Open Practice Notes
(October 27, 2000)

   Duke held another open practice on October 27th, and it was quite a bit different than the one held on the 20th.  This practice had a lot more scrimmaging and situational play than the first open session, which focused more on fundamentals and drills.  Not surprisingly, the team looked much sharper than a week ago, especially in terms of team defense.  The practice was unbelievably intense, with human floor-burn Battier sacrificing his body over and over and frosh sensation Duhon earning big points by vaulting over press row to save a ball from going out of bounds.  This had to impress a couple of visiting guests: big-time high school juniors Michael Thompson and Shavlik Randolph, two key recruits who are visiting for the weekend.  Before practice began, Coach K spent several minutes talking to them and their families.

   Like last week, the overall tone of the practice was very calm.  Coach K would step in from time to time to illustrate particular points (usually on defense), but he let his assistants handle a lot of the work.  K spent a  lot of time working on calling out plays and having the players respond quickly.  Communication was a key, as the players made sure to yell back the call.  Speaking of which, one can sense that many of the players have already established an uncanny rapport, especially Williams & Dunleavy.

   The practice began with a 5-on-0 break, where the players pretended that there were defenders present.  The goal in most instances was to deliver a good pass to the post.  From there, it switched to one-on-one drills.  The object was simple: the defender dogged his man's every step.  The offensive player tried to back him in for a score.  Every matchup was hotly contested, but the most interesting was Williams vs Duhon.  Duhon managed to beat him a couple of times, but that was a dogfight.  Sanders vs Boozer was also fascinating, with Casey being very aggressive.  A potential size mismatch  turned out to be another gem, with Sweet blocking one of Christensen's shots.

   The rest of the next hour or so was spent in a controlled scrimmage,  where some of the principles practiced with the 5-on-0 sets were repeated with live defenders.  One of the most repeated was using the fastbreak after an opponent's made free throw.  There was a concerted effort to work the ball into the post as much as possible, and to work on defending it.  Another oft-repeated drill for defense involved getting certain players to dart into the passing lane to deflect the ball.  Both Casey and Carlos did very well in disrupting the offense in this drill.

   The team looked a bit rusty in the early going (due in part to some  extremely aggressive defense), but started to flow very smoothly as things went on.  Some early highlights included two mind-boggling passes to Casey Sanders.  The first was a thread-the-needle special that Casey caught and used a pretty reverse layup to score on.  The second was on a drive to the baseline by Dunleavy.  He spotted Casey cutting and nailed him in the middle of his drive.  Everyone was going after the ball hard, resulting in some bumps and bruises.  Shane pretty much tackled Nick on one possession and dove after the ball.  On another possession, Christensen had a spectacular block on a driving Shane, denying the dunk and triggering a fast break that Jones finished with a pretty misdirection move.  But the most impressive player was Sanders.  After juking a defender with a fake on the perimeter, he put the ball on the floor and flew in for a dunk, drawing huge applause. He also threw down another dunk on a great feed from Duhon. 

   The last half of practice involved two timed scenarios.  The first  scenario had Duke and its opponent in the first half, with Duke holding a 26-22 lead with seven minutes remaining.  Duke was represented by Boozer, Battier, Dunleavy, James, Williams, Duhon and Sanders.  The opponent featured Christensen, Horvath, Jones, Buckner, Sweet, Simpson and Caldbeck.  Williams twisted an ankle right at the beginning of the scenario, came in for a bit later, and then sat out the rest of practice with an icepack on his wrist. He had been shaking out his hand a couple of times during the practice and I'm not sure if it'll be serious enough to keep him out of the Blue-White game. 

   Without scoring a point, Duhon was the most dominant player in the session. He had a couple of incredible assists and some heads-up steals, and also pulled down a board.  He really made that team run and helped them win the session, as his team led by double digits at the end of the "half."   Dahntay Jones had an unreal day of practice.  He was draining 21' jumpers all day long, and had 8 points in those seven minutes of scrimmage time. Sanders was also extremely impressive, dunking on a Duhon feed and converting a three point play.

  The second scenario had Duke tied with its opponent at 70-up with five minutes left.  Both squads had five team fouls.  Williams sat out this  session and Horvath & Sanders switched teams.  (It looks like Duke will have at least a 7-man rotation this year, and possibly 8 or 9 depending on how the Christensen/Sanders/Horvath/Sweet situation untangles itself.)  Duke won this game as well, with Battier providing a dominant performance at both ends.  The blue team didn't give up, with Sweet and Buckner hitting some surprising late-game shots to keep things close.  But Duhon & Battier calmly hit some foul shots at the end, preserving the 85-80 win.

  The practice ended with 15 minutes of shooting work, with the big men and guards working at opposite ends of the court.  I paid close attention to the big men, and their drills were interesting.  They ran out to the top of the key, where they received a pass and faced up for a jumper.  Then they moved over to the wing, and lastly repeated the first drill, adding a fake & a dribble for a closer shot.  Horvath was sinking all kinds of jumpers, and Boozer looked smooth as well.  The real surprise was Sanders, whose jumper looked pretty good, both facing the basket and from the baseline.  I think it's just going to be a matter of confidence and practice before he makes a serious contribution. 

 Some individual player notes: 

** Boozer:  He was not all that impressive offensively during the scenarios and he missed a couple of foul shots.  But he was working hard defensively and made some pretty passes in earlier scrimmages.  I'd like to see more of a concerted effort made to get him the ball. 

** Battier: Brilliant in all phases of the game.  Very aggressive on offense and defense.  Disrupted the passing lanes and attacked players who picked up their dribble.  He ate players up who dribbled into the lane, diving for and getting steals.  Interestingly, I didn't see him attempt to take any charges.  Killed poor Nick Horvath the entire practice. 

** Dunleavy: Getting better and better at reading the passing lanes and is an impressive rebounder.  His jumper is looking solid and he looks like he'll  be one of Duke's best finishers. 

** James: Quiet and efficient.  He looked like he was battling a few nagging injuries of his own.  Hit a big three in the second scenario, and was successful with his favorite baseline jumper.  Hard-nosed but not spectacular. 

** Williams: Eye-popping passes and a sweet shooting stroke.  His ballhandling is at its peak.  Made almost no bad decisions and has jacked up his creativity. Jason is combining the best of new-school ball with his amazing crossover and old-school defense.   

** Duhon: I didn't get a good sense of what his game was all about last week, so I paid close attention to him this time.  And I was extremely impressed by what I saw.  His game is very understated, in the mold of Battier and Dunleavy.  He quietly controls all the action while remaining a threat to score at any time.  His on-ball defense is very impressive and he's great at playing the passing lanes.  More than anything, he goes all-out all the time.  Flying over press row to (successfully) save a pass was an amazing play.  While not the same kind of penetrator that Williams is, Duhon may actually be a better passer.  His timing, maturity and strength are all remarkable.  About the only thing he doesn't do a lot of is take shots. He will need to be encouraged to do so because his jumper is so pure. 

** Sanders: Casey was perhaps the most surprisingly impressive player in practice.  I was amazed at how much smoother and more confident he was, even after only a week.  The biggest improvement was in decision-making. Instead of freezing up when he gets the ball, he's more apt to either drive to the basket, put up a shot, or quickly pass it.  There were a couple of times when he made the mistake of taking an unnecessary dribble in the post, and another instance where he overpassed instead of putting up a shot. But he also aggressively went after his practice partner Boozer, using his height, quickness and long arms to good advantage.  He scored directly over him a few times, drew several fouls and was very effective throwing down alley oop dunks on the break.  He also had some spectacular defensive plays, swatting away a Battier shot.  He was pushed out of the way on some rebounding attempts, something he'll need to work on through continued weight training. It's amazing to see how quickly he's coming along, with all of that  tantalizing potential suddenly on display. 

** Horvath:  I've heard a lot about Nick's improvement, but he still pretty much looks like the same player to me.  His defense has picked up a bit and he's trying out a new short-range game, but he's still pretty much the same guy.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because he made a number of contributions last year, but I don't see him as having improved the way that Sanders or Williams have. 

** Christensen:  Matt was much more aggressive on the offensive end than usual, with mixed results.  He was trying out a baby hook from the baseline and was missing badly (hitting the side of the backboard on one attempt), but he started to improve as practice went on.  Matt ran the floor pretty well but looked like he was stuck in mud for a lot of the transition drills.  I suspect he will be handy to have around in more physical games, because he looks stronger than ever.  His role is pretty much set and I expect him to receive little playing time in some games and up to 15 minutes in others, depending on the situation. 

** Sweet: Looks very impressive in a support role.  He pulled up for a jumper in a pressure situation and nailed it.  He's used to being a support player on a team of stars and he clearly thrives on doing the dirty work.  He doesn't quite have all the nuances of Duke help defense down yet, but he's getting there.  His individual defensive talents are considerable and his offensive skills are serviceable but not eye-popping.  Defense determines playing time at Duke and I think he'll earn some minutes as a result of his hard work.  He will be a very capable chemistry player throughout his career. 

** Buckner:  Andre is another player who has improved a lot.  He looks stronger and much more confident.  He hit a couple of huge jumpers.  His ballhandling has improved.  I don't think he's going to get a lot of significant playing time but he's a great player to have in practice, because he's making Duhon and Williams work hard. 

** Jones: Mind-boggling display by Dahntay at both ends.  The book on him is that his jumper is his weakness, but he was stroking threes as easy as you please.  This includes one with Battier in his face.  His defense, his leaping ability, and his ability to finish were all extremely impressive.  He is an invaluable presence as a practice player. 

** Simpson: His big moment was being fouled on a three point attempt and making all three free throws.  He hit another three in an earlier scrimmage. 

** Caldbeck: Did a pretty nice job handling the ball and hit a jumper.

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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