The Blue Devils took the court in front of a packed crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday night at their annual Countdown to Craziness event. The intra-squad scrimmage featured one 20-minute half, broken up by four media timeouts. The White Team, which started Matt Jones, Luke Kennard, Jayson Tatum, Amile Jefferson and Chase Jeter, pulled off a 52-37 win against the the Blue Team, which featured Grayson Allen, Frank Jackson, Javin DeLaurier, Jack White and Marques Bolden.
Here are some major takeaways from the action, with Duke's first exhibition game against Virginia State less than a week away:
Point guard rotation
The question of who will play point guard for the Blue Devils is one of the most important as the regular season nears. Freshman Frank Jackson and junior Matt Jones handled most of those duties Saturday night—with Grayson Allen taking the ball up a bit as well—as each started on opposite teams and guarded each other.
“We got a couple [point guards]. All the guys are so versatile and can play many positions. I have confidence in a lot of guys who can handle the ball,” Jackson said. “I [have to work on] still being more of a point guard—distributing, talking more, being vocal all the time. Just kind of embracing that point guard role.”
Jackson impressed with a quick first step off the dribble and a nice crossover, but was a bit careless with the ball, losing it to pressure from opposing defenders on multiple occasions. His ability to blow past defenders and create shots for himself and others, however, was one of the most impressive aspects of the scrimmage and a reason he is classified as more of a combo guard than a true point guard. The Alpine, Utah, native finished with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Tatum flashes offensive arsenal
As he did at Duke's open practice in early October, freshman Jayson Tatum—who led all scorers with 18 points—displayed a deadly offensive game and showed why he was one of the top recruits in the country. Guarded primarily by fellow freshman Jack White, Tatum was able to get quality looks both around the basket and on the wing, and soared above the rim for one massive alley-oop from Matt Jones.
The St. Louis native showed off his shooting range as well, stepping behind the 3-point line to knock down a triple and several long jumpers inside the arc. Tatum can expect to see better defenders once the real games begin—opposing teams will likely devote their top defender to slowing down the 6-foot-8 freshman—but his expansive skill set was readily apparent and on full display for the Cameron Crazies Saturday.
“I was very comfortable out there,” Tatum said. “Just running sets and plays, [head] coach [Mike Krzyzewski] always tells all of us to be ready to score, be ready to shoot when you’re open, get your feet set. We set screens for each other. My teammates got me open. We just had fun moving the ball—if you’re open, then shoot it.”
Jeter and Bolden battle down low
With freshman Harry Giles still sidelined following knee surgery, there is an opening in the Blue Devil frontcourt behind Amile Jefferson that remains up for grabs between sophomore Chase Jeter and freshman Marques Bolden.
Bolden—a five-star recruit at center, like Jeter was a year ago—had a physical advantage on the lanky Jeter in the paint but struggled a bit with his low-post moves and finished with seven points. Jeter's foul troubles from last season seemed to have carried over to his sophomore campaign—he picked up four fouls in the first 12 minutes—but his energy and defense against Bolden stood out as positives.
“I hope it’s harder for other people to defend the basket down low against us. For Marques [Bolden]’s team, it was difficult at times for his team to get it into the post, but once they got it in, he gets fouled a lot,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s a key thing for us, to play that hard with this number of guys, but play without fouling.”
Pressure and trapping defense on display
After a short lineup forced the Blue Devils to play some zone defense for much of last season, Duke appears to be back to its traditional man-pressure scheme this year. With athleticism and length up and down the roster, the Blue Devils tried trapping the ball-handler frequently right as he crossed midcourt, and aggressively pressured for nearly the entire scrimmage.
“We’re tall at all positions, and athletic,” Krzyzewski said. “We should be able to not just defend the basket, but we should be able to defend.”
Toward the end of the scrimmage, the White Team experimented a bit with a full-court press led by Jones and Kennard, but Jackson and Allen guided the Blue Team offense through it without much difficulty.
Allen struggles offensively
Expectations are sky-high for Allen—now a frontrunner for National Player of the Year—following a season in which he averaged 21.6 points per game. With Jackson initiating most of the offense for the Blue Team, Allen took a back seat and was not forced to display much of the aggression that has characterized his style of play through two seasons.
The Jacksonville, Fla., native struggled to generate open shot attempts and was off from behind the arc, where he converted on just 2-of-7 attempts after shooting 41.7 percent from deep last season. Thanks to its range of offensive weapons, Duke will likely ask Allen to shoulder less of the scoring load this season than last, but the junior captain will still be counted on as a focal point of the offense moving forward.
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