By: Ben McCormick
November 10, 2022
The seventh-ranked Blue Devils will take on the USC Upstate Spartans tomorrow, Friday Nov. 11, in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 6:30 p.m. for its second game of the season after defeating Jacksonville 71-44 on Monday. The game will be streamed on ACC Network.
Injuries/Updates
Dereck Lively II's missed the team's season opener and exhibition with a day-to-day calf injury. Jon Scheyer said that there was a chance that Duke fans would get to see Lively in Friday's game. Still, it is not a sure thing.
Lively tweeted out "Y'all better go to tomorrow nights game," early Thursday. This got a lot of fans excited in anticipation of a potential debut by Lively. However, Lively soon deleted the tweet.
On Wednesday, Cooper Watson reported that according to a source close to the team, Lively would make his debut versus USC Upstate. He added that this would happen "barring an unforeseen setback."
There has not been official word from Duke on Lively's status, but it certainly seems possible that he will make his debut Friday.
Fellow star-studded freshman Dariq Whitehead is also battling back from injury. Similar to Lively, Whitehead sent out a tweet imploring fans to tune in Friday and possibly hinting at a debut, only to be deleted later.
After last Wednesday's exhibition versus Fayetteville State, Scheyer told the press that Whitehead was "still a couple weeks away". Although that timetable would make it possible for a return against Kansas, I wouldn't get my hopes up quite yet until there is a more optimistic news on his return.
Scheyer told Jeff Goodman in an interview that Whitehead is beginning contact play in practice, meaning that he likely is not ready to return to play quite yet, but is progressing.
How good is USC Upstate?
The media voted the Spartans to finish eighth in the Big South this season after finishing just 14-16 last season.
The Spartans return sophomore guard Jordan Gainey who averaged 13.8 PPG as a freshman and looks to be a big piece for USC Upstate this season. Only one Spartan stands at 6'10 or above: junior Seny N'Diaye, a transfer from West Virginia. N'Diaye was tied for the Spartans leading scorer in their season opener, a 90-42 win over Brevard College (a Division III school).
Last season, the Spartans shot 36.5% from three as a team, which was good for the 46th best mark in the nation. It was the highest the Spartans ranked as a team in any individual positive statistic. Look for them to shoot plenty of threes against the larger Blue Devils, and likely try to send the ball into N'Diaye inside.
What to look for from Duke?
I would expect Duke to put forward the same starters as they did in the team's opener versus Jacksonville: PG- Jeremy Roach, SG- Tyrese Proctor, SF- Mark Mitchell, PF- Kyle Filipowski, C- Ryan Young. If Lively plays then he will likely come off the bench and see limited minutes.
Duke was led in scoring by freshman Mark Mitchell against Jacksonville, as he scored 18 points. It will be interesting to see if he can consistently maintain that level of offensive production. Junior captain Jeremy Roach was the difference maker for Duke in their opener. His presence was always felt on the court; he boasted a higher plus/minus than anyone else who played significant minutes. Duke hopes to see significant contributions from its bigs Ryan Young and Kyle Filiposki once again.
The Blue Devils hope to get more aggressive offense out of freshman Tyrese Proctor who scored just two points in his debut. Proctor, an Australian native, is a projected first-round pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, and the young Blue Devil is navigating how he fits into the Duke offense after arriving to campus late this summer.
If Lively suits up for Duke, it will be interesting to note how many minutes he plays and who he is paired up with in the frontcourt. That could allude to Scheyer's potential plans for the starting lineup down the line.
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