Yippee Ki‐Yay! Duke’s McCain Erupts For 35 Against Florida State

Good googledy goo! That was special.

On occasion we give great games nicknames. Think of Gone in 54 Seconds. Think of the Fred Lind game, the Austin Rivers game, the Laettner Shot, the Tre Jones game in Chapel Hill. We’d put the 2018 Duke-Kentucky game on that list as the Zion game too because that's when the rest of the basketball world began to understand what a profound force Zion Williamson was going to be.

Well, now you can add the Jared McCain game to that list.

McCain’s first half against Florida State was arguably the finest first half of offensive basketball at Duke we’ve seen since Williamson’s outburst against Kentucky and one of the best we’ve ever seen period. McCain torched Florida State so badly that the crowd began to cheer when he finally missed in Duke’s 76-67 win Saturday.

McCain finished the first half with 25 points, hitting 7-8 threes and 9-10 overall.

It was an astonishing performance, punctuated at the end of the half by a step-back three that was reminiscent of Dennis Scott’s outrageous Final Four shot against Shaquille O’ Neal’s LSU team (Scott had a clear path to the basket but opted for a three instead, which he nailed).

McCain was brilliant. He finished with 35 points, tying Williamson’s freshman scoring record, and finishing 8-11 on threes and 12-20 overall.

Good thing too, because Duke was without Tyrese Proctor. Remember when he hit the floor against Wake Forest Monday night?

Turns out he was diagnosed with a concussion and stayed home. As it turned out, no one else got to 50 percent shooting and the second leading scorer was Jeremy Roach with 16. No one else got to double figures.

Florida State started off hot, shooting 85 percent early before cooling down. The ‘Noles went up 14-8 before Duke hit four threes - one by Jeremy Roach and the rest by McCain - and Kyle Filipowski hit a pair of free throws - to put the Blue Devils up 22-16. Duke never blew Florida State out, but they never really got back into it, either. The fans spent most of their energy booing McCain who, as the announcers said, became a villain, and enjoyed it.

Duke’s ball handling probably suffered without Proctor, who is very steady in that department. Roach had four, McCain had five and Filipowski had six as the Blue Devils racked up 17.

A better team might have gutted Duke on three pointers of their own but the ‘Noles hit just 4-14. Toss in foul trouble for Baba Miller and Darin Green, 14 turnovers of their own and losing the boards to Duke (the Blue Devils had 15 offensive rebounds, which is pretty high of this team) and it wasn’t going to be an easy night for FSU.

Speaking of Green, we weren’t sure his technical was warranted. IF he had shoved the ball aggressively at McCain we could see that. On the other hand, there was some tension building and maybe the refs had just had enough.

Back to the Blue Devils.

As we said, Duke had some flaws here. Filipowski and Mark Mitchell had trouble getting the ball and missed some shots we thought they’d hit. Both shot 3-7. Filipowski had eight rebounds while Mitchell grabbed four.

Incidentally, ESPN totals offensive rebounds at 15 but the box score they list, unless it was updated, lists nine.

Caleb Foster, who has extensive experience as a starter now, only had one turnover. He made a couple of questionable decisions in this one, but they weren’t fatal. It was a growth opportunity for him and he took it. We’d like to see some more offensive production from him, but that’s not absolutely vital at this point. A steady hand at point is, and he’s doing a pretty decent job.

One more point about McCain. At the beginning of the season we said he was like a mix between Kobe Bryant and Jose Alvarado.

We’re not suggesting that he has Mamba-level talent, but as we’re seeing, more and more, he has a dog mentality. And he has that court awareness and cleverness that took Alvarado from an undrafted player to a key piece for the New Orleans Pelicans. He had three steals in this one, including two late when FSU could have conceivably rallied. Like we saw against Clemson, McCain’s defense at the end was vital to Duke’s success.

The downside?

After this game, he’s a marked man. No one is going to overlook him again.

However, that should change the game for everyone else as well because who are you going to double team? If you double-team McCain, Roach has a good chance at getting open. If you double Filipowksi, he’s such a good passer that he’ll make you pay and if you double team Mitchell, odds are Filipowski will be open. And unless Foster starts shooting more, there’s no real reason to double team him, but McCain’s stunner in Tallahassee makes a double team for Foster just foolish.

There are always a lot of ups and downs in a season (take Proctor’s concussion for instance), but what McCain did changes how you prep for Duke. How could it not?

Notes - the turnovers were a real concern in this one...part of that was Florida State, but part of it was just not seeing the court for the trees...we’ve seen this many times from Leonard Hamilton teams - they don’t always handle winning time well...in this one, the ‘Noles jacked up two very long panicked threes which in no way qualified as good shots...it negated some hard work they did to cut the lead down to a manageable level...

• HOT HAND: McCain ties single-game freshman points record as No. 9 Duke men’s basketball downs Florida State
• RECAP: FSU Basketball Falls, Jared McCain Ties Duke Freshman Record
• McCain’s Record Day Leads No. 9 Duke Over Florida State, 76-67
• Duke’s Jared McCain Explodes For Historic Performance At Florida State
• Oh my, McCain! Duke basketball freshman sets records. 3 takeaways from win at Florida State
• 5 observations from No. 9 Duke men’s basketball’s first half against Florida State
• BOX SCORE (PDF)
• POSTGAME NOTES (PDF)
• DUKE QUOTES (PDF)
• COACH SCHEYER PRESSER
• HIGHLIGHTS
• PHOTO GALLERY