Blue-White rundown

The season kicked off with the Blue-White scrimmage last night with the Blue squad winning 69-64 behind 21 points from Gerald Henderson and 19 from Taylor King. I didn't have a chance to do defensive stats for the game (and probably won't be able to do any until the real games start against NC Central), but I did have a chance to look at the tempo-free stats, as valuable as 30 minutes of intra-squad scrimmaging can be.

The efficiency and usage stats in particular I found to be pretty useful because they sort of jived with performances from last year, and also sort of fell in line with expectations for most Duke fans.

Blue
Player	Efficiency		Usage
Gerald Henderson	131.73		27.78%
Taylor King	129.81		20.22%
Brian Zoubek	104.56		17.50%
Greg Paulus	115.36		14.32%
DeMarcus Nelson	108.84		19.77%
White
Player	Efficiency		Usage
Kyle Singler	120.79		30.28%
Lance Thomas	92.73		16.30%
Nolan Smith	91.83		29.72%
Jon Scheyer	112.74		14.60%
Jordan Davidson	97.15		10.90%

Blue was a better team and these numbers sort of reflect that pretty obviously. They shot 10 for 19 from behind the arc, overall had an eFG% of around 65%. White stayed close behind Singler's incredible game (23 points on 9 for 17 shooting, 2 assists, 6 ORBs, 3 DRBs) and by causing 15 turnovers (25.9%), but Blue was ultimately too much.

Overall as a team (both sides), we shot over 40% from behind the arc, and the game was played at a breakneck pace - 77-80 poss per 40 minutes. It's doubtful that we'll be able to keep a pace like that all season - most teams play much slower these days and fast and slow teams tend to average out to medium speed when they play - but it shows that we're going to try to push the ball more this year, which is a welcome change from the standpoint of the fan and concerns for recruiting. Players love to play a fast pace and it's always been a drawing point for Duke: we play fast.

At any rate, it's hard to glean too much from the Blue-White game. Thursday we'll play Shaw University in an Exhibition. Most likely we'll win by 40. Again it will be hard to glean too much. As I recall, last year through the exhibitions and the first few games of the year, Zoubek was actually our star offensively. Nevertheless, our performance against Shaw and Barton will yield some useful information and start to answer some questions about this team.

• Does Paulus make more mature decisions this year?
  
• Will our freshman be able to contribute more immediately than our freshmen did last year? Is Kyle Singler the best freshman in the ACC?
  
• Will Gerald Henderson live up to his potential?
• Can we get our offense back to Duke levels? Can we reduce turnovers and take better shots?
  
• Can we defend the post?

To me those are the chief questions for this team. If the answer is yes to them all, I think we contend for the ACC title and can go deep in the tournament, though that might be a little optimistic. Hell, it's the preseason - when is optimism more warranted for any fan of any team?