The Duke basketball team is hoping to be a deeper squad this season when healthy.
The mix of returning players plus a loaded recruiting class has many dreaming big despite the departure of the entire starting five from last season, including No. 1 overall pick and National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg.
Hope grew even more when the Blue Devils took the court for the first time this season on Tuesday night in an exhibition game against UCF despite not having freshman guard Dame Sarr (oblique) and senior center Maliq Brown (knee).
After a hot start and shaky end to the first half, Duke put together a strong second half enroute to a 25-point victory, but it was the individual performances of a handful of players that shined the brightest.
Most people will talk about the 33-point, 12-rebound, 4-assist night from Cameron Boozer as the most impressive stat line of the evening but the development of sophomore guard Darren Harris might have even been bigger for the Blue Devil coaching staff to witness.
After a freshman season in which Harris rarely got off the bench in big moments, he opted to remain at Duke for his sophomore campaign and reshaped his body during the offseason with the intent to create a major role on the team.
Darren Harris impressed during a controlled scrimmage during Duke’s Countdown to Craziness, but against the Knights was the first chance to show everyone what he had been working on, and he did not disappoint.
The Virginia native finished with 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting, 1-of-3 from 3-point range, while adding six rebounds and two assists. Harris had not recorded more than four rebounds in a game last season and his offensive skillset look much more refined and decisive.
With Sarr out of the lineup, Harris logged 19 minutes in the game and it remains to be seen how much his eventual return will impact the sophomore’s time on the court, but if he continues to score and impact the game in multiple ways he will certainly have a role on this team.