INDIANAPOLIS — At some point, Jon Scheyer was bound to make some version of the walk he made around 12:40 a.m. local time Wednesday, down the dais steps and through Door IC14.07 in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse media room. He’d look just like he looked: red-eyed and anguished. Like someone ran over a beloved pet while smashing a priceless family heirloom not long after blowing the kids’ college fund on a hunch at the track. At some point, Duke was destined to lose and the new Duke coach would take it very, very hard. Just a matter of when. This is the business everyone has chosen.
And nobody would want to hear that Duke needed it, actually, whenever it happened. But this was the substance of a 69-64 loss to No. 6 Kansas in the Champions Classic. Teams constructed like No. 7 Duke is constructed, from head to tail, typically have to live through these nights. Things go wrong and don’t get fixed easily. When they get fixed for a little while, the same things go wrong again and you run out of time to make repairs. The longer a group waits for it to happen only increases its vulnerability to delusion. Take the medicine. Get it over with. Better sooner than later.
Duke isn’t as close to defending-national-champion levels of credence as the final score might suggest. Duke also can’t be said to be fumbling about for an identity or direction when it leads said defending national champions with two minutes to play, all while one ultra-freshman is still rounding into form and another hasn’t been on the floor for a single second so far. In-between is not a comfortable place for the program’s partisans to be. The place hasn’t spent much time in the gray for about four decades. But the 40 minutes played Tuesday night into Wednesday morning didn’t provide definitives any more than the previous two games did. It only had to happen, to start getting to the truth of who these Blue Devils are.
“Even if we won,” Scheyer said, “we wouldn’t have won being at our best.”
From the micro view, frustrations can be forgiven. A team that entered the game fourth in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency — small sample-size alert! — managed but .877 points per possession against Kansas. The 18 turnovers were unsettling, and not exactly an auspicious turn after a 22-miscue effort in the previous game. Meanwhile, where Duke had an assist rate of roughly 61 percent through its first two games, it registered just eight assists on 24 made baskets in its third outing. The Blue Devils missed 13 layups and 18 of 21 3-pointers. They had two wide-open transition looks consecutively denied by Kansas chase-down blocks. By the end, fans begged for a set, any set, that might make scoring look even a little easy. Choppy waters, all night.
Still … that’s fine, maybe? At least on Nov. 16? Sometimes Duke teams show up here and by the end the opponent is a pile of ash. (See: 2018.) Sometimes Duke teams show up here and have a way to go. Scheyer noted afterwards that he’s still getting to know his players and his players are still getting to know him. He said his team was shook initially by Kansas’ physicality. While some might argue that the preparation between June and November is supposed to solve such problems before they arise, none of those workouts can simulate game situations at an event like this and the real-time reactions and decisions they require. From everyone. If it’s not fun to be unexceptional in this context, for a roster like Duke’s, it’s at least understandable.
Jon Scheyer lost his first game as Duke head coach on Tuesday. (Marc Lebryk / USA Today)
Who, for example, was complaining when the Blue Devils shook off some jitters and hit six of their first seven shots after halftime, with Scheyer orchestrating everything to maximum efficiency from the sideline? That was a torch light. That was the glimpse of the way out of the in-between. Failing to sustain it, and losing the balance between creativity and one-on-one stagnation, doomed Duke this time. It’s also conceivable these players didn’t grasp what mistakes they were making until they finally had to pay for them, repeatedly. “We just took one dribble more than we needed to, so that gave them a chance to sink in and get their hands on the ball,” freshman forward Kyle Filipowski said.
“Against a team like Kansas, you have to break them down with multiple drives and kicks,” Scheyer said. “This is going to give us great perspective on how you have to work on and off the ball to get a great shot.”
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As gut-punched as the head coach appeared following his postgame debrief, shed no tears. That early second-half surge gives Scheyer a clearer vision of optimal play-calling rhythm for this group. Defenders still can’t stay in front of Jeremy Roach. Filipowski’s 17-point and 14-rebound night confirmed the 7-footer might evolve into Duke’s best player by the time March rolls around, if he’s not already nearly there. Dereck Lively II has logged just 35 minutes, total, as he works toward fitness. Dariq Whitehead, the explosive freshman guard idled by a foot injury, probably won’t return to action by Friday’s game against Delaware … but it would seem the wait won’t last much longer than that. Duke has dudes, and it still has plenty of time. The unknowable is how well the Blue Devils make use of it.
For now, learning experiences abounded as Tuesday bled into Wednesday. At the beginning, there was stretching and getting loose in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse hallways not once or twice but thrice, thanks to Kentucky and Michigan State wrestling through regulation and two overtimes, a lesson in patience for a group that hasn’t had to manage many annoyances, probably ever. At the end, there was Filipowski and fellow freshman Mark Mitchell wandering those same hallways as 1 a.m. approached, examining various doors and elevators, trying to identify the one that would lead them to the exit and the start of the trip home.
But that’s what happens when you’re searching: Some trial, some error, and most times you eventually find your way.
(Top photo of Duke’s Jeremy Roach: Marc Lebryk / USA Today)
