Duke Gets By Coppin State, 81-71

But those turnovers...

Duke beat Coppin State in its delayed season opener, 81-71 on Saturday and found a couple of star freshmen.

Or at least a couple of freshmen had star turns.

Start with DJ Steward as Duke’s young guard led Duke with 24 points off the bench on 10-18 from the floor and showed a lot of heart: at one point, after a turnover, he chased his man down and just took the ball back.

But the best debut was by Jalen Johnson who shot -8-8, 1-1 from the line for a total of 19 points, then matched his points with a monstrous 19 rebounds which might be a record for a freshman debut and possibly a freshman record period. He also had five assists and four He was superb overall.

One major flaw: he had seven turnovers.

He’s not alone in that though: Duke had a total of 22 turnovers which you can be sure will be discussed tomorrow and over the next several days.

There’s a lot to unpack here so Jim will be along later with his take.