5 confounding observations as sloppy Duke rolls past Army in season opener

Duke couldn't have asked for a better start on Monday night against Army. Through the first four minutes, the Blue Devils led 12-0 and were 6-of-6 from the floor while the Black Knights were 0-5. From there, it was a mostly frustrating evening in Cameron Indoor.

Duke struggled to break the Army zone defense, and after a perfect 7-of-7 start from the field, the Blue Devils hit just 5-of-20 to close out the first half and led 33-18 at halftime.

It wasn't all bad. Duke still won the game by 34 points. But this is a team with national title aspirations, and they're going to have to play a lot better than we saw on Monday night.

The good news is, we know they can. We all witnessed it during the three-game exhibition slate.

They'll play better going forward.

Dame Sarr finished as the leading scorer for Duke with 16 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor nd 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje scored 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds with 3 blocked shots in his debut.

Here are our biggest takeaways from the opener:

1. Duke struggled to find answers against Army's zone, and that's troubling

The game turned early when Army flipped from man-to-man defense to a zone. That move confounded the Blue Devils and forced some unforced errors and a whole lot of sloppy play on the offensive end.

Duke ran some good actions here and there to get easy buckets, but for the most part, they looked like a team that was mostly uninterested in working hard to find buckets. As a result, they didn't find as many as they should've.

Jon Scheyer will harp on that moving forward because Duke is sure to see a lot more zone looks throughout the season.

2. Duke's defense was suffocating

While the offense struggled for large stretches, the defense looked outright dominant for the majority of the evening in Durham. The paint was closed with Duke's size and length on the interior.

Duke ultimately held Army to 35% from the floor and 27% from three. They also forced the Black Knights into 24 turnovers.

You know the cure for a struggling offense? Forcing turnovers and getting easy buckets in transition. Duke scored 29 fast-break points, all courtesy of their defense.

3. There's no reason to panic about Duke's 3-point shooting struggles.

Part of the reason Duke struggled so much for stretches on offense is that they just couldn't find their stroke from the outside. Duke didn't hit a three against Army until the 16:37 mark of the second half when Cayden Boozer saw one fall. The Blue Devils missed 10 in a row before that.

For the game, Duke finished just 4-of-22 from three, good for an 18% clip.

One off shooting night isn't a reason to panic, though. It happens to the best of them. Guys like John Blackwell aren't going to continuously miss open looks. And Duke got plenty of good looks from long range. They just couldn't get them to fall consistently.

4. John Blackwell's forgettable Duke debut is no reason for concern, either

When Blackwell committed to Duke out of the Transfer Portal from Wisconsin, he probably had an idea of how his regular-season debut would go at Cameron Indoor.

It certainly isn't how it actually turned out.

Blackwell was held scoreless for the first 32 minutes of action, finally knocking down a corner three-pointer with eight minutes to play. He finished with just 3 points and 4 turnovers on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from three.

There will be better nights ahead for the former Badgers star.

5. Duke's freshman class is full of ridiculous athletes

This isn't new information, but man, it was fun to see the freshman class get some opportunities in the open floor to show off their athleticism.

Boumtje Boumtje got things started with an alley-oop early from Cayden Boozer:

Boumtje Boumtje also had a windmill dunk in transition in the second half.

Deron Rippey one-upped him with a ridiculous one-handed put-back dunk off a missed jumper by Patrick Ngongba:

Cameron Williams caught an alley-oop where his head nearly hit the rim (haven't seen a clip of this one yet), and then Bryson Howard had his opportunity on a breakaway to flex his muscles:

It's going to be a fun group to watch this year.

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