Family boosts Dariq Whitehead

DURHAM – Coaches can deploy a vast number of motivational ploys to get players’ attention.

And sometimes family — in the case of Dariq Whitehead, his Aunt Mercedes — can hit a tone that coaches just can’t reach.

Duke’s star freshman had a rough first few months of his college basketball career. A preseason fracture in his foot meant a delayed start, and that parlayed into Whitehead playing catch up when he got back on the court.

There were glimpses, seemingly more frequent with each game, of what the 6-7, 220-pounder could be when fully healthy. But the leap forward occurred with a trip home to Newark, N.J., as the Blue Devils were off for Christmas.

“Being around family, you get to hear what you need to hear,” Whitehead said. “When I went home, they told me what it was and it was like a reset button.”

Specifically, that’s where Aunt Mercedes comes in.

“She was telling me, ‘You’re not the player that people say you are. Right now, you don’t look great,’” Whitehead said. “That’s just what I needed to hear. I often got caught up in, ‘Oh, I’m hurt. I’m coming off an injury.’

“But she just told me, pretty much, it was done with that. No more time for excuses. So I just had to mentally prepare and lock in.”

It’s more than just the one-game sample, in which Whitehead scored a season-high 16 points against Florida State on Saturday.

It’s the change that coach Jon Scheyer saw in Whitehead when Duke resumed practicing on Dec. 27.

“Dariq’s taken the next step, for sure,” Scheyer said. “The reason Dariq came here is to get better and to grow. And he’s done that. He was put in a situation you don’t want to be put in, to get hurt right away. There was an adjustment physically and mentally, coming back from that.

“But I’ve seen a different level of focus from him, seen a toughness of just playing through this and working at it. And I think his upside the rest of the year is only going to get better and better.”

Scheyer told Whitehead as much before Duke’s game against FSU. Whitehead displayed a lot of his arsenal in that win, hitting a step-back 3, making a euro-step layup and attacking off the dribble.

It’s not like Whitehead hasn’t been locked in this season; it’s just hit a different level in the last week.

“Even when he was on the sideline he was still, for being at such a young age, he was still a great talker and a great teammate,” center Ryan Young said, “which is not easy to do that, if you’re sidelined for that long.”

The preseason injury was a freak accident, according to all accounts. Whitehead said it was the first time that he’s ever suffered a significant injury in his career.

The physical hurdles in returning from injuries seem obvious. Whitehead was in a walking boot after having surgery on his foot, and he slowly ramped up to speed to be able to play in the fourth game of the year.

It’s the mental hurdles that can hinder athletes more, though, and that’s been part of the case with Whitehead.

“I feel like I’m trusting it more and more,” Whitehead said of his right foot. “Originally when I first came back, it was certain things like landing on it that I was scared to do. Right now I would say everything’s fine.”

A trip to Whitehead’s Twitter page doesn’t show much activity, but the most-recent tweet gives a peek into what the 18-year-old has gone through this season.

The second-most-recent tweet offers another glimpse into Whitehead’s psyche.

Quote-tweeting someone who pointed out in late November that people were already “bailing” on him, Whitehead said “Let ‘em” with a couple of emojis.

There’s an inescapable feeling that Saturday’s performance against the Seminoles was just the hors d’oeuvre of much, much more to come from the top-ranked recruit of the freshman class.

“I had to lock in and just put everything else to the side,” Whitehead said. “And coming back, I just had a different mindset. I was ready to come back from the break and just attack practices.”

Comparisons of Whitehead to AJ Griffin, last season’s one-and-done star who had a slow, injury-marred start, are natural.

Whereas Griffin provided Duke with one key element that’d been missing — 3-point shooting — a healthy and locked-in Whitehead will impact every level. He has the length, athleticism and foot speed to be a lockdown perimeter defender, and he’s equal parts scorer and facilitator for a team that’s sometimes struggled in halfcourt offense.

On Tuesday morning, ahead of Wednesday night’s game at N.C. State, Young — sitting next to Whitehead in Duke’s media room — asked the blunt question that everybody else was beating around.

“Would you say there’s more left in the tank?” Young asked Whitehead.

“Absolutely, I’d say there’s a lot more.”