Jabari Parker's night started with two missed dunks in the layup line. It ended with two missed dunks in the final round of the dunk contest.
In between, the 6-8 freshman from Chicago proved to be the most coldly efficient player on the floor in Duke's preseason scrimmage, providing pretty clear evidence of why he's one of the - if not THE - highest rated player that Mike Krzyzewski has ever recruited.
The numbers are fairly impressive - 24 points and 14 rebounds in 27 minutes of action. He shot well from the free throw line (6 of 7) and from inside the 3-point line (9 of 14). He didn't commit a turnover.
Parker wasn't perfect. He missed all three of his 3-point tries and at least two of them appeared to be forced. He committed four fouls in the first 15-minute half of the scrimmage (but bounced back to commit just one in the second half). He didn't have an assist (although he had 2-3 nice feeds that should have led to baskets and assists).
Still, I would say that he was more impressive to my eyes than his numbers.
I liked his defense - both in the post against a much bigger Marshall Plumlee (who played surprisingly well) and on the wing. He was the only defender all night who kept Rodney Hood from getting to the lane … although to be fair, it was a small sample size.
He had more chance to display his skill as a ballhandler as he constantly brought the ball up the court to break the opposing team's pressure.
For the most part, Parker was relatively unspectacular in his execution. But there were two exceptions that hint at his skills. The first came in the first half, when he took a defensive rebound under the basket, raced 90-feet (passing a number of players along the way), then finishing with a lefthanded layup in traffic.
But that dazzling play was surpassed in the second half, when Parker ran down a long offensive rebound near press row. He spun back to the baseline, passed under the basket and exploded up for a reverse, one-handed jam with both Josh Hairston and Plumlee hanging on him.
You probably saw that play on ESPN. The network, which televised part of the scrimmage as part of their Midnight Madness coverage, was still re-playing that one when I got home.
Parker's performance was easily the highlight of the night. But before I move on to other observations, I want to warn you - and myself - of one hard-learned lesson: Don't read too much into one game or one scrimmage or one look at any player or team. It's just one game and all athletes (and teams) have good and bad nights. Until we see a player for an extended period, we should hold our opinions in abeyance.
Now I intend to break that rule, just a bit:
-- Rodney Hood: Duke's other new "superstar" got off to a slow start - at least partially because of Parker's defense? He appeared unaggressive in the first 8-10 minutes of the first half.
That changed late in the half and into the second half (when he played on Parker's team). Hood was 1-of-3 on 3-pointers for the night, but he sliced into the lane with regularity, drawing fouls and scoring easily in the short and mid-range. He finished with 17 points and 6 rebounds in 29 minutes.
Hood had a second-half play that was almost a carbon copy of Parker's first-half dazzler - a defensive rebound, a 90-foot drive finishing with a layup in traffic.
His defense looked good to me, especially the trouble he gave Rasheed Sulaimon on the wing.
-- Quinn Cook: It's possible that Cook - and not Parker or Hood - was the best player on the floor Friday night.
I say that, not because of his offensive numbers (15 points, 2 assists) but because he was a defensive dynamo. In the first half, he absolutely destroyed Tyler Thornton one-on-one in the open court, forcing the senior guard into six turnovers in 14 minutes. One of those was a pick at midcourt that led to a breakaway basket. Seconds later, a frustrated Thornton was whistled for an offensive foul when he pushed Cook off trying to get the ball over midcourt.
Keep in mind just who Cook was doing it against. One of the best things Thornton has done in his three years at Duke is protect the ball - he had just 38 turnovers in 791 minutes last season. His career high in turnovers in four (in 30 minutes against Georgia State in last year's opener).
And he had six in 14 minutes against Cook's ferocious on-the-ball defense.
That's a VERY good sign for the Devils. Krzyzewski's best defenses over the years have been keyed by terrific on-the-ball defenders. Again, I have to remind myself that this was just one early season scrimmage, but if Cook can sustain that level of defensive pressure, he can reach the level of such legendary Duke ballhawks as Tommy Amaker, Billy King, Bobby Hurley and Steve Wojciechowski.
-- The post trio of Amile Jefferson, Marshall Plumlee and Semi Ojeleye: There are reasonable doubts about Duke's post prospects this season after the graduation of All-American Mason Plumlee.
I can't say that Friday night answered those concerns - not with Duke's unproven bigs competing against Duke's unproven bigs.
But I like what I saw.
Start with Jefferson, who is still a slender, but extremely long 6-9 sophomore. Jefferson displayed a wide variety of clever offensive maneuvers in the post and he held his own on the boards (16 points on 8 of 12 shooting and 7 rebounds).
MP3, the one real big man on the team, moved well (I see no evidence of his foot problems), used his big body to good effect and was extremely aggressive. His numbers -- nine points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 22 minutes - were encouraging.
Ojeleye was the most surprising to me. I knew he was an athletic freak, but I didn't realize how effective he was as a post defender. He's strong and quick and seems to have good instincts - four steals in 21 minutes! He didn't show much of an offensive game - although his first bucket was a controlled tip-in that was a thing of beauty. All four of his field goals were right at the basket.
One observation: I don't know if Ojeleye has an NBA future, but if he doesn't qualify for the league, I think he has a future in the NFL as a tight end. I saw Jimmy Graham play at Miami, and Semi is a stronger, faster version of Graham with more hops.
-- Rasheed Sulaimon had a tough night - redeemed a bit by a strong finish,
Last year's freshman star struggled in the first half (0 of 4 from the floor - and he looked bad doing it) and through the first seven-plus minutes of the second half before he exploded for 13 points down the stretch.
He looked very aggressive in the second half, when he was the best offensive option on what probably stacks up as Duke's second team (at the moment). Once his shot started falling in the last eight minutes, Sulaimon looked like the player we all hoped he'll be.
-- The return of Andre Dawkins. When the fifth-year senior hit his first shot - a quickfire 3-pointer in the first moments of the scrimmage - it was a taste of the old "good" Andre Dawkins.
But the veteran gunner didn't hit another long-range shot, missing three more 3-point attempts over the rest of the scrimmage. In the past, that would have been a signal for Andre's disappearance. This time he did other things. He played hard on defense and he took the ball to the basket hard. He got to the foul line … and made his free throws.
Again, it's just one game, but it did look as if Dawkins has matured into something more than just a 3-point specialist.
-- Early in the game, when Duke was clunking some free throws, another writer learned over and suggested that free throw shooting might be Duke's Achilles heel this season
I'm not so sure.
In the first place, we know that the guards have all been excellent free throw shooters - Cook was .877 last season; Sulaimon was .802; Dawkins is .756 for his career. Thornton is not great -- .680 last season, but .760 for his career.
Some of the big men present problems, but the key to Duke's overall FT effectiveness will be Parker and Hood. Those two guys are going to the line most often this season. If they shoot free throws well, then Duke will be a solid team from the line.
Hood was just .659 two years ago at Mississippi State, which isn't good enough. Hopefully, maturity and a year of work will make him a lot better. He appears to have a nice stroke and he did hit a solid 6-of-8 from the line in the scrimmage.
Parker is a bit harder to project. I know he shot 72 percent from the line as a junior in high school. I haven't been able to find out what he shot as a senior, but like Hood, he showed a nice stroke in the scrimmage and converted 6-of-7 attempts from the line.
One additional note: Marshall Plumlee's family has bad free throw shooting in its veins. - Miles shot .625 for his career and Mason needed a strong senior year to get his career percentage from the line up to .583. And, a year ago, MP3 was an abominable 0-for-8 from the line.
But he displayed a very nice stroke in the scrimmage - much cleaner than his older brothers' form. I know he hit just 3-of-6 attempts, but I think there's potential there. And Alex Murphy, who was a dreadful 5-of-12 from the line last season, also looked better from the line (hitting 2-of-3) attempts.
Again, we need to remind ourselves that we're looking at a very small sample size. But I don't see evidence - yet - that free throw shooting will be a problem.
-- One thing that has to change are the fouls on defense. Last week at ACC Operation Basketball, several coaches suggested that new rules designed to clean up the game could lead to a lot of free throws.
That was certainly the case in Duke's scrimmage. Duke committed 47 fouls and shot 56 free throws in the 30-minutes of play. Obviously, that's the total for two teams, but even if you split the numbers - 23.5 fouls and 28 free throws - those numbers are significantly higher than Duke's 2013 per-game average of committing 17.9 fouls and allowing 18.6 free throws a game (and that was over 40 minutes, not 30).
Defensively, Duke is going to have to learn to play within the new interpretation of the rules.