In 2005-06, Duke basketball was defined by two scoring options and a thin bench. After comfortable wins in the first two rounds of the CBE Classic, this year's team is beginning to step out of that shadow and develop its own identity.
Duke (2-0) takes the court in Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight with a chance to keep separating itself from last year's team, facing in-state foe UNC-Greensboro (0-2) at 7 p.m. in a matchup that is not part of the preseason tournament.
The No. 10 Blue Devils will travel to Kansas City Monday for the semifinals of the CBE Classic, and although tonight's game has no bearing on the tournament, the team is certainly not looking ahead to its contest against Air Force (3-0) with a trip to the finals on the line.
"You have to take it one game at a time-never underestimate anybody who we play," freshman wing Gerald Henderson said. "We need to pretty much just play our basketball, solid defense the whole game, and we'll take care of them."
Against Columbia and Georgia Southern, Duke used its deep bench to its advantage, getting significant contributions from 10 players and confusing its opponents with different looks.
"From the videotapes that I've seen, they are coming from a lot of different places, and there doesn't seem to be one guy outside of perhaps [Greg] Paulus that has a position," UNC-G head coach Mike Dement said. "You have different guys bringing [the ball] up the court, you have different guys posting up and doing things on the perimeter. So it's hard to identify where it's coming from."
The Spartans are coming off of two straight road losses, the first to Marshall in overtime and the second to Penn State Monday night. While Marshall and Penn State are strong teams, UNC-G struggled with its shooting in both games-an area Dement said his team needs to improve upon against Duke.
"We've had good looks, especially from the perimeter," Dement said. "Our perimeter guys have not shot the ball very well in our first two games, and if we had shot the ball better, I think we would have been in position to win both games."
The Blue Devils and Spartans met last year, with Duke winning decisively, 102-69. Not surprisingly, J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams led the way that afternoon with 35 and 21 points, respectively. But Duke's current players remember the game in the Greensboro Coliseum as closer than the final score would indicate.
"We went down there last year and they held their own-they played great," Paulus said. "It was a great game, very competitive, and we know that it's a big game on Thursday."
UNC-G's leading scorer in its first two games has been Kyle Hines, who put up 38 points in the team's opener at Marshall. But the Spartans' second-leading scorer from a season ago, Ricky Hickman, has had a difficult beginning to the new campaign.
"Hickman, who was an all-conference player and played very well against Duke last year and scored 23, has really struggled out of the gate for us, and we need him to get going and open things up," Dement said. "Hines is playing very well for us, but when the other guys aren't really doing it, it allows teams to focus even more on him."
Duke, on the other hand, has shown a very balanced scoring attack so far this season. Freshman center Brian Zoubek led the team with 18 points against Columbia. While Zoubek was held scoreless Monday, Josh McRoberts and DeMarcus Nelson each put up 16 against Georgia Southern.
Henderson and fellow freshmen Jon Scheyer and Lance Thomas have also all scored in double figures already this season.
With the game on Duke's home floor instead of in Greensboro this season, the Spartans will have to adjust to the raucous atmosphere inside the stadium.
"We need to do a good job of getting back so they don't get layups and dunks that obviously just feed the crowd even more," Dement said. "It's always tough to do that for any team [in Cameron] and we've got four freshmen who will be experiencing that for the first time tonight."
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