Unlike many of its exhibition contests in the past, Duke's opponent Saturday, the Grand Rapid Hoops of the Continental Basketball Association, was expected to give the home team fits throughout the evening.
In fact, the Hoops were coming off a victory only four days earlier against the Michigan Wolverines. That is why Mike Krzyzewski and his players were more than happy with their decisive 104-74 victory over the Hoops in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
But even more important than notching another preseason victory, the Blue Devils feel they got exactly what they needed to out of this game, a chance to improve upon the situational skills they have worked on in practice.
"It was the type of game we really expected and we got it," Krzyzewski said. "It was really good for us, because they're talented, they're men and they put us in situations where we needed to see how we'd react."
One such situation occurred early in the second half when starting point guard Jason Williams was exiled to the bench after he committed his fourth personal foul. With Williams on the bench for an extended period of time, freshman Chris Duhon was forced to take over.
For the second straight week, the freshman responded well to an unfamiliar situation, guiding the Blue Devils assertively for eight straight minutes, not to mention knocking down two three-point buckets and recording multiple assists. Instead of having its lead depleted with the loss of its starting point guard, Duke continued to run its offense effectively and applied stifling defense pressure, both of which allowed the team to increase its margin from 10 points to 17 during the period that Duhon reigned as point guard.
"[Duhon] did a really good job," Krzyzewski said. "He certainly hit shots and he had two big threes, but he also ran the offense well. Normally, if we didn't have another point, we would have done more trapping. This way, we extended the lead and we could keep pressure on their point. Last year, we'd have to pick up at the top of the key, but this way we still extended our pressure. We can stay in our system, so to speak."
When Williams finally did return, though, the sophomore showed exactly why he is the floor leader for the nation's No. 2 team. Returning with just over 10 minutes remaining, Williams delivered the knockout blow to the Hoops, feeding Blue Devil center Carlos Boozer on successive possessions for slam dunks which extended the Blue Devils' lead to a commanding 82-59 margin. Clearly, Williams was eager to contribute to Duke's victory after sitting on the bench for so long.
"It was like being a kid on the side of the playground and your mom not letting you play while you see everybody else play," Williams said of riding the pine with four fouls. "When I came in, I just had so much fire and intensity and wanted to play so bad and I just tried to play the best I can."
Besides seeing how the backcourt reacted to the temporary loss of Williams, Krzyzewski was pleased that his frontcourt received the opportunity to play against strong, fully grown men. The Hoops' interior players consisted of formidable big men such as 7-foot, 245-pound bruiser Eric Riley, a Michigan alum, and 7-4, 325-pound giant Priest Lauderdale, a former first-round NBA draft pick. Needless to say, both of these post players were a load for Duke's frontcourt. But Krzyzewski was thankful that he had a chance to identify the weaknesses of his interior players Saturday, as opposed to later in the season.
"We scored a lot from the post, but I think we should score more," Krzyzewski said. "But we are young in there-Matt's young in experience but not in age, Casey is certainly [young] with experience and Carlos is still a sophomore, although Carlos scored a lot of points and he could have scored more. The first three or four minutes of the game, I thought he had three or four really good scoring opportunities that he didn't get."
But even though Boozer and the other Duke big men did not convert on all of their opportunities, they were happy to come away with a victory over an accomplished foe.
And with the preseason complete, the Blue Devils are excited about tomorrow's commencement of the regular season, a season for which they have extremely high expectations.
"I'm ready for the season to start," Duhon said. "I'm ready to get going, get after people and let them know that we're going to be number one at the end."
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