Flip was fine. What really stood out to me is how physical UNC-P played, I mean I expected them to play hard, but they were bumping and crashing into our guys all night, not what I would have expected from an "exhibition" game. I was getting worried that one of our guys were going to get injured out there.
And because of the physical play nobody on Duke looked particularly smooth, other than Proctor who drained 5 3s in the first half. But the net result is they were called for 30 fouls, Duke went to the line 43 times and shot 84% from the line.
My takeaway from the games is that the team has separated themselves into a top tier and 2nd tier. The top tier is the 5 starters and Foster, they will combine to play 150-160 minutes every game (barring injury, foul trouble and blowouts).
The 2nd tier is Young, Stewart, Blakes, Power and Schutt, and they will fight for those 40-50 minutes, with the minutes distribution from high to low in that order. Stewart has the potential to make a jump to the top tier later this year, but more likely he'll make the jump as a sophomore. He has all the tools but he needs to get stronger and put them all together.
The odd man out is Schutt, I like him a lot but really we are just too deep with talent at the guard position. Blakes at least offers something the other top 4 guards don't, physicality and defense, and he kind of shined tonight in this physical game again proving that he will be needed on certain nights. Schutt just doesn't do anything better than the top 4 so barring injury or blowout I just don't see who Scheyer sits to play him.
Another take away is that we are probably not going to defend the rim nearly as well as we did last year, but we might be even better on the perimeter.
