DURHAM – Everything about Duke’s preseason needs two qualifiers:

The Blue Devils played the preseason No. 3 in a closed-door scrimmage this past weekend and played Division II-level Fayetteville State in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

And the Blue Devils played both games without ballyhooed freshmen Dereck Lively II and Dariq Whitehead.

“I think we’ve just realized how much potential we have overall, as a team,” freshman Kyle Filipowski said. “We’re a whole new team this year, even the transfers and older guys. We’re just getting a feel for each other … and we’re realizing just how good we can be with these last couple of games.”

Duke cruised against the Broncos on Wednesday night, winning 82-45 and surging ahead with first-half runs of 13-3 and 19-2.

Jacob Grandison led Duke with 17 points, making 6 of 9 shots (3 of 6 3-pointers), while Ryan Young and Jaylen Blakes scored 12 apiece. It was freshman forward Mark Mitchell whose performance might have been the most encouraging, though — especially in light of an injury update that’s below.

Mitchell, presumably starting for as long as Whitehead is out, had 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Coach Jon Scheyer has made defense a focal point of the buildup to the season, and at 6-8, 220 with a long wingspan, Mitchell stood out on that end of the floor.

“Mark is huge for us,” Scheyer said. “He really can guard all five positions on the court. He plays with great energy and he’s not concerned about any stats or about scoring.”

After saying that about Mitchell’s selflessness, Scheyer did glance down at the stat sheet in front of him and note the 15 points, six rebounds in 22 minutes.

For Mitchell, that’s just a product of who he is as a player.

“I came out and tried to play hard, tried to play aggressive and do what I always do,” Mitchell said. “I do what the team needs me to do to win.”

It’s quite the juxtaposition to go from playing Houston, which might wind up with the best defense in the country this season, to playing a Division II team.

Next week’s games against Jacksonville and USC Upstate figure to land somewhere in between those difficulty levels — in all likelihood, closer to Fayetteville State.

And on the subject of that second qualifier:

Scheyer updated the status of his two injured freshmen. Whitehead won’t play Monday and is “still … a couple of weeks away,” which seemingly rules him out of Duke’s first three games, including the Champions Classic against Kansas (Nov. 15).

Lively could be back for Monday night’s opener against Jacksonville; Scheyer said he’s day-to-day.

“He’s been really ramping up,” Scheyer said of Lively. “I think the biggest thing for both of those guys is not just being completely healthy, which, they’re right there. But … you have to build up your game shape again.

“We don’t want to put them out there too early.”

Duke will eventually get Lively and Whitehead on the court this season and it’s bound to change the complexion of this team.

For now, though, it’s a matter of two potential lottery picks sitting on the end of Duke’s bench — while the next time Duke takes the court, it’ll count in the win-loss column.

“They’re just as keen to get out there Monday as we are,” freshman guard Tyrese Proctor said. “So hopefully they’re ready. If not, then they’re doing their work and preparing for whenever they’re ready.”

There never seemed to be much danger of Wednesday night becoming a competitive game — though Fayetteville State scored first when Mitchell missed a defensive assignment and the Broncos scored on an offensive rebound.

Duke scored on the next nine possessions, taking a 19-8 lead a little more than six minutes into the game. A 1.9 points-per-possession clip is usually going to be a winning formula.

The differential between the box score of the 32-minute scrimmage against Houston and Wednesday night’s exhibition is stark. A few examples:

- Against Houston, Duke had four assists on 15 field goals; against Fayetteville State, Duke had 21 assists on 30 field goals. Jeremy Roach led Duke with eight assists, though perhaps more notable was that eight players recorded at least one assist.

- Houston shot 53.5% (23 of 43) from the field; Fayetteville State shot 31.1% (19 of 61).

“I think we took some of the things we did on Saturday and tried to be better,” Mitchell said. “Houston has small, quick guards and so do they, so I think we just tried to be solid on defense, contest shots and get rebounds.”

- Duke shot 36.6% against Houston and made 2 of 17 3-pointers; those numbers were 56.6% from the field and 42.1% (8 of 19) against Fayetteville State. The key to better offense, Roach said, was to push the ball and look for easier shots.

“Trying not to set up 5-on-5 too much, just flow into offense and get easy buckets,” Roach said.

The Blue Devils outscored Fayetteville State 20-0 in fast-break points.

TIP-INS: Roach, Proctor, Blakes and Jaden Schutt were a combined 3-for-9 in the first half — with Blakes going 2-for-3 and Proctor hitting a 3-pointer before halftime. … Associate head coach Chris Carrawell wasn’t at the game because of an illness. … Blakes had half of Duke’s eight turnovers, but Scheyer made a point of mentioning that a couple of those came at the end of the game when Blakes was being “too unselfish trying to get guys shots.” … Freshman center Christian Reeves didn’t enter until there was 14:06 left; he had two points, four rebounds and two blocks in about 9½ minutes on the court.