NC State to battle deeper Duke squad
Duke has the ability to mix and match due to having a nine-man rotation.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts knows the Blue Devils could easily adapt their lineups due to their deep bench Wednesday at PNC Arena.
For instance, Northwestern center transfer Ryan Young could give the post spots a different look when he’s in the game. Young had a combined 30 points and 21 rebounds against Florida State and Wake Forest.
Sophomore wing Jaylen Blakes moved into the starting lineup in Duke’s win over Florida State, and creates a different dimension with his 42.4 percent three-point shooting. Blakes has scored 34 points and made 7 of 10 three-pointers in his last two games.
Freshman wing Dariq Whitehead was the Rivals.com No. 1 overall player in the class of 2022, but has battled some injuries with the Blue Devils. He gives Duke a slashing, athletic wing that is missing. He has scored 31 points over his last two healthy contests (he missed the Wake Forest loss).
Duke’s minor injuries this season has led to more experimentation with lineups.
“They are playing a lot of people,” Keatts said. “They have great depth. They got a two-headed monster at the five position. They can go two deep at every position.”
Duke’s ability to match young and old depending on the opponent, combined with great length of post players Young and freshmen Dereck Lively, Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell. Duke is a game where NC State knows it will miss the injured Dusan Mahorcic.
“They have great size,” Keatts said. “We won’t play many teams that have a 6-7 small forward and two 7-footers at the four and five.
"We thought we had it figured out [at center]. We thought we could play two centers [Mahorcic and D.J. Burns], who are completely different guys."
Keatts said he’ll know more about the changes new coach Jon Scheyer has put in after the game is played. He sees more set plays, but knows the talent level hasn’t dropped off with 11-3 Duke.
“You look at them, their roster, it’s one of the most talented rosters in the country,” said Keatts, who expects some to be in the NBA sooner rather than later.
The one major weakness could be outside shooting, but Blakes’ emergence the last two games has helped some in that regard. Duke is 11th in the ACC in three-point field-goal percentage (32.6) and eighth in the league in three-pointers made.
Conversely, NC State is fifth in the ACC at 35.1 percent and has a league-high 136 three-pointers made (in a league-high 388 attempts).
“He [Blakes] is making shots,” Keatts said. “Earlier in the year, I was able to catch a couple of games and they didn’t shoot the ball well. You look at what he did against Wake Forest, making shots, it changes them.”
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