Duke basketball is in the midst of a 14-game winning streak, improving to 18-2 overall and 10-0 in ACC play with a 74-64 home win over North Carolina State (9-11, 2-7 ACC) on Tuesday night.
Freshman phenom Cooper Flagg has continued to be outstanding, averaging 25.6 points, 7 rebounds, and 5.2 assists over the last six games for the Blue Devils, yet the last few contests have been a bit more stressful for the Blue Devils than the beginning of conference play.
Duke won its first eight games of ACC play by an average of 23 points, completely rolling through the rest of the conference. But over the last two games, Duke beat Wake Forest by 7 and NC State by 10, while scoring 63 and 74 points in those games respectively.
Some of the main scoring issues have come in the backcourt. Outside of Flagg, fellow freshman Kon Knueppel, and Sion James, the rest of the Blue Devil guards have found themselves in slumps.
After putting up the best numbers of his career over the first fifteen games of the season, junior Tyrese Proctor has lacked in scoring over the last five games. He tallied 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting against Boston College, but in the other four of Duke’s last five combined, Proctor has totaled 13 points, including a scoreless outing against Miami, while shooting 4-of-28 (14.3%) from the field in those four games.
But, Proctor is still a reliable piece and an experienced vet. He brings defense and passing and can still contribute to winning without necessarily scoring, although it can probably be expected that his scoring will bump back up as the season goes on.
Another backcourt piece, and one that’s probably been the biggest bust of any Blue Devil this season, is Caleb Foster. And it might be time he’s permanently swapped out for Isaiah Evans.
Foster has had a difficult time bringing anything to Duke’s offense this season as a sophomore, averaging 5.6 points and 1.6 assists on 38.8% shooting from the field and 30% shooting from three.
His minutes have began to dwindle since the new year’s beginning, as he’s totaled 20 points in Duke’s seven games combined since January 1st, with four of those contests being scoreless.
In that span, he’s 7-of-20 (35%) from the field, but totaled all of those makes in two games. He didn’t make a single shot in any of the other five.
The other Blue Devil reserve guard that’s seen few minutes as of late is Evans, but it’s a bit confusing why.
Evans has established himself as one of the best shooters in the ACC, if not the nation, when he started to get consistent minutes after Duke’s win versus #1 Auburn when Evans scored 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting from three all in the first half.
Since that game on December 5th, Evans has seen pretty consistent time. In the eight games since December 5th that Evans has seen double digit minutes in, he’s averaging 8.7 points on 19-of-41 (46.3%) shooting from three point range. In the four games he’s played less than ten minutes, he hasn’t scored a point.
Two of the games he’s seen less than ten minutes have been Duke’s last two games against Wake Forest and NC State. After scoring 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting and 4-of-9 shooting from three in 21 minutes of action against Boston College, Evans has played a total of seven minutes in Duke’s two matchups after that and didn’t score at all.
Whenever Evans has gotten an opportunity to shine, he’s excelled. He’s a high-energy guy with electric three-point shooting ability and solid defensive instincts on the perimeter. But his sheer presence alone is enough to make him a threat and take some pressure off of Flagg, Proctor, or Knueppel on the perimeter.
As for Foster, he just hasn’t found his footing this season and has almost been unplayable. Despite the Blue Devils contining to stack wins in a weak ACC, these contests are becoming much closer than they need to be. The #2 team in the country has no business being down double digits and needing a comeback effort in the second half at home against a Wolfpack team that’s 2-7 in the ACC. This is why a change needs to be made.
Only time will tell if head coach Jon Scheyer continues to shift around the rotation, but it feels important to do so now with North Carolina (13-9, 6-4 ACC) coming to Cameron Indoor this Saturday (6:30pm ET, ESPN).
