At this point in the Duke basketball season, Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans need help.
Sometimes it comes from Caleb Foster and other times it comes from a combination of Pat Ngongba and Cayden Boozer, but the Blue Devils need Dame Sarr to figure things out.
There have been a handful of low points for the international freshman this season, like not making a field goal in an early season game against Western Carolina or going scoreless against Florida and being removed from the starting lineup, but it felt like New Years Eve might have been a new low.
Following an encouraging outing, despite the loss, against Texas Tech, Sarr and Duke entered an 11-day stretch without games due to the holidays and there was hope that he was beginning to put the pieces together.
Yet after the team returned, he went scoreless in a too close for comfort victory against Georgia Tech, playing only 16 minutes and missing all six shot attempts. It felt like it was back to square one with Sarr, but perhaps it was just a warmup to get reacclimated to things.
Since that point, Sarr has been effective in each of Duke’s next three games despite not posting eye-popping numbers.
Against Florida State he made 4-of-5 shot attempts and finished with 13 points, the most he had scored since a 19-point outing against Army.
His offensive numbers weren’t great against Louisville, but he impacted the game tremendously in the second half with his defense and helped shutdown a potent Cardinal offense.
And against SMU, he returned to the starting lineup and contributed a little bit of everything, making two 3-pointers and registering four steals in the victory.
It’s those signs of progress that Duke must cling to in the hope that Dame Sarr is able to scratch the ceiling of his potential this season and help players like Boozer and Evans shoulder the load for this team.
Wednesday night starts a very important two-game road trip for the Blue Devils in California, playing Cal and Stanford as no ACC team has ever swept a West Coast trip since the two joined the conference.
Tipoff between Duke and the Golden Bears is slated for 11:00 p.m. ET. (ACC Network) and Saturday’s game against Stanford will be at 6:00 p.m. ET (ACC Network).