Next Up - Wofford
As the Terriers come to Cameron
Date 11/16 || Time 12:00 Noon || Venue Basketball Paradise || Video ACCN
Next up for Duke is the Wofford Terriers, one of the great nicknames in college basketball. You got your Zips, your Zags, your Flyers and your Wonder Boys. The Terriers are right there.
The advantage that schools like Wofford used to have over schools like Duke is somewhat eroded now - the talent used to stay longer. With liberal transfer rules though, guys can just take off if they prove themselves underrated and move up a competitive level.
Even so, Wofford has its starting guards back and they’re seniors, Jackson Sivilis (6-6) and Corey Tripp (6-3). They both average about 12 ppg but Tripp is also pulling down three boards and handing out 4.3 apg.
Dillon Bailey, 6-3 and also a senior, get 11.7 ppg.
Kyler Filewich, a 6-9/250 lb. center out of Canada, is oh so close to averaging a double-double with 9.7 ppg and 10.7 rpg.
Jeremy Lorenz, a 6-8 freshman, is getting 9.7 ppg.
Woffford likes to move and they’re averaging 83 ppg. However, they’re not shooting all that well and they are turnover-prone. Those aren’t great traits.
As for Duke, the Blue Devils are coming off of a tough loss to Kentucky. There are reasons why it happened but ultimately the game was winnable, even late, and Duke didn’t get there.
But we saw the look on Cooper Flagg’s face as he left the floor. If you read the article we posted on ESPN recently, when he was 13, he was set up to play against an older, more experienced and stronger player who was asked to sort of rough the kid up a bit and see what he was made of. When it was over, Flagg told him “that’ll never happen again.”
Our guess is that trait will resurface.
Our other concern is about Sion James. He hurt his shoulder against Kentucky and Duke has been pretty quiet about it, so we’ll take that as hopefully a good sign.
And while we can’t be sure, we might get to see Patrick Ngongba a bit Saturday as well as his recovery progresses.
Mostly what we think we’ll see, regardless of who does or doesn’t play Saturday, is a bunch of angry Blue Devils. And that could be really interesting indeed.