DBR Podcast #379 - Mark Williams Block-o-rama

On this episode of the Duke Basketball Report Podcast, Duke is back in the win column with a big win at home against NC State, behind huge nights for Mark Williams and Paolo Banchero. We also discuss Cam Reddish’s recently trade to the Knicks, and the latest with Kyrie Irving.

In the State game, we have to discuss Mark Williams, who nearly had a triple double with blocks for Duke in just 27 minutes. He terrorized the Wolfpack down low, and Duke was able to hold NC State’s shooting to just over 40% from the field in a 15-point victory that never really got close once Duke built its initial lead in the first half. Our “good” includes Williams and the perimeter defense for Duke, as well as Banchero continuing his magical freshman season and Trevor Keels getting his first extended assignment in the point guard role. We also praise Jeremy Roach’s performance off the bench.

In the bad, we talk about how Duke allowed NC State to somewhat stay in the game with its offensive rebounding. We think that Duke has another gear that they didn’t show on Saturday, so maybe it is coming soon.

After the break, we get into recent Duke in the NBA news, starting with Cam Reddish’s recent trade from Atlanta to New York, where he is now reunited with former Duke teammate RJ Barrett. We speculate about how this will benefit both of their careers. We also talk about the latest silliness around Kyrie Irving as the Nets are trying to get all of their stars on the court together.

We wrap up this episode with our Player of the Week award. It was a weird week to pick a team MVP, but we had some consensus. Stay in touch with us at dbrpodcast at gmail.com, and we’ll be back again before the FSU game to preview Leonard Hamilton’s squad.