Get to know: Spencer Hubbard

DURHAM – Duke needed to find some way, by any means, for Mark Williams to practice chasing smaller, quicker guards in ball-screen defense last season.

Enter Spencer Hubbard, the 5-8, 160-pound walk-on guard … and roommate of the 7-1, 241-pound Williams.

“We have our little guard, Spencer, who’s like 5-nothing, he’s small, a little shrimp,” associate head coach Chris Carrawell said back in January. “But he’s quick, and so now (Williams) has to guard these guys, like if it’s a switch, he’s gotta work on guarding somebody that’s quicker and smaller.”

That helped Williams – and Duke – down the stretch last season.

While not perfect, Williams improved his lateral quickness last season to the point that Duke didn’t have to take him off of the floor when teams hunted him for mismatches on guards – as was the case in some non-conference games.

Those battles between Williams and Hubbard carried beyond the practice courts for the Blue Devils, too.

“Mark was my roommate last year, so it got a little competitive,” Hubbard said at Duke’s media day. “I would have to shoot a couple of inches behind the 3-point line to even get my shot off.”

Hubbard is one of only four returning members of last season’s team – Jeremy Roach and Jaylen Blakes are the scholarship returners, while Hubbard and 7-footer Stanley Borden are walk-on returners. Otherwise, 11 newcomers – seven freshmen and four grad transfers – make up Jon Scheyer’s first roster.

This will be Hubbard's second season as a Blue Devil and third season at Duke, having spent his first year as a member of the practice team. The Los Angeles native played in three games last season, scoring a point against Elon and grabbing a rebound against South Carolina State.

“The scout-team battles were definitely intense,” Hubbard said with a chuckle. “But yeah, Mark … we would talk after every game, after every practice, and just talk about how we could get better as a team.”

That wasn’t the full extent of conversations and interactions – Hubbard said he and Williams would often play videogames together.

Fortnite and NBA 2K were the games of choice, with Hubbard giving himself as the better Fortnite player “easily.”

He did say Williams was more of a 2K player – but wouldn’t even give him the edge in that game, either.

“I wouldn’t even give him that, I got a couple of games on him last year,” Hubbard said with a laugh. “It would get competitive in the household between me, him and Jeremy, for sure.”

So Williams has the height advantage; Hubbard has the videogames edge.