Duke got punched in the mouth on Tuesday night in Chicago against Michigan State. The Spartans were the tougher team, led wire-to-wire, and earned a 79-73 win over the Blue Devils in the State Farm Champions Classic.
It was a jarring performance. There were very few positives to take away from the game. Duke's offense was a mess in the halfcourt, and the defense wasn't nearly good enough to compensate for it.
This team has some serious work to do, something Jon Scheyer admitted in his postgame comments.
It's far too early to panic, however, and Duke will likely look demonstrably better next Tuesday when Illinois comes to Cameron.
Here are the biggest winners (buckets) and losers (bricks) from Duke's disappointing early season defeat:
Buckets
Sebastian Wilkins
When you look at the box score, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb in the plus-minus category. Predictably, most of the guys who played for Duke finished in the negative. Two players finished in the positive, and sophomore Sebastian Wilkins was comfortably in the positive.
In 19 minutes, Wilkins finished at +8.
He scored nine points with two rebounds across his minutes, providing a spark off the bench for Duke. He was one of the only players who played with consistent effort every time he was in the game.
Scheyer undoubtedly noticed that, too. Wilkins could continue to see a minutes increase going forward. He's making a big impact when he's out there.
Drew Scharnowski
Scharnowski was the only other player in the positive for Duke, finishing at +1 in 15 minutes. The Belmont transfer gave Duke an offensive spark off the bench right away, and he had a strong game on both ends of the floor.
Scharnowski finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and blocked a shot. He's still ramping up from his preseason injury, but like Wilkins, it's going to be hard to keep him off the floor going forward.
Don't be surprised to see Scharnowski start eating into Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje's minutes as he gets into better game shape while the 17-year-old phenom figures things out.
Bricks:
Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Boumtje Boumtje struggled in his first real test against a physical Michigan State team. It's going to be a process for the youngster, and Scheyer is going to be willing to play him through the struggles because the light at the end of the tunnel is blinding.
He's going to be an elite player. He's not that right now, and he was a negative for Duke on Tuesday night on both ends of the court.
The light will eventually click on, but he's got a ways to go.
Dame Sarr
After receiving significant hype this offseason as a potential lottery pick in the 2027 NBA Draft, Dame Sarr fell flat in his first chance against an elite team this year. He looked apprehensive on the offensive end, unwilling to fire off open looks from the corner and instead driving aimlessly into traffic in the lane.
Sarr scored just six points on 1-of-5 shooting and turned it over three times. He made some questionable rim decisions, especially in transition. He smoked a layup in transition in the second half that would have cut the Michigan State lead to six and given Duke a real shot at an improbable comeback, and then blew another 2-on-1 opportunity in transition where he had Boumtje Boumtje open for an easy dunk, but instead took a contested layup himself that didn't fall.
Duke needs a lot more from Sarr moving forward.
Cayden Boozer
Duke's guard play simply wasn't good enough. John Blackwell ended up with 17 points after knocking down some shots late, but for the most part, the Blue Devils were totally outclassed by Michigan State.
Jeremy Fears is one of the best players in the country, but this Duke backcourt was supposed to be elite, and it looked like anything but.
Cayden Boozer was virtually invisible for most of the night, and as the starting point guard, he's got to shoulder a lot of blame for Duke's offensive ineptitude.
Duke has to get more than six points and two assists in 22 minutes from the starting point guard.
Scheyer may want to consider giving more minutes to freshman Deron Rippey, who, while a bit reckless, provides juice at the lead guard spot that nobody else on the roster can.
Add us as a preferred source on Google