Three biggest takeaways from Duke basketball’s first victory

Takeaway No. 2: This Duke basketball team should play a lot of small-ball

In one of my previous articles, I talked about how Duke will be a guard-driven team this year. That was certainly the case against Coppin State.

The Blue Devils rolled out a relatively experienced starting five, with freshman Jalen Johnson joining the four returnees from last year’s squad in Jordan Goldwire, Wendell Moore, Joey Baker, and Matthew Hurt. Freshman guards DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach were the first two off the bench, and both played around 30 minutes. As I suspected, Hurt got plenty of run at the five-spot.

Coppin State is a smaller team that does not play without a traditional center. The team’s lone big man played mostly on the perimeter. This forced Duke to go smaller and without a true big on the floor. Mark Williams and Henry Coleman played a combined five minutes. Grad transfer Patrick Tape did not see the floor at all. And Jaemyn Brakefield played four minutes, scoring one point.

The small lineup with Hurt at the five and Johnson at the four left the Blue Devils vulnerable on the backboards at times and allowed some easy points in the paint. But offensively, it provided Duke with good spacing and speed in the open floor.

We also saw Duke go with Goldwire and Roach on the floor at the same time. Goldwire’s ability to defend wing players really makes this lineup effective. Roach can hound the ballhandler and let Goldwire play the passing lanes.

As I expected, we saw both Roach and Goldwire pick up their men fullcourt. The Blue Devils were not very disciplined in passing-lane defense, but their pressure on the ball made it difficult for Coppin State to run its offensive sets.

Roach showed off his ability to get in the paint and consistently penetrate the defense. He did look a little sped up at times and not fully comfortable running the offense yet, but that was not too shocking given it was his first-ever collegiate game.

It was easy to tell that Duke’s pace wore down Coppin State. The Eagles looked tired at times, and the Blue Devils were able to take advantage of that, especially in transition.