Duke basketball: An offensively tough night but no need to panic

The Duke basketball team did not put its best offensive foot forward against Kansas. 

In the first real test of the season for the Duke basketball, a combination of offensive fouls and inexcusable turnovers towards the end of the game handed Jon Scheyer his first loss as the program’s head coach.

Kansas got off to a hot start running Duke through their offensive paces with a few actions that really tripped Duke up, including sideline dribble hand-offs and a top of the key weave action with a middle ball screen that Duke didn’t figure out until midway through the first half.

Duke had to make a few lineup adjustments, albeit ultimately not enough to be able to guard this small and quick Jayhawk team.

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Although I’m a huge fan of what Ryan Young can bring to this team, this was not a great matchup night for him and he probably needed to see less minutes.

The Kansas hot start was helped by six offensive foul calls, with at least half of them being extremely questionable which put a halt on any Duke momentum.

However, even though Duke was down 11 points early they managed to crawl back into the game with some defensive stops and good drives resulting in getting to the free throw line.

Duke ended up 13-for-16 from the stripe, another positive takeaway from this game.

It remains to be seen if you can attribute Duke for being resilient and mounting a strong come back or Kansas’s non-ability to close the game out early for the Blue Devil comeback.

No need to panic on Duke basketball yet

Many Duke fans have already hit the panic button, which is laughable, but here is why there is zero reason to panic.

Tyrese Proctor had himself a bit of a breakout game, one that everyone was waiting for. Think back to last year when Trevor Keels had a huge game in the Champions Classic against Kentucky.

The more he is able to handle the ball and run offense, the more that frees up Jeremy Roach from shouldering that entire responsibility.

Part of the reason Roach was so successful during last year’s NCAA Tournament was because of how he and his teammates were playing. Guarding Duke became almost impossible last postseason and Roach took advantage of that with his shot making ability and aggressiveness.

More reason not to panic, Kyle Filipowski is here!

An absolute statement game by Filipowski including making Duke freshmen history as the only player to start the season with three consecutive double-doubles.

Let that sink in. Not Zion Williamson, Marvin Bagley, or Paolo Banchero. Only Kyle Filipowski.

Overall, Duke will be fine and Scheyer’s message after the game was spot on, “It hurts, that’s how it should feel.”

Eight assists and 18 turnovers is not a recipe for beating the defending National Champions on a neutral floor and Duke had many errors down the stretch that ended up costing them.

But remember, Duke is missing the No. 2 recruit in the country, Dariq Whitehead.

The sky is not falling, deep breaths. See you in Cameron on Friday (7:00p.m., RSN).