As the spooky month of October comes to a close, the basketball season is soon approaching, which for some fans who saw Duke play against Northwest Missouri State last weekend is just as terrifying.
The Blue Devils will play their second and final exhibition game against Fort Valley State Wednesday in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m. No. 4 Duke will face off against yet another Division II team, in hopes of having a better performance than its to-close-for-comfort 69-63 outing against the Bearcats last weekend.
Here are three questions to be answered in this weekend’s matchup between the Blue Devils and the Wildcats:
Is Duke playing down to its competition?
The Blue Devils come into the season ranked among the best in the nation, but Saturday’s game showed a squad anything but deserving of a top-5 ranking. After beating the Bearcats by six points, Duke will get one last chance to show Blue Devil nation it has nothing to worry about in hopes of tripling or even quadrupling that margin of victory against Fort Valley State. If Duke is unable to do so, the team may be in for a world of trouble with a tough nonconference schedule on the horizon.
"Some of our guys who were walking off the court, their body language was indicating that they were a little bit, I wouldn't say demoralized, I would say disappointed—and they should be," Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the Northwest Missouri State game Saturday. "They expected to be better. That's good. If they were laughing and joking and giving high fives then they would be accepting of the fact that they didn't play as well. "
Is it time to worry about the freshmen?
One of Duke’s biggest problems against the Bearcats was its contributions, or lack thereof, from its four freshmen in the rotation. Outside of Matthew Hurt, Duke’s freshman core scored just 15 points combined. The Blue Devils need a lot more production and a lot less turnovers from their young players if they want to live up to their lofty expectations. Now that their unofficial game debut in Cameron is under their belt, the freshmen must show out against Fort Valley State to show that their nerves are behind them.
“They're obviously insanely talented and compete very hard and have a lot of physical abilities,” senior Jack White said of the freshmen. “But you know I think just mentally [the upperclassmen have to] keep them in a good headspace and keep their confidence up because you don't want to be out there with someone that's got their head down.”
Can Duke's bigs produce?
Just one player on the Fort Valley State roster stands taller than 6-foot-6, and only by an inch. This will give Hurt and fellow freshman Vernon Carey Jr. a lot of room to work with down low to ignite Duke’s offense. The two rookie bigs didn’t even combine for double-digit rebounds against the Bearcats, which just won't cut it from two starting forwards. However, part of that was due to Carey Jr.’s inability to stay on the floor without getting into foul trouble. Nonetheless, the 6-foot-10 Carey and 6-foot-9 Hurt will have no excuse to play as anything but bullies against the much smaller Wildcats. This game should be used as a warmup for the two as they gear up to face the 7-foot behemoth Udoka Azubuike next week against No. 3 Kansas in the season opener.
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