Jon Scheyer has not made many poor decisions this season for the Duke basketball team but his choice to change the starting lineup prior to Saturday’s game against SMU was confusing.
The Blue Devils have been looking for a consistent fifth starter for most of the season and the Duke head coach opted to pull Cayden Boozer from the lineup in replace of Dame Sarr, who shined earlier in the week defensively against Louisville.
However, that was not the biggest surprise. He also yanked Patrick Ngongba, who struggled against the Cardinals but had been playing very well for a majority of the season, in favor of defensive guru Maliq Brown.
The changes were shocking since Duke had won four games in a row and the adjustments clearly did not work as SMU jumped out to an 11-0 lead before making his first substitution.
“Defense,” Scheyer said after the 82-75 victory of his reasoning for changing the starters.
“Yeah, defense from Dame and Maliq. Pat, obviously, is a big-time defender. Cayden has been a really good defender. Just trying to get a spark.”
Duke started the same five players – Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans, Dame Sarr, Cameron Boozer, and Pat Ngongba – for the first seven games of the season.
Then, for the next four games, Nik Khamenia replaced Sarr in the starting lineup while the other four players remained the same before Cayden Boozer ultimately bumped Khamenia out of the starting lineup for three games prior to the massive shake up.
“Cayden hasn't played as much with Pat and so we're trying to get some of the rotation in a better way. I mean, that's really what it comes down to. I think we're going to have a group that starts differently going forward,” Scheyer continued.
“I think we’re going to start differently in second halves. We have a different team. It's not a clear set five. I think that that’s a great part about this team, and then that is the thing we’ve got to figure out at the same time.”
Still, Duke started Boozer, Evans, Sarr, Boozer, and Brown in the second half.
Off the bench, Ngongba went for 17 points and five rebounds and Cayden Boozer chipped in 12 points, four assists, and two steals Duke outscored SMU by 13 points with Boozer on the floor and 11 points with Ngongba on the court – both of which led the team.
Given Duke’s up-and-down play as of late, it feels like Jon Scheyer is searching for answers on how to get his team to replicate the production they showed in the first two months of the season.