Duke is starting to gel thanks to its potent young backcourt

Duke came into the season ranked fifth in the country, complete with a world of expectations and the title of defending national champions.

It didn’t matter that this is a young team, led mainly by freshmen and sophomores. It didn’t matter that three players from last year’s title squad were taken in the first round of the NBA Draft. This is Duke and Duke is supposed to win.

That’s why it felt strange on Friday when the Blue Devils flirted with their second straight loss, this time against VCU in the 2K Sports Classic in New York. They were down six in the second half, and at that point, head coach Mike Krzyzewski acknowledged things could have slipped away.

Despite a career-high 30 points from sophomore Grayson Allen and 19 points from freshman Derryck Thornton in his first-ever start, Duke was never able to overpower VCU with offense. Instead, it used its defense to stifle the Rams and turn that deficit into a 79-71 win.

As the teams were leaving the court and ready to exchange handshakes, Krzyzewski pulled Thornton aside to congratulate him.

“He’s earning the respect and even more confidence of his teammates,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not just being a point guard. It’s not being afraid.”

Thornton’s play was representative of Duke as a whole on Friday. He was aggressive. He was smart. More importantly, over the last 10 minutes of the game, there was never any indication that he was as inexperienced as he really is.

“We are very much developing into a team,” Krzyzewski said. “Our guys were terrific. It wasn’t coaching or anything like that. It was them. They have it in them.”

Krzyzewski’s statement sounds like it could just be coach-speak, and there’s certainly a long road ahead before these Blue Devils look anything like a vintage Duke team. But that doesn’t necessarily mean fans in Durham are in for a down year.

VCU is not Kentucky, who handled Duke earlier in the week, but Thornton played about the same amount of time in both games. On Friday, he scored 12 more points and turned the ball over two fewer times. Allen responded to the most disappointing game of his career with perhaps his best on Friday.

The Kentucky game was a learning experience for Allen, who as a sophomore, is being thrust into a leadership role on a young team.

“That was a rough film session,” he said. “We talked about the improvements that needed to be made. You move on to the next game.”

By moving on, Allen had to accept that Thornton would start Friday in his spot, which the guard said did not bother him. By moving on, Allen needed to answer the challenges Krzyzewski threw at him in practice this week. He did that and more. The difference for Allen between the two games, Krzyzewski says, was simple:

“He was driving to score, not to get a shot off,” the coach said.

That means Allen played through contact rather than let the defense dictate his style of play. That resulted in a fearless attitude, that at times, made for entertaining basketball.

There was one play at the end of the first half where he pulled off an ankle-breaking fake-out of his defender, then drove in for an easy layup.

Then there was freshman Brandon Ingram, who lit up Siena and Bryant to start the year, but disappeared against Kentucky and missed key free throws down the stretch on Friday.

That didn’t faze him. Krzyzewski praised Ingram after the game for brushing off those misses and grabbing key rebounds in the final minutes. His stat line doesn’t look pretty, but those small moments contributed to the win.

All together, it was an improvement for the imperfect Blue Devils. Krzyzewski hasn’t had to deal with molding such a young team in a while, but he hopes they can take that next step on Sunday against Georgetown in the 2K Classic final.

“We aren’t as good as we will be,” he said. “But we have to go through all these experiences. If we can play well against Georgetown on Sunday, that would be a heck of an accomplishment for this team.”