[ad_1]
Almost all of Duke's conversations since Wednesday night are about Zion Williamson and whether the No. 1 presumed choice of the NBA in 2019 should once again play college basketball. It did not matter that the crowd "at the stop" could barely collect a single sore spot. The conversation has always raged on all sports radio and television stations in the country.
Meanwhile, Duke was preparing to play without his star.
And while it would be wrong to suggest that the first-ranked Blue Devils looked good on Saturday in a 75-65 win over Syracuse in Carrier Dome, the game nonetheless recalled that Duke still had a healthy player. N ° 2 pick in the NBA 2019 project. And he looked at the part in this one.
"It was all about our team," said RJ Barrett when Maria Taylor of ESPN asked him if he thought he needed to do more in the absence of Williamson.
That was a good answer, I guess.
But "all of Duke's team" has not really progressed.
Cam Reddish took 11 shots and missed nine. Tre Jones took 12 shots and missed 10. If anything, they resigned. But Barrett was undeniably great. The six-foot-seven rookie took 20 shots, made 14 shots and finished with 30 points, seven assists and five rebounds. It was his second consecutive game of 30 points – and his sixth of the season – which means Barrett needed just one more point to equal Marvin Bagley's record a year ago for most Duke's 30-point games in first year in one season. .
Think about it.
Bagley did things last season that no other freshman Duke had done yet. Now, Barrett is about to beat at least one of those records. And he's not even the best freshman in the Duke team!
It's still Zion, of course.
And yells at Barrett for providing a quote that will hopefully soothe the crowd "Zion should shut up" forever. In addition to the fact that Williamson was just about to play healthy, knowing that he would probably be the first pick of the NBA draft in 2019, even though he was easing his late-season injury, there is that: "If he did not want to take the risk, he would not have come to Duke," said Barrett. "He's a basketball player, he likes the game." He likes Duke – and he likes to play with his brothers. "
In other words, Sion will be back soon.
In the meantime, it will be up to Barrett to create and score. He led the Blue Devils (24-3, 12-2 ACC) in both points and assists against Syracuse (18-9, 9-5) – and Duke won double-digit even though Duke was dismal at beyond the 3- point line, as usual. The Blue Devils are now shooting just 30.6% off the 3-point distance of the season, which ranks 326th in the nation; If they do not cut the nets at the Final Four, that will probably be the reason.
"RJ was such a man today," Krzyzewski said after an accurate assessment of his situation. And if you're wondering why Duke is the favorite to win the national championship, he's rooted in this: Duke has GOAT coach of college basketball and maybe – probably but probably – the two best university basketball players.
We were dressed in town on Saturday.
But the other has played.
And that was enough on the road against Orange.
[ad_2]
Source link