No. 7 Duke men’s basketball will open its season against Maine Monday night, and the Blue Zone is here with an overview of the Black Bears along with an X-factor for each team:
Overview
2023-24 record: 15-17, 7-9 in America East
Head coach: Chris Markwood
Series history: Duke leads 1-0
Last meeting: 94-55 Duke, Dec. 3, 2016
Maine comes into the game with two seasons of near-.500 play, a big improvement since the appointment of head coach Chris Markwood who now enters his third season at the helm. This is only the second meeting between the Blue Devils and the Black Bears, the first having been at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2016 when Duke routed Maine 94-55. While the visitors seek revenge, the Blue Devils will be looking to maintain their 42-year streak of home-opener victories.
Maine begins this year’s campaign with a mix of seasoned talent and fresh energy, welcoming three transfers and three freshmen while returning ten players to its roster. While the Black Bears lost their highest scorer of the previous season with the departure of forward Peter Filipovity, the squad retained the next four point-getters in guards Kellen Tynes, Jaden Clayton, AJ Lopez and Quion Burns, each of whom saw plentiful playing time and approach the new season with mutual familiarity. With such a high level of talent retention, it is hard to imagine a team with greater on-court chemistry than Maine.
While the Black Bears will be leaning largely on returning talent, Duke looks to showcase a lineup studded with fresh recruits — namely forwards Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel — while notable returners Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster anchor the new arrivals. The game will be the first of the regular season for both teams. For the Blue Devils' part, they played in two exhibition matches against Lincoln and Arizona State, in which they outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 210-103.
The Black Bears have a tall order ahead of them if they hope to pull off an upset Monday. The previous season, Duke fared better than Maine in points per game, rebounds per game, blocks per game and turnovers, all while playing in the much more competitive ACC. While this new season offers a new mix of players on the court for both teams, the Blue Devil roster measures up favorably against the Black Bears, with an average height of about 6-foot-7 to Maine’s roughly 6-foot-5. Still, the nascent season leaves much to be discovered about either team. Look for Duke to showcase its flashy new talent against the veteran Maine squad Monday night.
X-Factor
Duke: Cooper Flagg
It had to be Cooper Flagg. While the 6-foot-9 freshman’s 31 points in the Blue Devils’ exhibition matches fell short of Knueppel’s 36, he enters the season as one of the most highly-anticipated recruits in the nation. His high school career earned national accolades, being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year his senior year and being recognized near-universally as the top recruit in his class. While scrimmaging with Team USA’s Olympic basketball squad, he caught the eye of Kevin Durant, who praised him as “a hell of a player.”
Growing up only 35 minutes from the home of the Black Bears, the Newport, Maine, native already dazzled on-court in a Blue Devil jersey during the exhibition match against Lincoln. In that game, he came up with a team-leading 22 points despite coming off after just 24 minutes on the floor. In addition to his display of precision shots and powerful dunks, Flagg led the team in assists and blocks, showcasing his well-rounded game. However, his performance fell flatter against Arizona State, trailing many of his teammates across the box score. In the spar against Maine, he will look to once again put together a performance like his debut against Lincoln.
Maine: Kellen Tynes
The graduate guard from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, takes the court for the third year as a Black Bear, leading the returners in points and rebounds per game. This season will mark his fifth in collegiate basketball, with two years at Montana State followed by two years at Maine. Having started in 31 of 32 games last year, Tynes is expected to take a leading role in the Black Bears’ offensive game.
Standing at 6-foot-3, he may be vulnerable to the towering Duke squad, all but one of whom stand taller than him. What he lacks in stature he makes up for in an effortful playing style, being the only player in the nation with more than three steals per game during his first season as a Black Bear while continuing to put up impressive offensive numbers. While his percentages from the foul line and from 3-point territory trail behind others on his team, his all-around playing style and scrappy talent will be crucial in leading the push from the underdog Maine squad.
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