By: Ben McCormick
November 21, 2022
The eighth-ranked Duke Blue Devils (3-1) take on the Bellarmine Knights (2-2) in Cameron Indoor Stadium Monday night at 8:30 p.m.
Injuries
Finally, there is no real injury report. Dariq Whitehead is still not back to full form, but he is working his way toward it after his debut on Friday. Dereck Lively made his way into the starting lineup for the first time Friday, which I would expect to be the case again against the Knights.
How good is Bellarmine?
The Knights are the defending Atlantic Sun Conference tournament champions. Although, due to an NCAA rule that does not allow a team to participate in the NCAA Tournament until it has spent at least four years as a division one team, it was barred from competing in the big dance last season. For the record, I completely disagree with this rule. So for the purposes of this, the Knights are essentially a retuning tournament team.
Bellarmine has a crisp offense that thrives off sharing the ball with quick ball rotation around the perimeter often leading to open threes. The Knights opened the season with a one-point win over Louisville after securing a rebound and launching the ball down the court to run time off the clock and avoid being fouled with five seconds left, thus giving Louisville another shot to advance the ball.
The Knights are well coaches, but they have their limitations. Bellarmine is 2-2 with wins over Louisville and Campbellsville-Harrodsburg, and losses to Morehead State and Clemson. Still, the Knights shouldn't be taken lightly. They are entering a difficult stretch with games versus Duke, UCLA, and Kentucky. This is a team looking to get a big time upset, and Duke must remain vigilant to keep that from happening.
What to look for from Duke
1.) The progression of Dariq Whitehead
2.) Will Kyle Filipowski maintain his play as the team's best player so far?
3.) Will we get some jump shot looks from Dereck Lively finally?
4.) Defensive improvement from Ryan Young?
5.) As Whitehead plays more and more, who losses minutes? Blakes? Grandison?
6.) How does the defense respond to Bellarmine's ball movement and shooting?
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