NEW YORK – Remember those old Polaroid cameras people had in the 1970s and ‘80s? You would snap the photo and the picture would come out and you’d have to shake it really hard for like 20 seconds before the photo developed. (If you’re under 30, ask an old person about this).
As you were shaking the photo violently back and forth, the image would start to slowly come into focus. You’d get part of a person’s sleeve, maybe a little of their hair, until finally the whole picture would appear.
Well, the Duke men’s basketball team right now is like that Polaroid picture that’s just started to be shaken. The outlines are coming in, but it’s still blurry and we’re going to need some more time to see what it actually will become.
But damn if Tuesday night’s dominant 74-62 win over Iowa at Madison Square Garden wasn’t a blast of color into that picture.
This was as good as Duke has looked all season, maybe even better than the performance against Xavier.
This was a balanced, full-throttle Duke attack combined with a stifling defense that made you forget Hawkeyes star Kris Murray was even on the court at times (the Iowa star scored nine points, a dozen below his average.)
This was a performance even the most cynical Blue Devils fan had to enjoy, as it offered a tantalizing glimpse of what could be.
“This is such a special environment and I’m so proud of the buy-in of our guys tonight, and all season,” head coach Jon Scheyer said. “And now we get some practice time, which we really need.”
Every time the ball goes up, we learn more and more about this almost-entirely new cast of characters, with very little seeming to carry over from game to game.
Duke’s Dariq Whitehead drives against Iowa’s Payton Sandfort during Tuesday night’s game. (Brad Penner/USA Today Sports Images)
We know Kyle Filipowski is going to score and rebound. We know Dereck Lively II is going to block shots and deter a ton of others.
And we know Scheyer is going to play a much-deeper rotation that Mike Krzyzewski ever did.
But beyond that? Nobody really knows what the Blue Devils are going to be from night to night. It may take until Martin Luther King Jr. Day or thereabouts to see the clay of this 2022-23 team solidify into something recognizable and dependable.
What was new Tuesday night? Well, the Blue Devils hit their 3-pointers, that’s something we haven’t seen much. Dariq Whitehead, Tyrese Proctor, Jeremy Roach, they were all going through the twine in the first half, as the Blue Devils made 6 of 11 in the opening 20 minutes, before cooling off after halftime.
This is a team that came into the night 290th in the nation in 3-point percentage, and came out at MSG looking like vintage Duke shooting teams of the past.
The offense, which has looked disjointed and stagnant at times this year, looked as smooth as it has all year Tuesday night. With Proctor taking at least some of the ballhandling responsibilities and freeing Roach to shoot a little more, the Blue Devils’ offense looked like one that can do damage in March.
Roach has come so far as a shooter from where he was two years ago, and the “old man” of the team said having Proctor around makes his life easier.
“Tyrese is a great player, and he’s been a natural point his whole life,” Roach said. “(Him bringing the ball up) takes some stuff off my legs, and takes some stuff off my plate. I’m just thankful for him to be in the backcourt with me.”
Roach finished with a game-high 22 points, and looked so confident driving the ball that he was getting rave reviews from former teammates Trevor Keels and Mark Williams sitting courtside.
We also saw a more aggressive Whitehead on Tuesday night. Everyone’s impatient to see the No. 1 recruit in America look like the No. 1 recruit in America, and you can tell he’s getting there.
Whitehead drilled a 3-pointer at the 11:15 mark of first half, from the left side, and he made a few drives to the hoop Tuesday night that made you think he’s feeling much more like himself.
In the second half Whitehead took a pass on the right side just in front of the 3-point line, shuffled to the free throw line and swooped in past Murray for a beautiful left-handed drive, and an and one, and that may have been his best play in a Duke uniform.
“I thought Dariq made a big-time step tonight,” Scheyer said. “The way he rebounded the ball, his defense on Murray. He had three assists, and he could’ve easily had five or six. This next stretch for him, it’s going to be really important to get back into game shape.
“I give him a lot of credit, because it would’ve been very easy for him to wait and sit out, but he wanted to play, and he came back and played during our toughest stretch,” Scheyer said.
It’s not fair to say that Whitehead’s progression is the key to Duke’s season. But it’s clear that if he becomes what everyone thought he would be, this Blue Devils squad has Final Four potential.
Mark Mitchell continued to come on, scoring 17 points Tuesday, and showing he is as good a defender as Duke has had in a while. He and Whitehead disappeared Murray.
Everybody contributed something Tuesday night, which is how it’s going to be all year, one would think.
“These freshmen are sponges, they want to learn as much as they can,” Roach said. “They don’t have any egos; they don’t get mad about anything.”
Now after vanquishing Iowa, holding an offensive powerhouse to a score in the low 60s, the 9-2 Blue Devils get a whole lot of practice time together, with just three games between now and 2023.
“I’m proud of the effort, proud of the buy-in the guys have had. And we still have a lot of room to grow,” Scheyer said.
The Polaroid picture may still be a little fuzzy. But Tuesday night was one more piece of evidence that the photograph could be something special in March.
