The most productive component of Duke’s basketball team this season has put up a stat line that should have NBA scouts salivating.
As if the 23 points per game scoring average weren’t enough. This Blue Devil hits 8 of 15 shots a night, 2 of 7 from three, 6 of 8 from the free throw line. He also averages eight rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.9 blocked shots.
He also turns in an average of 44 minutes per game, and he is not a twin, nor did his father play for Duke.
While Cameron Boozer is putting together an ACC Player of the Year caliber season and stating a case that he’s the best freshman in the nation, the most productive piece of the Duke lineup is the improvement of the returning players in the lineup.
Isaiah Evans, Patrick Ngongba, Caleb Foster, Maliq Brown and Darren Harris spent last season as understudies to the NBA bound Blue Devils. Evans was Duke’s sixth man and best three-point shooter, with a percentage even higher than Kon Knueppel. Foster was seventh in the rotation, which meant getting little or no minutes one night, and a spot in the regular rotation the next, depending on matchups and other coaching strategies. Ngongba developed into a 10-minute a night player and valuable inside presence by tournament time. The veteran Brown battled injury but provided defensive clamps and size. Harris spent much of his freshman year watching the action but showed he had a promising outside shot.
As a group, they made the most of their minutes behind Knueppel, top draft pick Cooper Flagg, and the rest of the stars of the Final Four team. Then, unlike … basically every other college athlete these days, the five all decided to forgo the transfer portal and return to Duke. That gives Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils the old school benefit of player improvement, a throwback to the days when coaches said the biggest jump a player made was from year one to year two.
This year, the five returnees have seen their minutes jump from 60 per game put to 104.5, and the improvement in their stat lines has given Scheyer the equivalent of adding an NBA lottery pick to the lineup.
Evans and Foster have started every game this season. Ngongba all but one. They rank two, three and four on the team in scoring, behind Boozer. Ngongba leads the team in blocks an is second in rebounding. Foster and Ngongba are two-three in assists.
Healthy this year, Brown is still a defensive stopper, and even Harris, ninth in the rotation, has seen a hike in playing time and production.
The contributions of the team means that Duke has one of the most talented benches in college basketball in what arrived on campus last summer as part of the nation’s top freshman class.
Boozer has emerged as a legitimate superstar and is coming closer than most expected to filling the shoes left by Flagg.
“Cam is never satisfied,” Scheyer said after a 32-point, nine-rebound, 4-assist night against Wake Forest that earned Boozer his eighth ACC Rookie of the Week award. “I think that’s a great thing about him. He will always find something from tonight’s game where he’s pissed at what didn’t do as well. … That is what makes him special. He’s wired, where he’s all about his teammates. He’s not about numbers. He’s about winning. I think when your best player’s that way, it becomes contagious and has a big effect on the rest of the group.”
The others in the freshman class are filling the roles played by Evans, Ngongba and company last year—playing tambourine, supporting the key players and waiting for their opportunity. That includes a pair of McDonald’s All-Americans in Cayden Boozer (Cam’s twin) and Nik Khamenia, as well as highly rated European veteran Dame Sarr.
Khamenia had one of those games that Evans turned in at times last season, shining once Scheyer called his number. He scored 14 second-half points against No. 20 Louisville—Duke’s seventh win this season over a ranked foe. The explosion included three shots from three-point land, as well as a breakaway dunk.
“He’s still in rare air in terms of making an impact on one of the best teams in the country,” Scheyer said. “But you’re going to go through your moments of ups and downs, and I think he’s figuring out how to be really successful in college and how to adjust in certain areas, but also how to have that belief in yourself still.”
And if you do that, at least in Durham, you might help next year’s Duke team create the equivalent of another NBA prospect out of thin air.
