By: Ben McCormick
November 17, 2022
After losing his first game as head coach on Tuesday night against No. 6 Kansas, Jon Scheyer and his young Blue Devils will try to bounce back against the Delaware Blue Hens (1-1), the defending champion of the CAA.
To start the season, Duke has been led in scoring by junior captain Jeremy Roach and freshman Kyle Filipowski, who both average 14 PPG through three contests. The pair were the only two Blue Devils to score 10+ against the Jayhawks; Roach had 16 and Filipowski had 17.
Duke struggled to get into their half court offense against Kansas, and when they did they often drove recklessly, leading to I'll advised shots and offensive fouls early. Still, the Blue Devils fought back and led for much of the second half thanks to stellar play from Filipowski and freshman Tyrese Proctor.
A run by the Jayhawks in the final three minutes proved to much for the young Blue Devils as they picked up their first loss, 69-64.
So far Duke has been a good passing team, although it's assist numbers took a hit in Tuesday's game (17.5 APG coming into the game, just 8 that night).
One area in which Duke has dominated has been on the offensive glass. Duke outrebohdned the Jayhawks on Tuesday, and they rank third in the nation in offensive rebounds per game thus far with 19 per game. Filipowski himself pulled down 6 versus KU en route to 14 boards on the game. The freshman has collected 36 rebounds through his first three games, the most of any Duke player through his first three career games. He is the only freshman to record three double-doubles to start his career as well.
Duke now looks to bounce back against the reigning CAA champions Delaware.
How good is Delaware?
The Fightin' Blue Hens made the NCAA Tournament last season as a 15-seed before dropping to Villanova, who later made it to the Final Four.
So far this season, Delaware is 1-1 with a win over Wilmington (Del.) 78-54, and a 75-71 loss to Air Force.
The Blue Hens leading scorer is Jameer Nelson Jr., the son of the former NBA player and Bob Cousy award winner at St. Joseph's whom he is named after. Nelson averages 18 PPG on the season. Sophomore Jyare Davis has been an offensive force for Delaware as well, averaging 17.5 PPG through two games. Davis is also the tallest rotational player for Delaware at 6'7'. That should prove to be a major obstacle for the Blue Hens as Duke boasts an arsenal of big men in the paint.
ESPN's analytics give Duke nearly a 90% chance to win the game.
Injury Updates
Dariq Whitehead is still not back for Duke, and despite the fact that he dressed out for the first time against Kansas, he did not play. Jon Scheyer said that he likely would not make his debut on Friday either, saying that Whitehead still has work to do. The hope is that Whitehead may debut against Bellarmine on Monday Nov. 21 before the Blue Devils travel to Portland next week for the PK85, but it is still unclear whether that will come to fruition.
What time/channel is the game on?
The game will be at Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7 p.m. on RSN (regional sports network).
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