the guy just rained threes, hitting 5-7 from three in the first half. He’s potentially a devastating weapon.
We got our first look at a lot of other guys in Duke uniforms, too.
James was powerful as promised and he had his moments on offense. Brown, as we saw last year at Syracuse, is disruptive defensively. He’s a known quality other than being in a Duke uniform now.
It was nice to see Foster back in action. He missed the end of last season but did well Saturday. He – and Tyrese Proctor, too – were somewhat timid about penetrating last season but both seem to have improved there.
Proctor also shot well and finished with 19 points.
Khaman Maluach came off the bench and seems still raw. That’s understandable – he hasn’t played for that long and he hasn’t played college basketball at all – but even so, he still pulled down about 12 rebounds.
He got one good lob but missed some other opportunities, partly because he has the bad habit of bringing the ball down and he’s not strong enough to fight back when someone gets their hand on it. He’s also not very strong yet, which is understandable given his size and youth. He needs to bulk up.
Mason Gillis played and had a quiet afternoon but certainly didn’t hurt his team.
Darren Harris got in and eventually Isaiah Evans did too. He really could use a good meal – that guy is very thin. His instincts, however, are excellent. He stripped a ballhandler at one point which was pretty cool and as his time went on, he started to shoot. He’s a guy who clearly doesn’t mind shooting and we mean that as a compliment. He has that mentality.
We’d like to see more of Harris, but like all of his teammates, he seems willing to subordinate himself to the group.
That’s a great starting point.
Duke has a lot of talent. Roles need to be sorted out and the rotation needs to be fleshed out but time will take care of that.
This team has the potential to go a long way. Watching them develop is going to be half the fun.
