Okay, let's not get blasphemous. Duke defeated Columbia 86-43 last night at Cameron Indoor Stadium and although it was against a very inferior opponent, you have to feel good about the way they won the game. No player exceeded 27 minutes, which is obviously a departure away from the last two seasons. Also, you can't help but be impressed with the point disparity throughout the entire team. Brian Zoubek led the Blue Devils with 18 points and 6 rebounds in his first collegiate game while fellow freshmen Lance Thomas and Jon Sheyer both contributed 12 points respectively. In my season preview, I said the entire season would depend immensely on the development of the highly-tauted freshmen class and if Sunday is any indication of how these freshmen will play throughout the entire season, Duke will be a legitimate contender come March. Finally, Greg Paulus came back from his foot injury earlier than originally expected and dished out 7 assists, which is undoubtedly a good sign. Next up is Georgia Southern tomorrow night at Cameron Indoor and although they aren't the 1990 UNLV Runnin' Rebels, Duke needs to take them seriously since they put up a 116 spot on UC Davis last night. Look for Duke to win comfortably tomorrow and face Stanford in the CBE Semifinal on November 20th.
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Finally, Coach K doesn't have his stars playing 30-35 minutes in absolute blowouts like he did last year (Redick and Williams played entirely too many minutes in blowouts last year when Pocius could have been running the same cuts and screens as JJ).
Great win tonight not because of the outcome, but the balanced scoring and the very high FG percentage and very aggressive defensive play holding Columbia to 29% shooting.
Balanced scoring, bench contributions, Paulus back early ... all terrific signs.
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