Duke basketball (21-3, 13-1 ACC) bounced back on Wednesday night with a 78-57 home win over California (12-13, 5-9 ACC) following the program's first road and ACC loss of the season this past Saturday at Clemson (20-5, 12-2 ACC) by a score of 77-71.
Former five-star recruit and current freshman center Khaman Maluach put up some of the best numbers of his rookie season against the Golden Bears, tallying his fourth career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds on 4-of-8 shooting from the field.
It was Maluach's first game since January 15th in an 89-54 victory for the Blue Devils over Miami that Maluach has scored in double figures, and it looks like he's beginning to get more aggressive on the offensive side of the ball. Maluach also hit his second career three-point shot against California.
In his postgame press conference after the win over the Golden Bears, Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer gave praise to Maluach's development over the course of his freshman season and his improved assertiveness on both sides of the ball.
"He's as good as I've seen as a freshman of playing physical and knowing how to use his body. Usually that takes the longest for freshman big guys and he was naturally, he was coming in this summer and just hitting guys, because he likes contact. So, it starts there and then obviously he just has to learn how to do that and go straight up and go vertical, and he's a student of the game, so he's been able to grow as the season's gone along."
The seven-foot-two, 250-pound freshman has significantly improved in terms of his physicality inside. His instincts when going up to block shots have been much improved, and he's not getting into foul trouble much at all.
Outside of fouling out against Clemson on Saturday, Maluach has committed just one foul in each of the other four of Duke's last five games.
"I don't think his versatility get talked about enough," Scheyer later said. "It's because of him being so smart and such a great worker."
Maluach will hope to follow up from his double-double effort against the Golden Bears this Saturday (4:00pm ET, ABC), as the Blue Devils look to begin a new win streak after Clemson snapped a previous 16-game winning dash at home against Stanford (16-9, 8-6 ACC).