I guess the way I see it, the guys playing Division II ball are probably not going to be heading to the NBA in a few years, or even Europe. I don't know much about Division II gyms, but I imagine that their gyms aren't quite like Cameron and their fans aren't quite like Duke fans. I also imagine that it's rare for them to face off against Hall of Fame coaches (though they will face two in 3 days after this weekend). So on some level, I have to think the whole experience is fun, to some extent, for them. I mean, it's never fun losing by 79, but in a few weeks they might look back and think "Playing in Cameron was pretty cool. Meeting Coach K was pretty cool. Playing against a top flight Division I program was pretty cool." Replace Cameron with the Smith Center and Coach K with Roy Williams after Saturday as well. So, then, is it really wrong for K to treat this as a glorified practice? It's important for Duke's guys to all get play and to get to practice their defensive schemes and offensive sets. If that means the score ends up as 134-55, then so be it. Ultimately the game doesn't matter, so you can't run up the score... right?
Oh well. Anyway, you can find the box score for the game over at goduke.com right now, and you can find the HD Box on Paul Rugani's Duke blog. Here I'll give you some efficiency and usage stats, and other interesting stats of note.
Individual Stats
| Player | Eff. | Usage | ||
| Kyle Singler | 163.1 | 21.6% | ||
| Lance Thomas | 150.4 | 20.6% | ||
| Greg Paulus | 124.3 | 19.1% | ||
| Gerald Henderson | 130.5 | 17.0% | ||
| DeMarcus Nelson | 131 | 27.3% | ||
| Nolan Smith | 151 | 25.8% | ||
| Martynas Pocius | 172.7 | 15.7% | ||
| Taylor King | 140.9 | 14.2% | ||
| Jon Scheyer | 141.1 | 15.4% | ||
| Jordan Davidson | 200 | 10.9% | ||
| Brian Zoubek | 102.2 | 19.0% |
Team Stats
| Duke | Shaw | |||
| eFG% | 61.63% | 37.69% | ||
| TO% | 13.67% | 36.45% | ||
| ORB % | 52.50% | 22.22% | ||
| FT Rate | 32.56% | 13.85% | ||
| Tempo | 95.1 | |||
| Offensive Efficiency | 140.9 | |||
| Defensive Efficiency | 57.83 | |||
| 3-Point FG % | 28.57% | 35.00% | ||
| 2-Point FG% | 70.69% | 31.11% | ||
| Free Throw % | 77.78% | 66.67% | ||
| Block % | 15.52% | 4.44% | ||
| Steal % | 22.51% | 4.21% | ||
| 3PA/FGA | 32.56% | 30.77% | ||
| A/FGM | 51.02% | 28.57% |
Obviously, these stats are ridiculous. Kyle Singler is not going to have a freshman season with a 163+ efficiency. Duke is not going to cause turnovers on over 36% of opposing possessions and we are not going to play 95 possessions a game. We will not have an efficiency margin of well over 80.
Shaw is really, really bad and it's easy to look good when you're playing a terrible team. But that being said, you can still make some constructive comments. Paulus looked quicker (but not really quick or anything) and more comfortable in transition. He looked more skilled on defense, but still not a gifted defender. He's a good passer and a good shooter, but he just lacks elite athleticism to break down defenders in the half-court. That's ok, we will push the ball. It's obvious from our play in this game that we are not ever walking the ball up the court. It's also obvious that Coach K is ready to use a deep bench and press. He even used a zone. Maybe hanging around D'Antoni and Boeheim all summer rubbed off a little?
I think my biggest comment is that Nelson needs to not use as many possessions as he did. He took 16 shots and made 5. Last year, he had our highest usage rate, at 24% (Zoubek's 28% is ridiculously affected by turnovers and he was hardly a regular player) with an efficiency of 103.5. I was hoping this year the usage would go down for Nelson as Singler and Henderson stepped into the forefront of the team. For the record, Singler and Henderson were a combined 16 for 22 from the field. Why did Nelson take 16 shots? To be fair, he missed a number of easy shots that he should get by the time the season is in good form, but it was still troubling. Smith only had as high a usage rate as he did because he shot 10 free throws despite shooting just 4 shots from the field (Hansbrough would be put to shame by his 250 Free Throw rate!).
The outside shooting was a little troubling. It's strange to think that we scored 134 points and still only shot about 2% better than Florida did last year. They also shot 40% from behind the arc for the year, and we shot 28% tonight. Most of the misses were wide open shots - I am not terribly concerned because I know how good Scheyer and King can be from behind the arc.
All in all, fun game to watch. Should be a fun season at any rate. Very up tempo. The players and fans will have a lot of fun this year.
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