By: Ben McCormick
November 24, 2022
Thanksgiving was supposed to provide an easy start to the PK85. But the young Blue Devils learned that you can never take anyone for granted in college basketball. Duke won, but just barely over the KenPom 243rd ranked Oregon State Beavers Thursday. Now they find themselves face-to-face with a much tougher foe: the Xavier Musketeers.
First of all, to say the shooting was off Thursday would be quite the understatement. Per Brendan Marks of The Athletic, Duke's abysmal 26.7 percent shooting from the floor is the lowest mark in a win in program history. Wow. He went on to add that this game marked just the fourth time the team had ever won a game when shooting under 30 percent from the floor.
Duke's guard play left much to be desired. Team captain Jeremy Roach recorded just 7 points on poor shooting. Tyrese Proctor followed up a 2 of 9 three-point shooting display against Bellarmine with a 1 of 6 display against the Beavers. Dariq Whitehead scored a career best 7 points, which was good for the third highest total of any player on the team.
It is hard to imagine that Duke only won a game over the 243rd ranked team by KenPom by three points, espcially when that team only scored 51 points.
The silver lining for the night was the inside duo of Kyle Filipowski and Ryan Young. Duke shot about 13 percent worse from the floor than Oregon State did. However, Duke attempted 17 more field goals on the game than OSU. Filipowski scored 19 points and collected 14 rebounds. Young scored 11 points and grabbed a career best 15 boards. The pair combined for 30 of Duke's 54 points and collected nearly just as many rebounds with a whopping 29. If it weren't for the pair of bigs, this game would have gone much differently for Duke.
What makes Xavier challenging?
Former Arizona head coach, Sean Miller, is now at the helm for Xavier. The Musketeers started the season off 3-0 before hosting No. 11 Indiana last Friday Nov. 18. They fell 81-79 in a hard fought battle. It is for this reason that they cannot be taken lightly.
Coming into the PK85, the Musketeers were led in scoring by senior seven-footer Jack Nunge with 17 PPG. Senior forward Zach Freemantle leads the team in rebounding and assists (over seven boards and just at five assists per game), while averaging 15.5 PPG. Needless to say, this matchup would provide some challenges for the young Blue Devils defensively in the paint. Dereck Lively, Young, and Filipowski would really be pushed against the Musketeers formidable frontcourt.
Xavier defeated Florida 90-83 on Thursday, and it was actually their guards Souley Boum and Colby Jones who led the way with 22 points each.
If Duke wants to advance to the championship game on Sunday, they are going to need to really step up their game on Friday.
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