A day spent behind the scenes at Duke
It was a beautiful day in Durham, North Carolina. The temperature hovered around 65 degrees with a nice fall breeze in the air. Practice was to start around four, so Joe Tipton and I showed up on Duke’s campus just after noon.
We were sent our parking pass earlier that morning. As we pulled into the Card Parking Lot, we saw the famed Kyzyzewskiville. As we were told, while standing in Jon Scheyer’s office overlooking the basketball grounds, just a few days prior, that area of grass was filled with graduate students and tents as they camped out, in September, for days so they could get game tickets.
Duke holds a weekend-long Campout for graduate students to register in the lottery to get game tickets. It is a tradition that was reinstated this year after taking a hiatus due to the pandemic.
Joe and I walked up to the door of Cameron Indoor and were met by coaches and staff members. We took our backpacks to the digital media room, where we left them, and were shown around the basketball facilities. We went to the offices, the locker room, throughout the practice facility and weight room, the training table, and every nook and cranny the team uses, we saw.
The tour was great as Joe and I were not just shown the space; we were told about the space. What kind of upcoming upgrades were in the works, stories of Grant Hill and Zion Williamson, and allowed to soak it all in.
Fast-forward to practice
This was the third official practice of the season for the Blue Devils, and it was closed. Scheyer had his group practice on the Cameron Indoor court on this day. Joe and I were ushered to our seats. They had blue mats that were draped down over the entrances so no one could look in. Each of the mats around each entrance of the concourse said, “Practice is closed today.”
It was an interesting feeling being in such a legendary venue. I have been to many games at Cameron Indoor before; however, this time, I was sitting in an empty arena with just the players and staff on the floor.
From the start, the energy was high for the team and the coaches. Scheyer oversaw every aspect of what was happening while he let the assistants, Jai Lucas, Amile Jefferson, and Chris Carrawell, run the drills.
As you can imagine, with it being a closed practice, in this writing, I am not going to go into any much detail about what was said during practice, what drills they ran, or any type of points of emphasis or offenses they instilled. However, I will go through my thoughts of what the starting lineup could look like and give a general team analysis leading into the season.
Projected lineup
PG – Jeremy Roach
SG – Tyrece Proctor
SF – Dariq Whitehead
PF – Mark Mitchell
C – Dereck Lively
Final thoughts
This Duke team is very talented; they have multiple draft picks strewn throughout their roster. The question I have is, who will be the guy? During this practice, that guy looked like it could be Jeremy Roach.
Roach has started 45 games in his two-year Blue Devil career. Last season he averaged 8.6 points and 3.2 assists, playing the role of defensive stopper on the perimeter. It should be noted freshman Dariq Whitehead will be given every opportunity to be that guy. Whitehead is currently out with an injury and did not practice.
The player with the most intrigue, at least for me, was Tyrese Proctor. Joe and I walked away from that practice, both talking about how good he was. There is very real chatter starting to build the 6-foot-4 guard from Australia, being a possible one-and-done player.
Jacob Grandison, Ryan Young, and Kale Catchings all have the look for players who will get good minutes off the bench. Grandison is as steady as they come. Young is very skilled offensively. Catchings is a high-floor tough guy who can finish, rebound, and defend.
Mark Mitchell will play a vital role on this team. The 6-foot-9 forward moves like a wing, his defensive switchability will play a major role on what Duke does on that end of the floor.
The big question will be the minutes between Dereck Lively and fellow five-star freshman Kyle Filipowski. Lively’s flashes are big time, but can he consistently impact a game in between the lob dunks and blocked shots? Filipowski might be the team’s best rebounder, but how quickly can he catch up to the speed of the ACC game?
All in all, the team has a lot of talent, on paper, as much as anyone in the country. First-year head coach Jon Scheyer returns just two scholarship players from last season’s roster. How quickly can they all gel?