Week 1 Game of the week: Duke vs. arizona
On Friday night, #12 Arizona took on #2 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium as really the first premier heavyweight bout of the 2023-24 college basketball season. The game was exactly what everyone thought it would be. Back and forth, chippy, and a sold-out Cameron Indoor made this matchup all the more exciting.
Behind 14 points from Keshad Johnson and a 12 point, 8 rebound, and 5 assist performance from Kylan Boswell, the Wildcats took down the Blue Devils on the road 78-73.
Like I said, the game went back and forth the entire time. Arizona’s largest lead was 8, and Duke rarely led despite hanging around the entire time. It was really the rebounding of Arizona and the Cats ability to control the paint that pushed this game in favor of Arizona.
The Wildcats outrebounded Duke 45-33 and were +7 on the offensive glass. Oumar Ballo completely dominated the paint and gave Duke nothing to work with inside. Defensively, Tommy Lloyd never had Ballo leave the paint, and had the rest of his guys play a kind of weak drop coverage and force the Blue Devils to shoot 3s. It worked and certainly played a role in the victory for the Cats, as Duke, who isn’t a team equipped to rely on the 3, shot 23 of them and only made 8. Arizona gave Duke absolutely nothing in the paint, and the only true consistent opportunities they had on the interior was Kyle Filipowski creating on his own off the bounce. Jon Scheyer struggled to make successful sets to be able to get high-percentage looks inside, and it was costly in the end.
But, the 3-point shot did get a lot more consistent for Duke in the second half, at least for Jeremy Roach and Filipowski, who each went 3-5 from beyond the arc. Pick and pop situations especially worked when the Devils were looking to get an outside look.
On defense, Duke was good, but not great. Perimeter defense was pretty solid, with a few ball-watching mistakes or guys getting caught with heavy feet. These little things don’t worry me too much and I’m sure Scheyer will clear things up in practice.
What worries me for Duke going forward is their size and lack of a reliable center. Kyle Filipowski played the majority of the second-half minutes as the 5-man, and Duke’s two true centers, Ryan Young and Christian Reeves, barely played. If Scheyer is going to rely on Filipowski to hold things down near the basket, that limits his potential and keeps him from moving around the perimeter, which would move defenses up and free up the post since he has the ability to hit from anywhere. Scheyer needs to figure out how to make Reeves or Young a center he can lean on to play big minutes and contain a big man when they face off against the Armando Bacot’s of their schedule, and free up Filipowski to create off the bounce from the perimeter more often.
Besides Jeremy Roach, Duke’s guards just didn’t play all that well, most notably Tyrese Proctor. In 38 minutes, Proctor had 8 points on 3-9 shooting and 1-6 from 3. Now, he did add 5 assists and 2 steals to that stat line, but also 3 turnovers. Proctor got caught up in trying to do a little too much by himself at times. Over dribbling, getting sped up by Arizona’s switches, and not playing his poised game we know he has. Now this will just develop as he becomes a more mature player, and same for Jared McCain who also had 3 turnovers.
I think both of these teams are equipped to win a title this year, but the Wildcats showed here they are a little farther along than the Blue Devils. They can rebound as well as anyone, have the balance to score in all three areas, and have the maturity and experience from its key guys to be able to handle massive games like this one.
This isn’t to say Duke can’t win a championship, because they are also fully equipped to do so, but they just have more to work on as the season goes forward. They are fairly small at the top, and this weakness showed tonight. The paint also has to become more of a focal point when team’s are watching film to prepare for the Blue Devils. Scheyer can’t leave Filipowski in the paint for the majority of the game, because he is just too good to be limited to that area. Ryan Young can definitely step up as the main 5, but we haven’t seen it yet.
With two All-American candidates in Filipowski and Proctor, one of the best point guards in the country in Roach, and an outstanding freshman class, I have no worry about Duke in the future. And for Arizona, they just showed the nation how good they really are.
*All statistics taken from espn.com 