DURHAM, N.C. — On a night when the rookie head coach started a new era, Duke’s most experienced player made sure it was a successful start Monday.
Jeremy Roach, the lone returning starter from Duke’s Final Four team, scored 16 points, all in the first half, helping the Blue Devils to a 71-44 win over Jacksonville in Jon Scheyer’s first game as head coach.
The point guard and team captain on Duke’s 2010 NCAA championship team, Scheyer was named Mike Krzyzewski’s successor when the Hall of Fame coach announced in June 2021 he’d retire following the 2021-22 season.
After 18 months of preparing, Scheyer finally walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium and across Coach K Court to sit in the third chair of the Duke bench as the head coach.
He promised the Blue Devils would compete as hard as they did under Krzyzewski, and pledged defense would be the foundation.
The defense indeed was a strength as Jacksonville shot 34% from the field, including hitting only 13.6 percent (3 of 22) of its 3-pointers.
The Blue Devils (1-0) won despite playing without two of their top freshmen players, 7-1 center Dereck Lively and 6-6 forward Dariq Whitehead. Both players are recovering from injuries and were on the bench in street clothes.
Freshman forward Mark Mitchell led Duke with 18 points.
Duke built a 42-26 halftime lead by closing the first half with a 14-2 run. Roach and Kyle Filipowski hit 3-pointers in the final minute before halftime to boost the lead to a comfortable margin.
Here’s what we learned from Duke’s season-opening win:
Roach leads the way
It wasn’t just how Roach paced the Duke scoring attack, it was how he did it.
The 6-2 junior is the team’s lone captain this season, which makes sense because the roster is almost entirely new. Thus, he’s the guy everyone else looks upon to get things going.
Roach certainly did that, particularly in the first half. He drove the ball aggressively. He took open shots with confidence. He guarded fiercely.
Roach hit six of nine shots, including four of his seven 3-pointers. He grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists.
In the first half alone, he made six of seven in the first half including four of five 3-pointers to score 16 points.
Ball movement a strength
Duke did an exceptional job making the extra pass, both in half-court situations and in transition, to maximize scoring opportunities.
The Blue Devils collected assists on 70% of their made field goals, collecting 19 on 27 made shots.
The 6-6 Jacob Grandison, a graduate transfer from Illinois, led the team with five assists while Roach had four and Filipowski three.
Blakes makes his mark
After appearing in just 21 games and never scoring more than three points in any of them last season, Jaylen Blakes came off the bench to spell cold-shooting freshman Tyrese Proctor and contributed greatly to Duke’s win.
The 6-2 sophomore guard hit 2 of 3 shots, all 3-pointers, to score eight points with a steal and an assist.
His scoring impact came during the first half. With Duke up 15-10, Blakes entered the game, hit an open 3-pointer and recorded a steal on the defensive end. With 10:56 left until halftime, Blakes hit another 3-pointer giving Duke an 18-10 lead.
Proctor started in the backcourt along with Roach. But the 6-5 freshman from Australia missed all six of his shots, including four 3-pointers, to score two points on a pair of free throws while committing two turnovers.
Blakes picked up the slack in his 15 minutes of play.
