By: Caleb Zuver
November 11, 2023
Friday night’s game between Duke and Arizona was the premiere heavy hitter matchup of the college basketball season.
It lived up to the hype.
There’s nothing like a big game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, and it was electric as always. It wasn’t enough to help the Blue Devils come out on top, but Coach K Court rocking lets you know that college basketball is officially back.
You play these types of games to measure yourself against the rest of the country. Losing a game in early November isn’t the end of the world, and it doesn’t define what this team will be. However, it does give you a glimpse into what this team is right now.
Take last year's loss against Kansas at the Champions Classic. A winnable game against a really good team early in the year. The team that played that game in Indianapolis was not the same team that ended up winning the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. It’s important to understand that while there’s room to grow here, it’s game number two of the season. Still there are things we can takeaway from an early season loss.
Here are three things I noticed:
Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski are still those dudes
There is a great chance that Kyle Filipowski will have his name in the National Player of the Year conversation come March. In big games like this, you need your best players to come through. He did just that.
Filipowski was keeping Duke in the game despite being in foul trouble. He had 11 points in the first half, along with four rebounds. The Blue Devils went into the half down eight.
One of the halftime adjustments seemed to be trying to get Filipowski even more involved than he already was. He scored eight points before the first media timeout in the second half, and for a while, it felt like he was going to have to do it all by himself for his team to win.
That’s when Jeremy Roach really began to emerge.
No stranger to big games, Roach had just four points in the first 25 minutes of the game. As Filipowski kept Duke in the game, Roach gave them a chance to win. He had three three-pointers in the second half, including one with just over two minutes to go, giving the Blue Devils a two-point lead. Roach also notched his 1000th point, a fantastic milestone for the senior.
Filipowski finished with 25, while Roach had 17. Even though it wasn’t enough to win, it was nice to see Duke’s established players catch fire in the second half and respond to a disappointing first half.
Rebounding
The first half was not up to the standard for a couple of different reasons. The Arizona defense was swarming, and Duke couldn’t hit a three. But most importantly, the rebounding margin heavily favored the Wildcats.
Heading into the locker room, the Wildcats led in rebounding 29 to 15. More specifically, they had 11 offensive rebounds compared to just two for Duke.
The glaring difference allowed Arizona to get up seven more shots in the half, contributing to the deficit. The Wildcats had 10 second chance points in the first half, whereas Duke had zero.
In the first game of the season against Dartmouth, rebounding was also a concerning stat. Duke allowed 10 offensive rebounds against the Big Green and only outrebounded an undersized Dartmouth team by just four.
On Friday night, Arizona’s duo of big men, Oumar Ballo and Motiejus Krivas, were grabbing their fair share of rebounds. They finished with five and six respectively.
But it was the Wildcats’ guards and forwards that ended up causing the most damage. Keshad Johnson and Kylan Boswell tied for the team lead in rebounds with eight. The success in the rebounding department allowed Arizona to win the battle of second-chance points, points in the paint, and fastbreak points.
The Blue Devils finished -12 in rebounding for the game. As they continue to play better teams, Duke will have to improve in the rebounding department. Trying to overcome such a lopsided effort was a lot to ask Friday night.
Sean Stewart or Ryan Young?
I want to start this section by saying I love Ryan Young.
As a fellow podcaster, I love what he’s done with "The Brotherhood Podcast." I love his leadership. I love his basketball IQ. He has a place on this team because of all of those things.
Friday was not the game for him.
Early on, it was clear that Arizona’s plan was to expose the sixth year graduate. They were going to back off of him and dare him to shoot on offense. On the defensive end, they were going to get Ballo and Krivas the ball with Young guarding them. It was effective.
Freshman Sean Stewart did not enter the game in the first half. Jon Scheyer did not play him very much against Dartmouth either. Eventually, he put Stewart in on Friday. Within the first two minutes of Stewart being in the game, he had a tip-in, a rebound, and drew a charge.
This team is deep, or at least it should be. November regular season games are probably the easiest time to experiment with what you have and figure out what you’re going to move forward with as the year goes on. Surprisingly, Scheyer hasn’t given Stewart, a top recruit, that chance yet.
But we do have to be careful with the Young criticism. There will be times this year when his impact will be felt on the floor because of all those intangibles he possesses.
It’s a deep team, and Scheyer has to lean into it. Don’t be surprised if the matchup against Michigan State forces Scheyer to give Stewart more of an opportunity considering the impact he had in a short time Friday.
Tuesday is another opportunity for Duke to learn more about themselves. A neutral-site game against a really good team in the Spartans. It’s also an opportunity to see how this team handles adversity for the first time this year. I’m eager to see how they respond.
Contact Caleb Zuver on X @zuves35.
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