Robert Brickey knows what it's like to play in Cameron Indoor Stadium. After all, he spent four years as a member of the Blue Devils, playing in three Final Fours and serving as a senior captain in 1989-90.
But Brickey, in his second season as head coach at Shaw, does not know what it is like to play against Duke.
"It's exciting to come back and coach," Brickey said. "It's not so exciting to face a very good Duke squad. It's going to be a little weird-one, going against Coach K and two, being on the other bench and being the object of all the cheers and jeers from the crowd. It's going to be a little weird, but I'm looking forward to the opportunity."
Brickey's playing experience in Cameron has taught him the significant role the Duke crowd can play in intimidating the opposition.
"We've tried all we can to get our guys in the right mindset so that they would not be intimidated," Brickey said. "But you can't duplicate what you experience at Cameron. As much as we try to prepare for that, it's going to be tough."
In some ways, Shaw-a Division II school that plays in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association-is not all that different from Duke. The Bears, like the Blue Devils, do not have a single senior on their current roster. They also need to replace their two leading scorers from last season.
That, however, is where the similarities end.
Shaw is coming off a 7-19 season, and junior guard Melvin Smith is the only returning rotation player from that squad. In addition, the Bears will be playing without some key players that are sitting out the first semester.
The Blue Devils, on the other hand, are looking to establish a rhythm and a rotation before their first regular-season game Nov. 12 against Columbia.
"It's going to be great," sophomore forward Jamal Boykin said. "It's a brand new team. It's going to be very exciting just to play with different matchups in the game. We've gotten used to blue team-white team a little bit-it's going to be nice to just play as a collective group."
Duke enters the new season as young as it has ever been, returning just three players from last season's rotation and relying heavily on its four freshmen-all of whom will get their first true NCAA action when they take the floor tonight.
"Especially for the freshmen, we just want to get them some more experience on the court," Boykin said. "I need some more experience on the court myself. We need to get used to running sets with different guys and different lineups."
The Blue Devils will be without Greg Paulus, a loss that merely intensifies the pressure on their young roster.
With both teams leaning on newcomers, there is not a lot of familiarity. Boykin admitted that Duke does not know a whole lot about its opponent.
"We're focusing on ourselves a lot and what we have to do," Boykin said. "But we're not underestimating them. We're not going to underestimate anyone all year. We're a young team, and we're just going to go out and execute our game plan as best as possible."
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