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Duke Tops Jacksonville 71-44 To Start The Scheyer Era With A Win

Lots of good things to build on here

By JD King
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NCAA Basketball: Jacksonville at Duke
 Nov 7, 2022; Durham, North Carolina, USA;Duke Blue Devils center Kyle Filipowski (30) shoots over Jacksonville Dolphins guard Dylan O’Hearn (2) during the second half at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils won 71-44. 
Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

The Jon Scheyer era started off Monday night with a 71-44 win over a tough Jacksonville squad. It was about what you’d expect from a team with seven freshmen (and two of those out), four transfers, a new coach and just two players back from the previous season.

Jacksonville was an ideal opponent for this situation. They were good enough to push Duke, good enough to nearly come back in the first half, but not good enough to win unless things had gone perfectly for them.

They were also a lot more physically mature than most of Duke’s players, at times a bit rough.

That will redound to Duke’s benefit later but it made for some uneven basketball Monday night.

As we said, Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively are still out with injuries but Mark Mitchell was incredibly impressive.

This summer we thought he reminded us of Luol Deng, but seeing him in a competitive game, here’s a different take: Physically he reminds one a bit of Dennis Rodman, at least in how he moves. Athletically though he’s more like Dereon Seabron, who played for NC State last year and is now with the Hornets, only with a solid jump shot. He’s so long that it looks like he’s not quick, but he’s plenty quick. He shot 7-14 and 2-5 for threes. He finished with 18 and was also a pest on defense. He has a ways to go, but that’s a guy we could see being a first round pick sooner rather than later. He’s very talented and his build is somewhat unique.

Kyle Filipowski seemed nervous in the first half and a little out of control, or perhaps just over eager. He settled down though and had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, shooting 4-8 overall and 2-5 on threes.

There was one play he’s likely to see again: he and a Jacksonville player were trying to pick up a loose ball. Filipowski may hear about his effort on that play, but it’s not unusual. Most high school players have to ratchet up their intensity when they get to college.

Ryan Young got the start again and shot a perfect 6-6 from the floor and had seven boards, five of them on offense. You can’t say he’ll do that on a regular basis - he had just one against Fayetteville State in Duke’s lone exhibition - but it was impressive. As we have seen before, he’s very smart.

Tyrese Proctor had an erratic debut. He shot 0-8, missing some chippies. You can see where he’s going, so it’s likely just first game nerves. He should be fine.

Jeremy Roach shot 6-10 and 4-7 and generally speaking was sharp, although he did get four fouls.

Jaylen Blakes and Jacob Grandison were the primary reserves. Blakes finished with eight points, hitting a pair of threes and two free throws. He’s a vastly superior player this year compared to what he was last season. He looks really good.

Grandison was 1-4 for two points, but he also had five rebounds and five assists. He’s probably not going to be a

In general, we’d say that this team is not close to its potential. On the other hand though, it’s November. Talent will out.

And there were some lovely moments too, in particular one bit of ball movement in the first half that any coach would have been thrilled with. The ball flew around the perimeter until they found a soft spot and the shot went up.

The defense wasn’t bad but our guess is communication isn’t perfect yet and there were some plays where the more experienced Dolphins just got inside of Duke’s defense.

That’ll improve with time. In spite of some lapses, Duke held Jacksonville to 18-53 (34 percent) and forced them to take 23 three point shot, often near the end of the shot clock.

Not surprisingly, Duke outrebounded Jacksonville 44 (16 offensive and 28 on the other end) to 25 (seven offensive and 18 defensive).

Duke attempted 23 threes, which is probably a departure from the previous norm. Over the years, you got the idea that Coach K liked the macho nature of driving your man to the basket. Scheyer, with a keener appreciation of the shooting arts, may opt to start outside in.

Keep in mind that Lively and Whitehead are not yet playing. Lively is going to be back relatively soon, possibly Friday for USC Upstate, and Whitehead is a couple of weeks away.

Those guys will likely change things on both ends.

Even without them, Duke flashed a lot of potential. Now they move on to eliminating mistakes and, presumably, improve communication.

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