A Look At The Video From Duke’s Wednesday Scrimmage

General stuff: Dariq Whitehead is very fluid. Just watching him bring the ball up is wonderful. We only see glimpses of Reeves but his potential seems obvious. The transfer vets are going to make this group work and improve. Young is particularly impressive, or was in this scrimmage. Lively is really, really long and good. He needs some bulk though. Tyrese Proctor has not yet arrived after FIBA play in Asia. Okay, let’s go to the videotape!

• 0:11: Lively drives left but shoots right.
• 0:30: Reeves blocks Lively. Keeps his hands up. Nice!
• 0:38: Really nice pass by Jeremy Roach to Ryan Young for an easy basket.
• 0:57: Young gives Filipowski a quick intro to competing with older, nastier players. And nasty, in this context, is very good.
• 1:05: Filipowski goes behind his back, which is cool. But 5-8 walk-on Spencer Hubbard is stalking him and makes him pay. Look at him at 1:06. A leopard would be so proud of his awareness and anticipation because on this play, Hubbard is a predator and Filipowski is prey.
• 1:20: Roach to Hubbard to Johns! Great ball movement.
• 1:35: Whitehead makes an impressive drive, which would have been even more impressive if he had connected. At the end of the possession, check out Schutt as he shoots. That’s a beautiful stroke. And that’s how Schutt is pronounced by the way: shoooooooot! You’re going to hear a lot of that.
• 1:50: Mitchell tries to go from coast to coast on the rebound but Lively and Whitehead deny.
• 1:58: Lively grabs the board and gives it to Whitehead, who drains the jumper.
• 2:12: Watch Blakely hit Schutt for an open jumper. You know how you can tell a great shooter? You don’t hear anything when the ball goes through, because he drops it dead center in the rim. The net barely even moves.
• 2:29: Young hits Johns for the open jumper.
• 2:41: If you pause it right here, Blakes is guarding Roach and he looks worried. He’s probably right if he is. But also watch Young, who goes from the high pick to the basket without being really noticed by anyone. Easy money for Roach. And, of course, Young.
• 2:54: There’s a lot going on here. First, Blakes dribbles into a triple team. Young holds him back which we wouldn’t have expected. But as the trap closes, Blakes hits Schutt to his right and suddenly the defense is unbalanced. Filipowski then gets the ball and one F-bomb later, Lively is dunking. Look at the end of the long dunk: his feet are barely off the ground. He just kind of lets go and is back on the floor.
• 3:08: Roach abuses Blakes on the drive. Lively too, for that matter.
• 3:21: Roach is about to abuse Lively. Mitchell gets an impressive dunk after he does.
• 3:30: Watch Filipowski with the pretty spin move.
• 3:52: Our estimation of Young is going up like a stock chart of Google in the 1990s.
• 4:23: Dariq Whitehead is taking it in and that’s that. But Young draws a charge: age before beauty.
• 4:45: Reeves hits Young inside for an easy basket.
• 4:58: Johns drives but Filipowski says no.
• 5:03: Schutt gets the loose ball, takes off, and hits Lively for a really nice assist.
• 5:10: Watch Roach school Whitehead.
• 5:24: Blakes drives but misses. Filipowski tips it in.
• 5:33: Young gets a rugged rebound then hits Roach for a nice break. If you haven't noticed this, check out how well Roach does with high angles off the board when big guys are hunting his shot. He did it last season of course, but it’s really fun to watch.
• 5:55: The ball moves around the perimeter a bit and Mitchell gets an open three.
• 6:10: This is a fun sequence that ends with Blakes on a layup.
• Takeaways from Duke men’s basketball’s first summer scrimmage