I was fortunate enough to get to attend Duke's practice this afternoon, thanks to my brother who hooked me up. I'll give a player by player rundown in a moment, but first, it's always impressive to see how well Duke's practices are run. We were there as part of the Inside Duke Basketball event put on by the Emily K Center. As we entered we were handed a practice plan, and players slowly trickled in and started individual work.
As practice continued the team quickly transitioned from 5 on 0 offensive drills, to transition drills, 2 on 2 contesting drills, closeouts, blockouts, etc. The focus on defense was apparent, and clearly Krzyzewski was hardest on his 4 freshmen on defensive positioning.
My favorite drill of the day was what was labeled "Defensive Games" on the practice plan. The game consisted of one group of 5 getting the ball every time. The goal is to score, every bucket worth 1 pt and an offensive rebound is also worth 1 pt. On defense, you can also earn a point with a steal, defensive rebound, or 2 pts for drawing a charge. The game went to 5, I believe and then the two teams switched. It ended up being a very intense drill.
Easily my favorite moment of the practice came during a closeout drill when the Duke players hadn't contested shots or recovered as quickly as the coaches thought they should. At that point, Krzyzewski preached to his team for about 2 minutes about competing in the drills. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure anybody in the gym would've run through a wall for K after that 2 minutes.
White Jerseys
The white team (or first team) to start practice was Tyus Jones, Matt Jones, Justise Winslow, Amile Jefferson, and Jahlil Okafor. About a third of the way through practice, Winslow switched to blue and Grayson Allen put on the white jersey. About two-thirds through practice, Quinn Cook put on a white jersey and Matt Jones switched to blue.
Quinn Cook
He was easily the best shooter during the practice. He finished at the rim nicely, but its worth nothing that when he and Jones played together, Jones was clearly the point guard. One thing that should ease the minds of Duke fans is how Cook was working with Jones. In one particular case, Jones wasn't in the correct place on offense. After the coaches corrected Jones, Cook followed up by walking to him, pointing the proper place to which Jones nodded. It may be a small thing, but Cook acted like a captain in that situation.
Tyus Jones
Jones was pretty quiet throughout practice, both verbally and in terms of performance. He didn't shoot particularly well but he did handle the ball well and finished at the rim on a couple occasions. It seemed like Jones was tired late in practice though which resulted in at least one turnover during the scrimmage.
Matt Jones
Matt Jones knocked down the corner 3 on multiple occasions, and the defense was really good. He was the first guy to dive for a ball in practice, and Coach K noticed it and pointed it out. Jones was lauded for his talking on a couple occasions.
Rasheed Sulaimon
Nobody played harder during the practice than Sulaimon. He was arguably one of the 3 best players on the floor. Interestingly enough though, Sulaimon never put on the white jersey. I felt he excelled the most when playing point for the blue team. He pressured the ball extremely well and got to the rim at will on the offensive end.
In the scrimmage Sulaimon showed his knack for making the big play once again. With the white team up 2 with the ball, the blue team forced a 5 second call. On the following possession, Sulaimon hit a 3 to give the Blue team a 1 point lead.
Grayson Allen
Grayson Allen was pretty impressive on the offensive end, knocking down 3's, throwing down some impressive dunks, and showing a better mid-range game than I had seen from him previously. Defensively, Allen seemed to be a target of the Blue team in the scrimmage. Sulaimon's go-ahead 3 was hit over Allen on an isolation play. Allen had the last laugh though, making the big play of the practice-ending scrimmage. Allen answered with a beautiful left handed floater to give the white team the win.
Justise Winslow
Winslow was quiet early in practice, but at some point woke up and dominated a stretch during the scrimmage. Winslow is definitely one of those guys that can turn a defensive rebound into a layup at the other end. The jumper was inconsistent, but the defense was solid and the ball handling is better than I expected. Winslow does appear to have a quiet humor to him, showing a wry smile when flopping trying to draw an offensive foul on Okafor and also when he tried to dunk on Amile Jefferson.
Jahlil Okafor
He's as good as advertised. The two most impressive things about Okafor is the quickness of his feet and how soft his hands are. If the ball hits his hands, he'll catch it. The quick spin moves in the post are fairly unstoppable. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Okafor passed out of the post. On more than one occasion, Okafor hit a cutting Jefferson for an easy layup. While Okafor rebounds well on balls in his area, he's not exactly an out of area rebounder at this point. Defensive positioning was talked about on more than one occasion with Okafor, as he wasn't cutting off the baseline as he should've been.
Amile Jefferson
If I'm handing out superlatives, Jefferson talked the most. Like, a lot. In the scrimmage that ended the practice, Jefferson switched out on Ojeleye, yelling SWITCH, SWITCH ... TRAVEL! TRAVEL! ... TURNOVER!!!. Jefferson is clearly an anchor for the Duke defense, but not necessarily in anything that stands out in the box score.
Marshall Plumlee
Plumlee is an big, athletic dude, but showed zero touch around the rim. Even in pre-practice individual work, Plumlee wasn't effective unguarded making 5 foot hook shots with either hand. It's frustrating to see, because the guy has all the tools to be a star. That said, Plumlee can really rebound and block shots. He had a nice follow-up dunk in the scrimmage and it seemed like every rebound came his way.
Semi Ojeleye
If I had to guess, Ojeleye looks a bit taller than I remember and he is one strong man. Ojeleye practiced with the "bigs" the entire practice. At one point, Krzyzewksi was frustrated with Ojeleye's positioning and stature and commented that he was the best athlete on the team, but unwilling to use it because he's not ready. On the positive side, Ojeleye knocked down numerous open 3's during the practice.
Sean Obi
Big dude, but barely participated during practice.
Sean Kelly, Nick Pagliuca
Two walk-ons that did whatever the coaches asked.
