Duke shows depth and flashes defensive grit in win

NEW YORK – It is the eternal cry of nearly every Duke basketball fan every season, including in March: Why oh why won’t the greatest coach of all time play more of his bench?

The answer to that varies, but mostly it’s Mike Krzyzewski saying that A., your top players should be on the court as much as possible, and B., they’re 19 and 20-year-olds, they shouldn’t get tired!

Well coming into Tuesday night’s Champions Classic opening game against No. 3 Kansas, Duke fans believed that maybe this year, finally, the Blue Devils might go as many as nine or 10 deep in the rotation.

One game is far too small a sample, but as expected Duke did play an awful lot of players Tuesday night in a gritty, aesthetically-displeasing but hard-fought 68-66 victory. Coach K used nine players within the first 10 minutes of the first half, with Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, Cassius Stanley, Matthew Hurt and Vernon Carey Jr. the starting five.

The only player expected to be part of the rotation who didn’t get in much Tuesday was sophomore guard Joey Baker, who played but :19 in the first half and not at all in the second.

With so many players in the rotation, you’d figure at least 2-3 of them would be hot on offense each night. But the Blue Devils went through long stretches without a field goal, including almost five minutes without a bucket early in the second half, as Kansas surged into a nine-point lead from a three-point halftime deficit.

“We played so hard and well in the first half, and then we were a completely different team in the first four minutes of the second half,” Krzyzewski said.

Three-point shooting was a huge problem for Duke last season, but this year it was expected to be better. So far, not so much. Sharpshooter Matthew Hurt was effective in his 23 minutes, hitting 3-of-7 from long range, but Duke was 8-for-24 from deep Tuesday, and still won.

Duke missed nine of 22 foul shots, and still won.

If those were an aberration, and Duke could still beat Kansas, that’s an excellent sign for this season. If they weren’t an aberration, well, this team could be in trouble.

“I think we were getting good looks, everyone was, they just didn’t go down,” senior Jack White said of the 3-point shooting. “The shooting will be there.”

CASSIUS FLOATS LIKE A BUTTERFLY: One huge bright spot among the newcomers for Duke was Cassius Stanley, the high-flying guard from California.

With Duke needing a spark from its stagnant offense in the second half, Stanley provided it. He slammed home two thunderous dunks, the second off a gorgeous bounce-pass from Jones to tie the game at 47. Then two minutes later Stanley showed his outside game, draining a 3-pointer from the left corner.

Then with Duke down 61-59 and 2:29 left, he hit a driving lefty layup past Kansas’ Ochai Ogbaji and his ensuing free throw gave Duke the lead.

“Cassius played a hell of a game, especially for a freshman,” Krzyzewski said. “Those two dunks (in the second half) were big.”

“He plays his ass off,” Jack White said admiringly. “He’s fantastic.”

“He’s able to provide huge plays, winning plays,” Jones said. “He was able to hit big shots and make big plays. The athlete he is, he can impact the game in so many ways, like you guys saw.”

Stanley admitted he had a “wow” moment playing his first college game, in front of 19,000 people at Madison Square Garden.

“It was rocking, it was amazing ... I mean you can’t even. That’s what you look for. I think I was at the free throw line, and I looked around and I saw a sold-out MSG and I was like, man. It’s real. It was incredible.”

Stanley finished with 13 points and three rebounds.

TRE JONES’ SHOOTING WOES: One of the major keys to Duke’s offense in 2019-20 is going to be Tre Jones’ outside shooting. One of the reasons the Defensive Player of the Year candidate came back for his sophomore year rather than heading to the NBA was his questionable outside shot.

While the point guard’s outside shot may indeed be better this season, Tuesday night wasn’t a strong start. Jones was 5-for-14 from the floor and 0-of-4 from 3-point range in 39 minutes.

But Jones did hit a huge jumper in the final two minutes, getting a 10-footer to bounce off the rim twice, Kawhi Leonard-like, to give Duke a 64-61 lead with 1:33 to go.

“The shot felt good right away, I heard Javin say behind me ‘Yessir Tre Jones’” Jones said. “My shot felt pretty good overall, wasn’t a great shooting night, but I was able to make the plays down the stretch we needed to.

“To get that win,” Jones said, “was huge for our growing up.”

And of course even with his erratic shooting, Jones’ defense and passing were, as usual, eye-opening. The 30-foot bounce pass to Stanley for the rookie’s second dunk was a thing of beauty, and Jones finished with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds, and only three turnovers.

“This year it’s Tre’s team, and he feels less pressure with more responsibility,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s the kind of guy you want as your leader. I think the difference maker for us was Tre.”

DUKE DEFENSE STRONG: Duke is going to be a very different defensive team than last year, but so far the early returns were pretty good.

With the caveat again that one game is a small sample, Duke seems to be able to pressure the ball on the perimeter more effectively this season, with quick players like Stanley adding some speed, but may struggle more when defenders get to the rim.

While it certainly was partly due to sloppy play by the Jayhawks, the Blue Devils’ defense forced a hard-to-believe 18 first-half turnovers from Kansas, and 28 for the game.

Despite not being as big inside as last season, and even though the Devils were out-rebounded 40-30, Duke did a good job on Kansas senior center Udoka Azubuike, holding the future NBAer to eight points and eight rebounds.

“That was almost like a boxing match out there, you win some rounds and lose some rounds,” said Duke senior center Javin DeLaurier. “Super physical game, but we were able to make enough stops to win.

“We had some errors, some lapses, but it was the first game and that’s going to happen.”

VETERANS’ PERFORMANCES MIXED: While a majority of the attention as always in the early games for Duke is on the newcomers, a key to this and every season is if the veteran role players made any improvements in the offseason.

Tuesday night Jack White and Alex O’Connell both saw significant minutes, and both shined in moments and struggled in others.

O’Connell, a 37 percent 3-point shooter last season, only was 1-for-6 from beyond the arc against Kansas and 3-for-10 from the field, while White shot 1-for-3 from beyond the arc.

O’Connell made a nice step-in-front steal in the first half that led to a layup for Jones, and had a big put-back dunk that tied the game at 22, followed by a 3 from the corner that gave Duke the lead.

White, whose 3-point shooting woes were epic last season, didn’t shoot well but his defense was huge. He had two big rebounds in the final minutes, and made a huge steal in the final minute, intercepting a pass by Kansas’ David McCormack under the basket to preserve Duke’s lead.

“We’ve done that drill millions of times,” White said. “Just instinct. I knew Vernon was going to come over to help, and I knew they’d cut to the bucket and try to get an easy layup. I’m pretty sure they had a guy spotting up from 3 so I knew if I could cut off the baseline I could take away two plays from them. I think he didn’t see me and I was fortunate.”

“He’s one of the toughest dudes I’ve ever met,” DeLaurier said of the Aussie junior. “He’s always going to make the right play.”