In two weeks, the college basketball season opens and Duke plays Jacksonville at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Coach Jon Scheyer has that much time left to mold his first Blue Devils team into a championship-level team that meets his expectations.
In addition to practices, the Blue Devils have two important events against outside competition between now and Nov. 7.
Duke travels to Houston this weekend for Saturday’s closed scrimmage against the No. 3-ranked Cougars.
On Nov. 2, Duke plays its lone exhibition game this season against Fayetteville State at 7 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils played a 16-minute scrimmage during their Countdown to Craziness fan event last Friday night. That offered a glimpse of how things are going.
Here are three areas where Duke needs to get some answers to shore things up prior to hosting Jacksonville for its season opener.
Health questions
Duke is currently without its top two freshmen in 7-1 Dereck Lively (calf muscle strain) and 6-7 Dariq Whitehead (fractured right foot). While neither injury is expected to keep them out for many games this season, the situation impacts Duke’s planning.
“Both of them have bright futures ahead,” Scheyer said. “We have a long season. So we’re not trying to rush him back here for a practice or one game. We’ll take it step by step with each of those guys.”
Both players can help with perimeter scoring, with Lively also having the ability to score in the paint and be a rim-protector on defense.
By all indications, Lively is most likely to be back first and very well could play in the season opener with Jacksonville. Scheyer and Lively both indicated his absence from practice and last week’s scrimmage was precautionary more than anything.
But will he play at Houston or against Fayetteville State? The former looks less likely than the latter. It will be impossible to fully judge Duke’s progress until Lively returns. He’s that talented.
The chances of Whitehead playing against Jacksonville grow lower each day until he’s cleared for unlimited work in practice. His recovery process from Aug. 30 surgery to repair the injury is deliberate.
Whitehead was able to start doing some on-court work last week, a sign of progress.
But Scheyer said Friday night he was “weeks away” from returning.
Post rotation
Without Lively, 6-11 freshman Christian Reeves is taking advantage of extra practice repetitions. He’s making the best of his opportunity.
Thought to be a certain redshirt player this season, Reeves isn’t making that decision easy.
“The growth that he’s made, since stepping on campus to now, has been incredible,” Scheyer said. “He’s kept his head down. He goes against Ryan Young and Dereck Lively every day. With us being shorthand, right now we need to evaluate everything.”
Young, a 6-10 graduate transfer from Northwestern, and freshman Kyle Filipowski round out Duke’s collection of post players.
Both Young and Filipowski had uneven performances during last week’s Blue-White scrimmage. Filipowski scored five points with five rebounds but had four fouls and two turnovers in 15 minutes of play. Young scored four points with six rebounds and recorded two steals, but he also committed four fouls in 15 minutes.
Of course, it’s still highly likely Lively, Filipowski and Young get more minutes than Reeves this season. Acknowledging that Lively probably won’t play at Houston, those first three need to shore things up before Duke plays a game that counts on Nov. 7.
Perimeter scoring
Whitehead figures to be a big contributor here once healthy. Duke will also be counting on junior guard Jeremy Roach, freshman guard Tyrese Proctor and graduate transfer wing Jacob Grandison.
A 32.2% 3-point shooter last season, Roach hit all three of his 3-point shots in the scrimmage. That’s a good start.
Grandison, conversely, was 1 of 7 from the field and missed all four of his 3-pointers. He made 41% of his 3-pointers the last two seasons at Illinois, so he’s proven to be a better shooter. Duke needs that.
Proctor’s made impressive strides since arriving on campus in August following his play for the Australian national team in the FIBA Asia Cup tournament. He looks like he’ll be a strong player this season.
Roach and Proctor project as Duke’s starting guards this season.
“They’ve developed a great bond in a short period of time,” Scheyer said. “Obviously we hope that strengthens the next few weeks here.”
Another freshman, 6-4 guard Jaden Schutt, could be a 3-point threat off the bench.
