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Next Up - SMU

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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 31: Isaiah Evans #3 and Maliq Brown #6 of the Duke Blue Devils look on during the game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at Cameron Indoor Stadium on December 31, 2024 in Durham, North Carolina. | Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The Mustangs present some interesting challenges and the energy at tip-off should be immense.

In its most recent expansion, the ACC took in Cal, Stanford and SMU. This was football-driven obviously but SMU made it clear they were not messing around. They basically paid the ACC the short-term TV money SMU would have gotten, fired their successful basketball coach and hired Andy Enfield away from USC.

That doesn’t even get into football, which was why the shotgun marriage happened in the first place, but SMU made the playoffs there, so things are going well for the Mustangs all around.

Enfield first came to our attention as a Florida State assistant when a reader pointed out something hilarious: FSU had a timeout and the ball and the team immediately huddled around Enfield. Where was Leonard Hamilton?

On the outside of the huddle looking in.

After that, he had a sensational turn at Florida Gulf Coast, creating Dunk City, and from there on to USC.

He’s long been regarded as an offensive guru - his work as a shot doctor got him assistant gigs with the Milwaukee Bucks and later the Boston Celtics, which is not where most young coaches break in.

Enfield did well at USC, but not great. His first two seasons were poor and his last season was a disappointment. Southern Cal is a tough job though because it is eternally in UCLA’s basketball shadow. Overall, he did well there.

After last season, he jumped at the SMU job because it was in the ACC and essentially a blank slate.

SMU has had some stretches where they were adequate, but it’s never been a premier program.

Enfield is good enough to change that.

In his first season, SMU is off to an 11-2 start. A lot of it is crap of course. Florida A&M, Prairie View, California Baptist, Alabama State - irrelevant (although Cal Baptist nearly pulled an upset). In the games that mattered, Butler won 81-70, Mississippi State won 84-79, while SMU beat Virginia 63-51 and LSU 74-64. Before the break, the Ponies took out BC 103-77.

After being hired, Enfield had to do a portal rebuild. The only players who came back were Chuck Harris, Keon Ambrose-Hylton and BJ Edwards.

Coming from the portal:

  • Kevin “Boopie” Miller, Wake Forest
  • Matt Cross, UMass
  • Yohan Traore, Santa Barbara
  • Tibet Gorener San Jose State
  • AJ George Long Beach State
  • Kario Oquendo, Oregon
  • Jerrell Colbert, Kansas State

And the freshman class:

  • Chance Puryear
  • Mitchell Holmes
  • Samet Yigitoglu

The starters are Miller, Edwards, Cross, Yigitoglu and Traore.

The rumblings out of Wake Forest after last season was that perhaps they misjudged Miller, that he might not be a winner. He’s doing well at SMU so far, averaging 15.4 points and 5.9 rebounds. He’s also sneaking in for 3.3 rebounds a game.

Cross, you may recall, started at Miami where he said he liked the idea of playing for an older coach.

Larranaga didn’t and dismissed him rather quickly, saying he couldn’t seem to get through to the kid.

Since then, Cross has played at Louisville and UMass. He’s carved out a nice role with SMU, but he also has had a back injury that has affected his productivity.

Edwards has retained a role, which doesn’t always happen when you get a new coach. He’s getting 27.2 minutes, second on the team behind Miller, and averaging 10.2 ppg, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

Traore is getting 12.2 ppg, 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

The really interesting question is Yigitoglu.

He’s 7-2 and Enfield raves about his potential. He apparently has great hands and has real potential. He’ll be an interesting challenge for Khaman Maluach and Maliq Brown. He has had a tendency to get into foul trouble though, picking up four in six of the last seven games.

So what’s going to happen?

Well, who knows? SMU is brand new in almost every sense and we have no idea what will happen. But we can see some things that allow an educated guess.

First, Enfield is an outstanding offensive coach. SMU is putting up 87.2 ppg and five guys are averaging in double figures. Two more are not far away at all.

SMU has smallish guards, which could be good or bad, but they actually match up fairly well size-wise in the frontcourt. Yigitoglu is of course 7-2 and Traore is 6-11. Cross and Kon Knueppel should be a fun matchup to watch.

Our guess is that Enfield will do what Mike Young did when Virginia Tech visited Durham and dare Duke to shoot from outside.

That worked for a while, but eventually Duke heated up and started hitting the threes.

And of course, this game could be billed as Enfield’s offense vs. Jon Scheyer’s defense. Duke has built a terrific defense. Out comes Maluach, in comes Brown. Knueppel is a sneaky good defender. And Flagg plays defense like a jazz musician, riffing on a theme and changing keys when he needs to guard a center for a minute before stepping out to confront a guard.

Duke’s guard troika of Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Caleb Foster are all excellent defenders. They should match up well with Edwards, but the small, very quick Miller could present problems. Last year in Winston-Salem he shot 4-8/2-3 and finished with 15 points including a killer late basket as Wake Forest upset Duke 83-79.

It won't surprise us is Isaiah Evans has a major role in this game.

Finally, keep this in mind: this is Duke’s first trip to Moody Coliseum. For Duke fans, it’s just another game. For SMU, it’s likely to be different. Remember Duke’s first trip to Syracuse? To Virginia Tech?

For us Duke Basketball is very familiar. We watch it closely, know the story lines and so forth.

For a team like SMU, for a fan base in that situation, it’s quite different. It’s hard to understand how Duke is perceived outside of our dark blue bubble. There’s a combination of Duke Hate and excitement of getting a crack at a team that’s been the dominant program in college basketball for a long time. UConn is the dominant program of the moment, but the Huskies still don’t draw the same level of attention (which is one reason why Danny Hurley really wants to play Duke).

In short, that arena is going to be electric and Duke will have to deal with it. If they wilt under pressure, it won’t go well.

We’ll add links as we find them.

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