The final was 84-50.

There were times when Duke looked like an unstoppable behmoth and times when nothing seemed to be in sync.

Kind of like an opener in which you shuffle a dozen players, no one playing more than 24 minutes, new combinations seemingly at every clock stoppage.

Army was picked to finish last in the 10-team Patriot League. If they’re the worst team in that league, well it’s a much better league then I would have suspected.

Kevin Kuwin brought an experienced team into Cameron and they weren’t out to win any style points. They played zone the entire time, usually went deep into the shot clock and did everything they could to ugly up the game, contesting, well, everything.

Duke dominated when they could get out and run or when they could use their considerable size advantage to control the glass. Duke held Army to 27 % shooting in the first half and forced 14 Army turnovers.

The halftime score was 33-18.

That’s not a lot of points. For either team.

How do you start off 12-0 after four minutes and end the half with only 33 points?

Jon Scheyer offered several complementary explanations.

“It’s everything from subbing rotations. It’s intentions. The first basket we gave up, we were leaking out to play offense. You’ve got to finish plays first. I thought we got a lead and got a little antsy to score. That’s human nature but you’ve got to beat human nature and you’ve got to play the right way, regardless of the score. I thought that hurt us.

“This is also the first time playing with this group. We haven’t had this team in exhibition games. So, some of it is familariity.”

Drew Schanrowski made his first appearance in a Duke uniform, scoring four points in eight minutes,

Duke doesn’t play zone very much, which means they don’t practice against zone and the half-court offense reflected that, especially in the first half when Duke missed all nine of their 3-point shots and had more turnovers (seven) then assists (six).

Scheyer again.

“I thought we were stagnant. I thought we took too many contested shots. When we drove against the zone, we tried to score with two people on us. I take the blame on that. We don’t play zone, so we haven’t worked on it in practice.

“We’ve always been a really good zone team. We have shooting, we have bigs that can pass and play make. We just need to get more organized.”

One of the things Duke needs to clean up.

But let’s don’t forget that first-half defense.

“That’s Duke defense,” Caleb Foster said. “Duke defense wins championships.That’s what the program is built on.”

Duke forced four shot-clock violations.

But Army also scored several times as the shot-clock was expiring.

Five players locking in on defense for 30 seconds possession after possession after possession, isn’t easy for a young team and Scheyer wasn’t happy with those late baskets.

“I thought we did okay in some moments. In other moments, we try to explain to our guys, when they’re going deep into the shot clock, it just takes one mistake. You can play perfectly for 28 seconds and it just takes one mistake.”

Nobody found any fault in Dame Sarr’s performance.

Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje (15 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and Patrick Ngongba II (10 points, seven boards) played like potential All-Americans.

John Blackwell did not, missing five of his six shots.

Expect a bounce-back game Thursday.

But every time I see this team, it seems like Dame Sarr is as good as anyone in a Duke uniform. He led Duke with 16 points, without missing a shot. He hasd four rebounds, three assists and a steal.

That offensively hesitant freshman of last season disappeared in an off-season of hard work.

“It took some time for me. I want to get better. I feel like there’s so much for me to improve. I just embraced that throughout the summer, with the coaches working along. Just embracing the process. I came here to be a better player. That’s my goal.”

Defense?

“That’s my superpower. That’s what the team needs me to do.”

Scheyer said the best part of Sarr’s game is that he will do absolutely whatever the team needs him to do to help it win.

Scheyer wasn’t foaming at the mouth about this game or anything like that. Duke did win by 34 points, forcing 24 turnovers, winning the rebounding battle 37-28 and making 22 of 26 from the line. Eleven players played at least eight minutes, 12 players scored, 12 grabbed at least one rebound.

But his expectations are high.

“Start of the game, start of the half, I think, were two of the best sequences we had. Besides that, we have a lot to clean up and a lot to do better”

That’s how you win championships. Win by 34 points and look for things to fix.

I’m going to let Manny Diaz have the first take.

“That was a treat, right there. That’s maybe as complete a performance as we’ve had in the two-and-a-half years that I’ve been here.

“Starting with the defense. I can’t say enough about them, take a team that ran for 400 yards a week ago and held them to 50, 60, maybe less when the starters were in. We looked fast, we did a great job communicating the back end, made it hard for them to get explosive plays. Took a really, really talented quarterback and just eliminated him from the football game. Dominated on possession downs.”

Let’s look at the defense, by the numbers.

Boston College compiled 213 total yards. They were 2 for 13 on third downs and missed on all four of their fourth-down opportunities. Duke recovered two fumbles, notched six sacks, 11 tackles for loss, two pass-break-ups, 10 quarterback hurries.

Duke tackled well, covered well and bottled up Mason McKenzie by avoiding the “eye candy” safety Patrick Smith-Young warned about earlier in the week.

Defensive end Kobe Smith said the key to Duke’s defensive dominance “was just going fast. We’re not using our brains as much, we’re just going. Placing more emphasis on just playing our ball, attacking and not reacting.”

First time I’ve ever heard a Duke athlete imply that using their brain was a bad thing. But the point remains. Play fast, react, trust your teammate. All the things Duke talked about all week, they executed against an ACC opponent.

When Duke had the ball?

Well, let’s see.

Boston College “held” Nate Sheppard to 97 yards on 20 carries. But Sheppard took it across the goal line five times.

FIVE.

Diaz again.

“Offensively, it was just kind of getting into the flow of the game, finding our footing. Obviously, Nate Sheppard getting into the end zone five times. What an accomplishment, what a player. I can’t say enough about him. I think everything that can be said about him can be said but yet he still does things that no one has ever done”

“No one has ever done?”

Not in a Duke uniform, anyway. Sheppard’s five rushing TDs broke by one a record held by a host of Blue Devils, going back to Winston Siegfried, back in 1941. He now has 14 rushing TDs on the season, tying the school record with at least five games left.

Yes, five. Duke’s sixth win guarantees a bowl bid.

Duke dominated early, converting its second possession into an 80-yard TD drive that included a 44-yard pass from Walker Eget to Javen Nicholas.

Eget completed 11 of 18, for 201 yards, 11.2 yards per attempt. No sacks, no interceptions.

Sheppard took it in from a yard out.

A few minutes later, Sheppard scored from two yards out after a short drive set up by an 18-yard punt return by true freshman KD Cotton.

Then it got weird. The exchange from long snapper went awry, Gavin Strange’s PAT was blocked and BC’s Carter Davis scooped it up for 100 yards and two points.

Thiings to work on? Duke’s PAT team’s tackling leaves much to be desired.

Duke had been penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after Sheppard’s TD, one of 25 accepted penalties during a chippy, more than occasionally undisciplined game.

That meant Duke kicked off from their 20. Which meant BC took over at their own 43, which quickly became Duke’s 20 after Duke Kyon Loud got called for another of those pesky personal fouls.

Hey, BC got called for 15 penalties, 129 yards, including an unsportsmanlike that pushed this drive back from the Duke 13 to Duke 28.

Another penalty and it was 3^rd and 23.

Do ACC officials get paid by the flag?

McKenzie scrambled for 21.

Like I said. It got wonky.

A successful field goal would have made it 13-5. But the Eagles went for it on fourth and two and came up empty. Bo MacCormack came up a yard short, Julius Columbus with the tackle, as time expired on the first period.

That essentially marked the high-water mark for the Eagles. They got the ball back, moved to the Duke 33, lost 15 yards to another one of those pesky unsportsmanlike penalties, then Bradley Gompers and Columbus combined for a sack and they were punting on 4^th and forever.

Sheppard went 54 yards for his third touchdown, then Eget and Jerry Hasley connected from five yards out and it was 27-2 at the half.

Sheppard from four yards out and then again from a yard out and the third ended with Duke up 41-2. Sheppard was done for the day, indeed most of the starters from both teams. Dan Mahan led Duke to a couple of drives that culminated in Gavin Strange field goals, mostly by handing off to freshman running back Jayvian Tanelus, who rushed for 46 yards on five carries.

Mahan did complete 5 of 7, for 32 yards. He did throw one interception but on a ball that should have been caught.

Note than four of Sheppard’s five touchdowns were tough, short-yardage scores, the kind that Anderson Castle took care of last season.

Duke didn’t even try to replace Castle in the off-season. They decided Sheppard could add that to his toolbox and he’s done just that.

“That all started back in the bowl game. AC went down with a quad injury and I knew I had to be the guy and then I punched one in from the two-yard line, ran one dude over. That was a great feeling. But I knew I had to put in the work, working in the off-season with Feeley in the weight room, getting my weight up and stuff like that and that’s what I’ve done.”

Bowl eligibility nice and all that, according to Diaz. But the team still has higher goals for November, starting next Saturday in Raleigh.

That was it until 2006. This was BC’s second season in the ACC. Boston College won 10 games that season, Duke won zero. The result was predictable, 28-7.

They haven’t played much since then. Different divisions, back when that was a thing, They haven’t played since 2022, a 38-31 win in Mike Elko’s first year at Duke.

In other words, no grudges, no late hits, no running up the score.

But. There’s a different kind of history here.

BC head coach Bill O’Brien is on his seventh college program. He also had stints with the Texans and the Patriots. He’s a love-him or hate-him kind of guy and not all of his departures were smooth.

Duke was one of those seven colleges. O’Brien was offensive coordinator/QB coach in 2005 and 2006. Duke won one game during that tenure, over VMI.

But the Pats hired him as an assistant, so he impressed someone.

O’Brien’s current staff includes Ben Albert. He’s the defensive line coach, the same role he had at Duke from 2018 through 2021.

Duke hired Albert from Boston College.

The wheel goes round and round.

Then there’s O’Brien’s defensive coordinator, one Ted Roof. The same Ted Roof who failed so spectacularly at Duke but ended up as the DC for Auburn’s 2011 BCS national title.

Yes, Ted Roof is working for the man who used to work for him.

The college-football-coaching-fraternity can be be a complicated place to navigate.

Boston College is Roof’s 15^th college gig, several repeats among them, everybody from West Georgia to Alabama.

Anyway. The Eagles were one of the worst teams in a power conference last year. They won two games, Fordham in their opener, Syracuse in the final game, 10 straight losses in between.

This looked like a sure Duke win over the summer.

Now? Not so much. O’Brien hit the portal. Hard. He brought in 28 players and he hit the jackpot on more than a few.

Color Diaz impressed.

“Just bringing in the right talent, which they have. But also bringing in the right people. I keep trying to say this every year. These are not robots. These are real live human beings. They’re playing with a chip on their shoulder, they’re hungry, they’re playing extraordinarily hard. And they’re playing like they’re having fun.”

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Well, perfect in the sense of three games, three wins. Not perfect in the sense of nothing to improve on.

That would just be silly. It isn’t even Halloween yet. Still, two blueboods slugging it out on ESPN in front of a raucous full-house at Allen Field House doesn’t exactly scream “exhibition.”

But that’s what it was.

Sort of. But this was nothing like Duke’s thrashings of Belmont and Tennessee in front of the Crazies. Kansas punched Duke in the face early and often, forcing Duke to dig deep.

Which is what Duke did. I have no idea if this will be in Duke’s memory bank come March. But it sure seems like an important data point on the way to something bigger down the line.

Kansas led 12-6 early before Duke took over, in the first of several runs. Patrick Ngongba II hit a 3-pointer, Dame Sarr made two freebies and then a dunk and Caleb Foster scored inside and Duke led 15-13.

Yes, Caleb Foster. That would be his only made shot on the afternoon. He’s rusty and it showed.

But he’s back and he wouldn’t have played in an October exhibition game if there was any questions about his ankle.

Still waiting on Drew Scharnowski.

Duke extended the lead to 30-18 on a Ngongba layup.

But, hey, it’s October. Duke turned the ball over, fouled too much and played subpar transition defense.

And Tyran Stokes is pretty darn good. No surprise. He was the nation’s top high-school player last season and is widely projected to be the top pick in the 2027 NBA draft. Earlier in his career he didn’t always check the plays-well-with-others box but he seems to have it together now and Kansas is going to build around him.

Kansas closed the half on a 26-12 run, holding Duke to one field goal in the final 4:06.

They led 45-43 after 20.

Duke started the second-half on a 6-0 run, forcing Bill Self to spend a timeout. The Jayhawks responed and regained the lead.

The game featured 11 ties and 12 lead changes.

Kansas led 68-64, with 11:38 left when Duke seized control. Ngongba had a tip-in to give Duke a 75-71 lead, then two foul shots for 77-73. John Blackwell hit a triple and it was 81-76. Cayden Boozer got a dunk--yes, he can dunk--Ngongba continued to do his thing and another Blackwell 3-pointer made it 88-76, with 2:57 left.

Duke didn’t close well, some bad turnovers, some bad fouls. The outcome was never in doubt after that 12-point lead but even in an October exhibition, not closing well is a bit of a sore point.

There are some takeaways.

First some areas in need of improvement. Duke fouled 19 times and turned it over 14 times.

Kansas fouled 20 times but only turned it over eight times. Duke had seven steals, so credit to the home team for basically eliminating unforced turnovers.

Some of that is baked into an October exhibition. But Kansas had a 25 to 6 advantage in fast-break points and a 33 to 15 advantage in bench points.

The first is something that absolutely has to be cleaned up.

But the second is a head-scratcher. Deepest Duke team ever?

Eventually. Maybe. And Scharnowski is still out and his return should both lengthen the rotation and keep Ngongba from playing 32 minutes.

But Scheyer essentially used a seven-player rotation in the second half, the five returnees, Blackwell and freshman Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje.

Deron Rippey, Jr. and Bryson Howard did some nice things in the first half. Both made 3-pointers and Howard grabbed four rebounds in seven minutes. Cam Williams committed two fouls in two minutes.

None of these freshmen are in Scheyer’s trust circle. Yet. Better defense is the key.

But Duke dd so many things well. They outrebounded Kansas 43-30. Ngongba had 10 boards, JBB 9. Twin towers.

Ngongba looked like the best center in the country. He just beasted Kansas inside, 9 for 12 from the field, 9 for 10 from the line. 28 points. He also had four assists and two blocks.

I guess that’s what a healthy off-season will do for you.

Boumtje Boumtje missed some shots at the rim that he’ll make down the road. Kansas was physical with him in a way neither Belmont nor Tennessee could muster.

He hit the boards, had three assists and two steals. He’ll finish those bunnies once he adjusts to big time college physicality.

Sarr missed all five of his shots from beyond the arc but got the line and converted, 8 of 11. He had six rebounds to go along with his 12 points.

And what can I say about Blackwell? It’s hard to argue that the MCBB world is sleeping on him. He was voted first-team All-ACC and I’ve seen some preseason All-America teams that have him second or third team.

But I think he might be better than that. He’s a stone-cold assassin, a baller,as the kids say these days. Ice water in his veins.

Try 23 points in 27 minutes, 4 for 7 on 3s, 7 of 8 from the line, four rebounds, four assists, two steals.

He did have four turnovers.

Like I said, not perfect. But I want the ball in his hands at the end of close games.

Cayden Boozer and Sebastian Wllkins did some nice things. I’m at the point where I’m ready to pencil Wilkins into the rotation.

Did I mention Duke hit 27 of 33 from the line? I’ll take 82% on high volume.

Duke opens the regular season with home games November 2 against Army and Coastal Carolina on November 5, both chances in which Duke should have a chance to work on some of the issues exposed in Lawrence, while working on the many strengths. And getting the freshmen up to speed.

But right now? Duke got what it needed from this expanded exhibition season.

Like so many Duke games this season this was a smorgasboard of highs and lows, great catches and dropped passes, a freshman kicker who was 2 for 2 on field goals but 1 for 2 on PATs, leads that flip-flopped for most of the game.

And a game that long will be remembered for another in Duke’s bag of trick plays.

Back to the beginning. It took Duke four plays to go 78 yards and take a 7-0 lead. Walker Eget hit Jonah Burton for 35 yards to the Virginia 32 and then Nate Sheppard took it in for the score.

But it was a costly drive. Eget injured a finger on his throwing hand when it hit a helmet on that throw to Burton and it hurt the rest of the game.

“It wasn’t an injury per se,” Manny Diaz said. “There wasn’t anything structutally wrong with the finger. It was just his ability to grip the football. It just wasn’t great. Coming out of the locker room (after halftime), we weren’t sure who we were going to go with.

“Walker put some tape on the part of the finger that was bothering him and that gave him a better feel for the football. That kid’s been through so much, the idea that he was not going to get back on the field and give it the old college try, just wasn’t going to happen.”

Eget certainly made it seem like it was an injury.

“It was pretty painful at the time. I tried to keep it warm. It’s jammed, so you just try to keep moving it. I didn’t want to not play.”

Duke tried Dan Mahan a little but he couldn’t get anything going. In fact, Duke had the ball four times the rest of the first half after that opening drive and punted all four times, picking up 36 yards. Sheppard was being stuffed at the line of scrimmage and the passing game was MIA.

Virginia got a touchdown and two field goals, to take a 13-7 lead into the half.

Still, forcing two field goals may have kept Duke in the game.

Virginia returned the favor, forcing two Duke field goals in the second half.

But the Duke defense was making plays, putting pressure on Beau Pribula, forcing and recovering a fumble, forcing a 52-yard field goal that was missed.

A 13-13 tie going down the stretch. Batten down the hatches.

Virginia drove to the Duke 11 on a six-minute drive. But Preston Watson stuffed Jakail Middlebrook, Kobe Smith forced a grounding and Virginia settled for three points and a 16-13 lead.

Three minutes left. Time enough for Duke to drive into Virginia territory, mostly Eget in the air. Trick play time, Sheppard takes backwards pass from Eget and finds freshman Brody Keefe all by his lonesome for the go-ahead TD.

“I’ve been waiting to throw the ball for awhile,” Sheppard said. “It felt good.”

Sheppard said the play is called “bunny” and said Duke walked through the play this week in practice but never actually ran it through a tackle.

“I was just worried about how fast those linebackers were closing in.”

Then Duke missed the extra point, leaving the lead at three, not four, with 1:14 left and Virginia in possession of three timeouts.

Groundhog Day? It sure seemed that way when Pribula scrambled for 13 yards to the Virginia 38 on the first play.

But Che Ojarikre sacked Pribula on first down and the window started closing for the home team. An incompletion, a short completion and a pick by Patrick Smith-Young and it was all over.

“We have all the pieces,” Eget summed up. “Coach Diaz really preached on us about playing free, about the fact that we were stressed about things we shouldn’t be stressed about the last two weeks. Coming out of the bye week we’re 4-0 and we’re thinking about something way in the future when we shouldn’t be thinking about that.”

Then again, Virginia came into Wade last season and curb-stomped Duke in a game that Duke never really had a chance to winning.

Pay-back time?

Wait a minute. A few weeks later the teams met in Charlotte for the ACC championship and Duke pulled off the upset, likely keeping Virginia out of the College Football Playoff.

Pay-back time?

Let’s call it a wash before I confuse myself.

Here’s what we do know. These are two teams that really need a win.

Manny Diaz has talked a lot this season about college football’s search for consistency.

He’s isn’t wrong. Look at the SEC’s circular firing squad where every week some team goes from the team to beat in the CFP to probably missing it altogether in the span of one blow-out loss.

Or look at Virginia. Back in the so-called Week 0, Virginia opened at home with an absolute demolition of NC State. 34-8. The Cavaliers followed with a predictably easy win over Norfolk State.

But losses to West Virginia, Florida State and SMU have left them at 4-3. They barely beat Syracuse for their only ACC win so far and got blown out (42-7) against the ‘Noles. A 23-13 loss at SMU suggests that maybe, perhaps, they’re close to righting the ship.

Or maybe not. Consistency.

We all know about Duke. You can make a case that a couple of plays here and there separate Duke from 4-2 and 6-0 and a legit CFP spot.

But as Diaz says, the other team can just as credibly point to a play or two. That’s hard-wired into close games.

But either Virginia is going to be 4-4 after Friday night’s game or Duke is going to be 4-3 and the loser is going to be staring at a very different post-season scenario than was the case a few weeks ago.

The injury report came out Wednesday. It’s bad for Duke but approaching War and Peace lengths for UVA.

The best thing for Duke is that Nate Sheppard appears to be fully cleared, which is not the best thing for Virginia.

Center Matt Craycraft is out for Duke. He was out last week. Bradley Smith, Jr. moved over from guard to center, while Micah Sahakian took over Smith’s spot at right guard.

Sahakian came to Duke from Cornell. He’s in his seventh season because of a rash of injuries. He’s gone through the surgeries and the rehabs and he’s starting on a Power-4 team and we should all applaud the courage and toughness it took to achieve that.

But Craycraft is one of the nation’s best centers and Duke’s offensive line is better with him out there, which will not be the case Friday night.

The biggest losses, however, are on defense, particularly safety Andrew Pellicciotta, tackle David Anderson and cornerback Evan Smith. All are out. Safety DeShawn Stone is 50/50 and who knows whether Kimari Robinson will suit up.

Virginia lists 20 players as out, with three more as doubtful.

This includes some of their best players, wide receivers Kameron Courtney and Rico Flores, Jr., safeties Corey Costner and Ethan Minter and defensive tackle Jason Hammond among them.

There’s a reason why college coaches talk about building depth. Next man up. No team is better than its 2s.

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Still, it gives me a chance to throw in some cautionary notes. It’s still October, the game didn’t actually count, the Vols have a lot of new faces on their roster.

And Duke wasn’t perfect. They committed too many fouls--20, to be exact. They . . .. checks notes. Sorry, that’s about all I’ve got. Sure Cam Williams and Max Meyer need to get stronger and Nick Arnold should never again try to finish at the basket in traffic.

But if Arnold’s lack of lift ever becomes a serious issue, we’ve got a story on our hands.

Tennessee is ranked eighth in the preseason AP poll. So, this wasn’t Belmont we’re talking about. It certainly wasn’t Barton College or the other small-college teams Duke scrimmaged until recently.

Which makes Duke’s demolition all the more impressive. The game was tied 2-2 when Duke ran off 15 straight points.

Showing off Duke’s depth and balance that run was started by a Dame Sarr finish in transition, two freebies from Patrick Ngongba II, and a 3-pointer by John Blackwell.

No surprises here. There were times when Sarr (15 points, two rebounds, lock-down defense), Ngongba (13 points, seven rebounds, two blocks) and Blackwell (18 points, including 4-6 from beyond the arc) were the best players on the floor.

Blackwell opened the second half with a two-minute heat-check in which he scored 10 points, a pair of triples, a dunk off a turnover and a turnaround in the lane.

This man can score.

Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje started slow but ended up stuffing the stat sheet to the tune of 11 points, four rebounds, an assist, a steal and three blocks.

But the real eye-opener was Deron Rippey, Jr. Rippey has been viewed an an athletic change of pace off the bench. If only he could shoot.

Guess what? Small sample size and all that. But Rippey came in and knocked down a pair from downtown in his first 1:50 of the game.

“I’m in the gym working on it,” he said. “I don’t lose confidence when people say I can’t shoot it. I’m going to keep shooting.”

Please do. Rippey scored in transition, in the halfcourt, hounded every orange-clad ballhander he could find.

He ended the game with a game-high 21 points, 9-12 from the field, 3-6 on 3s, 3 assists and 3 steals. In just under 21 minutes.

In fact, no Blue Devil played more than Sarr’s 24:37.

Sebastian Wilkins was Duke’s sixth double-digit scorer, 11 points and five boards.

“He’s a reliable guy,” Scheyer said of Wilkins. “I think you’re looking for consistency. He’s going to play a role for us, knowing he’s not going to try to do too much. Make open 3s. crash the boards, he can guard multiple positions. He’s tough.”

Scheyer dropped a hint that Caleb Foster might play against Kansas this Sunday.

So, how does Duke keep all this talent happy?

Scheyer opened his post-game praising a player who missed his only shot from the field.

“I think the story of this team is going to be about to be more than just about statistics. Cayden Boozer is an example for me. He had a terrific game and he only takes one shot. That’s going to be the story of our team, because you do have to sacrifice.

Boozer did make two foul shots for his only points. But he led everyone wirh six assists--Tennessee only had seven--and added five rebounds and a steal.

“I was looking for my shooters,” he said. “We have a really good team and a lot of people who can get it going on any night. I’m just here to help my team win. That’s my job.”

Anyway. Tennessee never really threatened after that 15-0 Duke barrage. It didn’t help that they lost VCU transfer Terence Hill, Jr. to a rolled ankle. He played less than five minutes. Duke hounded former Wake Forest star Juke Harris into a 2 for 10 shooting night.

It was 54-30 at the half after Troy Henderson hit a bomb at the buzzer. Blackwell’s spurt to open the second half put Duke up 70-36 and Duke never let up, even with the deep bench in.

Duke made 19 of 21 from the line and 12 of 33 on 3s, the latter percentage brought down by Bryson Howard and Cam Williams missing all nine from downtown.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes was most perturbed by Duke’s 44-29 board dominance. It was a team effort, as Duke had nine players with at least two rebounds.

“Our defense, I thought was terrific to start,” Scheyer said. “I thought out guys were ready, the energy we had in the locker room.”

Due to the short week, coordinators Jonathan Patke and Jonathan Brewer sat this one out.

Manny Diaz opened with a tribute to Chuck Amato, who died earlier today after a long illness. Amato was 80.

Amato was a football lifer but was best known for his tenure as head coach at NC State. With Philip Rivers at the helm, Amato coached the Wolfpack to an 11-win season in 2002.

Diaz was State’s linebacker coach for that team. Diaz was a grad assistant at Florida State when Amato was an assistant and Amato brought Diaz with him to Raleigh.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for Chuck Amato,” Diaz told the media.

Diaz then pivoted to Duke cornerback Kimari Robinson.

I fully confess that I completely missed this one at the time. The football media facilities are a long way from the field.

If you haven’t been following this, here’s the skinny. Duke safety DaShawn Stone was down on the field, with an injury. Robinson was one of several Duke players surrounding Stone when Duke’s medical people reached Stone. Robinson pushed away one of the medical people trying to help Stone. It didn’t help matters that this was a woman.

Social media blew this up. That’s what social media does.

Still, it was not a good look.

Robinson apologized privately and publicly.

Diaz said Robinson’s actions did not meet Duke’s standards of excellence.

“The recent behavior of one of our players, Kimari Robinson, has fallen well below that standard.”

Diaz added that the matter would be handled internally and he wasn’t going to elaborate.

An official injury report will come out later this week. But there is some bad news.

Safety Andrew Pellicciotta will be out “multiple weeks.” Stone, center Matt Craycraft and cornerback Evan Smith all seem to be on the wrong side of iffy.

Duke has no idea who will return punts in Pellicciotta’s absence. Auditions this week

Fun fact. Duke calls the role “punt catcher, not “punt returner.” Can’t return it if you don’t catch it first..

“It feels like a subplot of college football this year is injuries,” Diaz said, while pointing out that Virginia has injury issues of its own.

“You gotta step up, you gotta find a way.”

Men’s hoops tomorrow, more football in a few.

Manny Diaz used some variation of that expression several times Saturday night in dissecting Duke’s 24-20 loss to North Carolina.

Duke did not do the simple things better, not enough of them, leaving that silly centimeter on the floor.

This was the fifth straight game in the rivalry to come down a single possession, come down to the final seconds. Two seasons ago Duke fell behind 20-0, clawed back into a 21-20 lead and made it stick.

Last season, Duke took a late 32-25 lead and made it stick.

They could not make it stick this year. It wasn’t just the similarities to all those Duke-Carolina nail-biters in the past but also the similarities to last week’s loss at Georgia Tech.

Similarities, you say?

Lots of assets on the balance sheet, but one more liability. Duke again overcame a double-digit deficit to take a late lead. But a defense that had been playing well, couldn’t get that final stop. An offense that had time to answer had too many mistakes, bad clock-management among them and came up short. Duke with more total yards, more time with the ball but fewer points.

Great plays, bad penalties, a gimpy Nate Sheppard playing his derriere off. Walker Eget starting slow, getting it together but losing his touch at the worst possible time. Red-zone woes.

And suddenly, a once-promising season is 4-2 and in danger of spiraling out of control.

The game could hardly have started worse for Duke. The Tar Heels got the ball first and took five minutes off the clock before kicking a field goal.

Duke was down 3-0 before running its first play. The Blue Devils played without injured starting center Matt Craycraft. Bradley Smith, Jr. moved over from guard, with Micah Sahakian taking Smith’s place at guard.

Smith was recruited as a center and has played center at Duke and said he was “very comfortable.” It’s not like he was thrown into the deep end of the pool to see if he would sink.

Still, Craycraft is Duke’s best offensive lineman.

But it’s football. The visitors were also down some players.

It got worse before it got better. A terrible snap led to a blocked punt, which led to a short field, which led to 10-0 North Carolina. A three-and-out, a UNC drive that included converting a third-and-13 and a third-and-two and it was 17-0.

For the record Bradley Smith said he didn’t think Duke was nervous or anything. They just executed better.

Pass protection was one area they executed better.

Diaz said he didn’t like Duke’s pass rush-or lack thereof--against Billy Edwards, who gained 32 yards on assorted scrambles or called runs.

“He did a much better job off the spot than we had thought. I just didn’t think we did a great job of rushing the passer. I felt like we left too many big gaps. I just didn’t feel like we rushed the passer as a four-man group today, way too many plays where he stepped up and found someone open.”

Preston Watson had one of Duke’s two sacks.

“Going into the game, we knew it was an NFL-style offense. They communicated a lot up front whether it was run or pass and they did a good job hiding that.”

Down 17-0 Duke used a scoop-and-score by safety Andrew Pellicciotta to get on the scoreboard. But Duke had the ball twice more in the first half after that momentum-shifter and picked up only a single first down.

Duke dominated much of the second half but couldn’t turn that dominance into touchdowns. Duke took the second-half kickoff and held the ball for almost eight minutes. But a first-and-goal at the 5 turned into three points, not seven as Walker Eget misfired on second and third downs.

Duke’s Patrick Smith-Young forced and recovered a fumble at the Duke nine, keeping the deficit at seven.

Another first-and-goal turned into another field goal and it was 17-13.

Should Duke have gone for it? If it works, it’s a great call. If not, why not take the points?

Proof, pudding and all that.

Still, it’s leaving points on the field.

“If you can’t run the ball, there’s not a lot of space to throw it,” Diaz said of Duke’s goal-line struggles. “They’re well-drilled on trying to flood the areas. We had some guys that we didn’t think were open and sometimes it’s about how you layer the ball. The red-zone is about tough runs and tough catches in not a lot of space and I just don’t think we excuted at a high level down there.”

Smith said the offensive line could have been better near the goal line.

“We’ve got to do a better job up front making Walker’s decisions easier, Nate’s decisions easier. It’s on me, it’s on the rest of the O-line, it should be easy to get in the end zone and we’ve got to do a better job.”

Then suddenly Duke did get in the end zone. Duke’s defense kept giving the offense chances, six straight empty possessions by UNC. A special-teams gaffe gave Duke a short field and it took the Devils a little over three minutes to go 34 yards. It mostly came in the air, Eget to Sheppard for 13 yards, to Jerry Hasley for 11, Sheppard again for six and then again for seven and the score.

UNC held Sheppard to 77 rushing yards on 20 carries but he had 98 yards on 11 receptions.

The quick score left 4:34 on the clock. A six-yard run and two incompletions left fourth-and-four. Duke didn’t pressure Edwards and didn’t guard Jelani Thurman, whose 12-yard completion kept the chains moving.

UNC was still a long way from the end zone or even a tying field goal. But it seemed inevitable.

A 16-yard run, a four-yard run, a 16-yard pass and a 24-yard TD run by Jaylen McGill. 24-20. No one touched McGill.

Duke had three timeouts and plenty of time. But a field goal was meaningless and despite his many virtues, Eget hasn’t shown a deep-threat kind of arm.

Somehow, Duke managed to hold on to all three timeouts until 24 seconds were left, after Eget was flagged for intentional grounding.

“There were some things in the one-minute situation, from a time standpoint, that got away from us, that hurt us in the last minute,” Diaz acknowledged.

An Eget interception ended any remaining suspense.

Virginia next, on the road, Friday night. After a 2-0 start, Virginia has lost three-of-five. So they need a win as much as Duke needs a win.

And Duke needs a win.

That’s not the score of the big game Saturday, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 7-7 score sometime in the first quarter.

Rather, that’s the result of the last 14 Duke-Carolina games.

That’s a rivalry. That’s not all you need, of course. Eight miles apart, been playing each other since the 1880s, a fan base that doesn’t much care for each other, games that induce PTSD on the losing side.

But both teams have to win. After Steve Spurrier left for Florida following the 1989 season, North Carolina won 21 of the next 22 games between the teams.

That’s not a rivalry to anyone outside the bubble.

But it wasn’t just bad juju after that (in)famous scoreboard photo following Duke’s 41-0 win in 1989. The trend lines were against Duke before Spurrier. He was just a notable outlier. In fact, he’s the only Duke coach since Bill Murray retired in 1965 to post a winning record against UNC at the end of his Duke tenure. Tom Harp, Mike McGee, Red Wilson and Steve Sloan bridged the gap between Murray and Spurrier and they were 5-15-1 in the rivalry. McGee somehow managed to lose to North Carolina 14-13, 39-38 and 16-15 over a five-year span, which also included a 17-17 tie. Red Wilson won once and was promptly fired.

The bleeding stopped when Duke hired David Cutcliffe. Not right away. But with that pulsating Jamison Crowder TD in 2012, the rivalry was reset.

The last four games have gone 38-35 UNC. 47-45 UNC (OT), 21-20 Duke and 32-25 Duke. Manny Diaz is 2-0 and has a chance to join Spurrier and Cutcliffe (2016-2018) as the only Duke coaches to win three straight against North Carolina since Duke won seven straight in the 1950s.

Good times.

The teams may not be exactly where we thought they’d be going into the season. North Carolina went through an off-season of scandal, investigations and embarrassments. Bill Belichick was circling the drain. The vultures were gathering. How much is that buy-out, again?

But after a roster remake and the hiring of scandal-ridden Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator, it turns out that the Tar Heels may not be a pushover after all. They beat TCU on a neutral field, beat Pitt on the road and pushed Clemson and Notre Dame.

Now TCU may not be very good, Carolina did in fact lose to Clemson and Notre Dame and Pitt was playing without starting quarterback Mason Heintschel. So, we’re not talking ‘72 Dolphins here. But they are doing some things well.

What exactly?

Manny Diaz shares his thoughts.

“They’re playing really, really good defense. If you’re playing good defense, you have a chance to win, week-in and week-out. What they’ve done now, adding a Bobby Petrino to their staff, they’re schemed up offensively. They’re able to control the ball with their run game. They’ve got outstanding tight ends and they’re utilizing their personnel well.

“Like us, they’re very comfortable winning low-scoring or one-score type games and I think they’ve done a really good job.”

How does Duke beat that?

“We have to do what we think we do really well. We have to try to control the line of scrimmage. That’s hard against them because their defensive line is probably the top position group they have on their football team. We’ve got to get back to not allowing cheap, easy touchdowns like we did a week ago. And play clean in ways we didn’t play clean on Saturday.”

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But the patient died.

Duke did so many things well in their agonizing 28-25 loss at Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon.

Duke had 28 first downs. Tech had 21. Duke outgained Tech by 35 yards. Duke was penalized 39 fewer yards. Duke was better on third down (10 of 17) than Tech (4 of 10). Duke converted its only fourth-down attempt. Tech was 1 of 2. Duke did not turn it over. Duke had the ball for almost 10 more minutes than Tech.

And still, found a way to lose.

No, it wasn’t fuzzy math. Duke trailed most of the game, put itself into position to put away the home team several times but kept shooting themselves in the foot.

“There’s too many mistakes,” Manny Diaz said. “The first thing that jumps out is too many penalties. We’ve felt like penalties would get us at some point and tonight penalties got us. We’ll have to find a way to get that corrected.”

He wasn’t happy with the tackling, either, citing big plays on the ground and on special teams

Ultimately, Duke asked a true freshman, backup kicker to send the game into an overtime there’s no guarantee they would have won on a high-pressure kick on the road on a sloppy field with a bad angle from the right hashmark after an untidy snap-to-hold exchange.

Gavin Strange missed. Wide left.

Diaz said Cosme Salas suffered a “freak injury” in practice this week and Duke didn’t know he wasn’t going to be available until Friday.

No elaboration was offered as to the nature of that freak injury.

“I’ve got so much respect for Gavin Strange,” Diaz added. “I thought he was extraordinary. I thought he had tremendous courage. I thought he kicked off very, very well and made some tremendous kicks. I believe in Gavin.”

Duke never had control of the game but they had control on their fingertips a few times.

They just couldn’t close the fist on a desperate, motivated Tech team.

The Blue Devils trailed 7-0 and 14-7. They had a great chance to equalize before the half when they marched to the Tech 22 with plenty of time left.

But incomplete passes on first and third downs brought on the field-goal unit.

Strange was good from 33 yards out.

Both of Tech’s first-half TD drives benefited from third-down penalties by the Duke defense, including a borderline roughing-the-passer call on Tyshon Reed, that was was quickly followed by a 15-yarder on Duke safety DeShawn Stone.

Diaz tried to be diplomatic when asked about the Reed penalty, without quite pulling it off.

“We need to protect quarterbacks, especially body-weight over the top. The two people that have the hardest job on the field are the referees and the defensive players. It’s hard to sack a guy and not to lean on him. But Tyshon did put his arm out and kind of roll him back.

“At real speed, those things look the way they look. But it was such a critical situation, we’ve got them backed up to punt and we probably get the ball back at midfield.”

In fairness, the flags were flying both ways.

Still, Duke got the ball back to begin the second half. Faced with a similar situation a few weeks ago at Illinois, Duke took the second-half kickoff and marched down field for the go-ahead score.

Not this time. Six plays netted 24 yards and a punt.

Kade Reynoldson kicked it to the Tech 18 and a holding penalty moved it to the nine.

Like I said, the flags went both ways,

A great opportunity for Duke’s defense to make a stop and give the ball to the offense in great field position.

Not this time.

Trelain Maddox blasted 60 yards for the score. It was the first time Duke had allowed a second-half TD this season.

Maddox wasn’t exactly untouched. But he had as much room as he needed.

Duke responded with some of its best football of the season. Playing with an injured ankle, Nate Sheppard kept picking up yards on the ground and in the air, while Walker Eget was finding multiple targets and making a huge scramble for a first down. An Eget to Jared Richardson score, a two-point conversion, a stop and Sheppard’s second rushing TD of the game and Duke was up 25-21, its only lead of the game.

Less than three minutes. One stop, let Sheppard pick up a first down and that’s a wrap. Just like Illinois.

Not this time. An absolutely horrible 15-yard penalty by Bradley Gompers helped Tech march down the field.

Maybe it was a bad call. Maybe not. These are ACC officials. They seem to like to throw the flag. A lot.

Don’t give them a chance.

“That’s just kicking our ass,” Diaz said.

And Duke’s defense just wasn’t good enough. They weren’t terrible. But they weren’t good enough. Too many missed tackles, not enough pressure on Alberto Mendoza, losing receiver Jordan Allen too often and another game without forcing a turnover.

Linebacker Nick Morris said Duke’s defense simply has to be better.

“I really think we’re a disciplined team but it’s just not showing in that particular statistic (penalties). That’s something as a leader, I’m going to stress going forward. It showed up in games that we won and it didn’t cost us. But it definitely contributed to us losing today and that’s something we’d better make sure gets fixed.”

Maddox’s hird rushing TD gave them the lead with less than a minute to play.

Incredibly, Duke almost pulled it off. Sheppard turned a broken tackle into a 42-yard reception to the Tech 23 and Duke was in position to win it.

Despite the balky ankle, Sheppard had 99 rushing yards and 91 receiving yards.

“I think this team is different from last year,” Sheppard said. “I think we have a lot of resilence. We showed a lot of toughness, a lot of effort playing from behind and putting ourselves in position to almost get a score at the end. I think that shows the team we have this year.”

Still, Duke talks constantly about playing in the sewer and winning on the last play. That opportunity was there and Duke didn’t seize it.

Clock management wasn’t good at the end. C.J. Campbell had a chance to get out of bounds but didn’t. Duke lost some time. A third-down pass from the 16 was broken up short of the goal line, a play that would have stopped the clock to move the chains had it been completed but might ended the game had Jerry Hasley caught it, or at least not left Duke time to run more than one play.

That pass has to go into the end zone. Doesn’t it?

Anyway. Duke takes its first loss of the season, Tech continues its recent dominance over Duke and the Blue Devils try to regroup for their fiercest rivals.

Morris says playing the Tar Heels next week will help Duke move on.

“We’ll learn from what happened today and it will make us a better team. Obviously, a huge game next week and I’m already thinking about them. Learn from what I and the team and the defense didn’t do good today and improve and it’s right on to UNC and I’m really excited to play them this year.”

Diaz notes this was just Duke’s fifth game and even with the loss, Duke still has a betetr record than they did after five games last season.

“We did some things that have not been in our identity,” Diaz said. “There’s more learning to do. The true version of the team we want to be, we’re not there yet.”

In other words, almost six months from last night’s Duke-Belmont exhibition game.

SIX MONTHS

A season really is a lifetime.

So, anything we saw or thought we saw in Duke’s 102-62 win needs to be taken with that very significant qualifier.

Belmont is in the Missouri Valley Conference. That’s a good mid-major league and they’re a power in that league. They finished 26-6 last season, turned down an NIT bid and lost their head coach--Casey Alexander--to Kansas State.

They’ve won at least 19 games every season beginning with the 2005-’06 season.

This is a very good program. A very good program with a new coach, Evan Bradds, who as we all know, spent last season at Duke. Also a very good program missing a few players.

As was Duke. Caleb Foster (ankle) and former Belmont player Drew Scharnowski (knee) missed the game with injuries that are not believed to be serious.

Foster and Scharnowski are both fourth-year players. Their absence left Jon Scheyer with a very young lineup. Duke played 10 players at least 13 minutes. Seven were playing their first game in a Duke uniform; Sebastian Wilkins practiced for Duke last season, but did not play. Junior holdover Patrick Ngongba II and senior transfer John Blackwell were the only upperclassmen in that group.

But we saw a Duke team that has already embraced Jon Scheyer’s culture. They defended, they shared the ball, they dominated the boards and they hit the floor for every loose ball.

“I thought we had really good effort,” Scheyer said. “The rebounding I think showed up in that. I thought we had some good activity on the ball with our pressure and I thought we had some good moments anticipating off the ball as well and we got some run-outs from there.”

The actual game?

Duke was never under any real game pressure and that has to be another qualifier. But maybe Duke wasn’t under any game pressure because they did all the things I listed above.

Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje played 22 minutes, scored 19 points, with seven rebounds and two points.

The narrative over the summer was that he was young, he was going to have to have time to adjust to the college game and one game against a good mid-major doesn’t automatically invalidate that narrative.

And no, he’s not going to be Cooper Flagg or Cameron Boozer. Not this year, at least.

But nobody else has a Cooper Flagg or Cam Boozer this season. Let’s see how he does against the Vols in a couple of weeks. But nothing I’ve seen or heard suggests he’s a next-season kind of player.

John Blackwell scored 17 points in 26 minutes. He was brought in to replace Isaiah Evans’ perimeter scoring. But Blackwell is a more versatile scorer. He can get to the rim in half-court sets, draw fouls, make foul shots (5-5), get the other team in foul trouble.

Dame Sarr was the big eye-opener, to me, at least. Sarr was one of the nation’s best perimeter defenders last season, as a freshman.

Nothing about that will change this season. Maybe even better, if such a thing be possible.

But he’s a completely different player on the offensive side of things. He’s tightened his handle, put on good weight, improved his foul shooting. No more dribbling the ball out of bounds with no one near him, no more getting bumped off the ball going to the rim.

Again. Need to see this against better competition. But, also, again, consistent with what I’ve heard. Sarr’s put in the sweat equity. His 19 points, six rebounds and three assists looks like a down payment on future stardom.

And nine-for-10 from the foul line is nine-for-10 from the foul line.

“It was great to see,” Scheyer said, ‘but I’m not surprised to see.”

Everybody else was good as a baseline. Nobody played themselves out of the rotation. Ngongba got into early foul trouble--he really needs to clean this up--but he did grab seven rebounds in 18 minutes. He also led Duke with four assists.

Cayden Boozer and Deron Rippey, Jr. combined for 23 points but only three assists in 44 minutes, meaning they did play together some. With the return of Foster, Duke really does have an embarassment of riches here.

Sebastian Wilkins had eight points and six rebounds, suggesting his year of practice in the system is paying benefits. He’s ahead of top-five recruit Cam Williams and with a year of work in the system, he might be able to keep it.

Then again, Williams has been battling a bug of some sort. Again, too early to draw that conclusion.

Duke wasn’t perfect, 16 turnovers being the only real cause for concern. Duke did miss some bunnies at the rim.

But they forced 17 turnovers, grabbed 46 rebounds to Belmont’s 28, shot 23 of 27 from the line and held the visitors to 7 of 30 from beyond the arc

“That group we had out there tonight did a nice job and got us off to a start,” Scheyer said. “But, we’re still searching for combinations, what works together. In terms of starting minutes, it’s all up for grabs.”

Well, I’m not sure Ngongba, JBB, Sarr or Blackwell are in any real danger of losing their starting minutes. But a fierce competition for minutes becomes more competitive when everyone gets healthy.

So, it’s good to think that way,

The two teams met every season from 1933 through 2022, when the most recent ACC expansion put an end to an annual game between the two teams.

That gap can largely be attributed to Duke’s dark years. Steve Spurrier beat Tech all three times, including a 30-19 win in 1989 that was crucial to Duke’s ACC co-championship.

After that, Tech won 22 of the next 24 meetings.

But some of Duke’s better teams have been stung by the Jackets. Bill Murray’s last great Duke team went 8-2 in 1962. One of the losses was 14-7 at unranked Southern Cal to open the season, a Trojans team that went on to win the national title.

But the other loss was 20-9 at Georgia Tech.

Duke started 9-0 in 1933, only to lose 6-0 at Georgia Tech in the finale.

David Cutcliffe’s best Duke team only lost twice in the 2013 regular season. One of those was 38-14 at Tech.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom. Steve Slayden threw six TD passes in a 48-14 win in 1987. Wade won six in a row over the Jackets before World War II. Cutcliffe won five of six in the 2010s.

More recent history hasn’t been so kind to Duke. Tech has won five straight against Duke, two against Cutcliffe, one against Mike Elko (in overtime) and 24-14 and 27-18 against Manny Diaz.

No Duke player has ever been on the winning side against the Ramblin’ Wreck and Duke cornerback Evan Smith says the Revenge Tour is a real thing.

“Honestly, no one in this building has beat Georgia Tech, so, that gives us a huge chip on our shoulder. We just attack it. We have an identity and that’s to take games into the sewer in the fourth quarter and outwork them.

“Georgia Tech, the last two times they’ve beat us, Coach Diaz said they killed us in the fourth quarter. We make sure all of these games are fourth-quarter fights and we win on the last play.”

Will it take a last play?

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No, I haven’t written anything about it. Out-of-town relatives, too busy, lazy, all of the above.

But mainly because there just isn’t much to tell.

I’m not saying the event doesn’t check some boxes. Duke has been giving tutorials to the freshmen students telling them what to cheer and when to use the cheers, maybe even some history. The Uncle Terry letter? Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby?”

And CTC is a chance to see some actual basketball, with referees and the scoreboard and the pep band and the newbies,

But it was still a 12-minute scrimmage, two of them actually and way too small a sample size for some of the way-too-early hottakes I’m seeing on the internet.

Well, I do have one. Please retire the dunk contest. Bury it with honors. Give it a gold watch and thank it for its service.

Even while eschewing traditional niceties like dribbling, that 360-degree dunk was surprisingly elusive.

And next time, maybe, perhaps brief the scoreboard operator on the difference between blue and white, because there seemed to be some issues converting what was happening on the floor to what was happening on the board.

But we did get to see some hoops. And the women do seem to have achieved equality with the men. Each got 12 minutes, although the format varied a bit.

The women first. Two six-minute halves. The players you expected to play well, played well. Toby Fournier had 8 points and 3 rebounds, Delaney Thomas 9 points and 2 rebounds and Ariana Roberson 5 rebounds.

Emma Koabel knocked down a couple of 3s, which was nice to see. Texas transfer Aliayah Crump led everyone with 10 points.

There were only seven combined assists on 18 combined field goals, which is bit on the low side.

The two offenses only turned it over four times.

Of course, the two defenses only forced four turnovers

Emilee Skinner, Jaydn Donovan and Sanai Green were DNPs. All were introduced, none were on crutches or wearing a cast, all seemed to be moving okay, there were no post-game media availabilities for the women or the men and the most I could glean was that everybody is going to be just fine.

On to the men. Drew Scharnowski was the only absentee and we knew that going in. He was moving fine in the introductory sequence.

Did we learn anything? Well, freshman Maxime Meyer (6 points, 2 rebounds) is better than classmates Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje (2 points, 2 rebounds) and Cameron Williams (3 points, 1 rebound).

Of course, if Scharnowksi had been healthy, Meyer would barely have played.

And, yes, I’m being a bit flippant. Remember Christian Reeves a few years ago?

Which doesn’t mean I don’t think Meyer isn’t going to be good. But down the line.

There were a couple of additional takeaways. John Blackwell is going to score against anybody on Duke’s schedule. I knew he could replace Isaiah Evans’ 3-point shooting. But Blackwell is strong with the ball. He can get to the rim and finish through contact.

He had 10 points.

And Deron Rippey, Jr. Yes, it’s one 12-minute block of time and for all I know he went out in Duke’s next practice and looked like his hands hadn’t been properly introduced to his feet.

But he has an athleticism we haven’t seen in a Duke guard in some time; quickness, speed, explosion, elevation. Seven points, three assists and a couple of steals and he did most of this against some combination of Blackwell, Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr.

Sarr made both of his foul shots, by the way. Small sample size but a promising sign for someone who made 53.2% from the line last season.

Promising signs is about as much as I’ve got. We’ll start to learn more later this week when Duke hosts Belmont in the first of Duke’s three exhibition games.

There’s some continuity. Duke returns senior Caleb Foster, junior Patrick Ngongba II and freshmen Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr. All were starters at some point last season.

Duke also returns Sebastian Wilkins. He practiced with the team but did not play.

Roster retention wasn’t perfect. Duke lost Nik Khamenia to UConn and Darren Harris to Indiana. I wasn’t happy to see either leave. But neither looks to be irreplaceable.

Duke has experience. Foster is a senior, as is Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell. Belmont transfer Drew Scharnowski is a fourth-year junior. Ngongba is a true junior.

Four upperclassmen expected to be in the rotation. Not too shabby.

Duke is big. Really big. The Blue Devils have seven players listed at 6-8 or taller, five listed at 6-10 or taller.

Most of all, Duke is deep, deeper than any Duke team I can recall.

A brief refresher. Ngongba, Scharnwoski and Canadian freshman Maxime Meyer are your centers.

Freshmen Cam Williams and Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje are the 4s.

Sarr and Wilkins are second-year players expected to fill most of the minutes at wing forward.

Foster, Blackwell, freshman Bryson Howard and perhaps Loyola (Md) transfer Jacob Theodosiou are nominal 2s, although they can play some 3 in a small-ball lineup.

Boozer and freshman Deron Rippey, Jr. are pure point guards.

Assuming we eliminate Meyer and Theodosiou, that leaves us with 11 presumptive ACC-level players.

We still have 200 player-minutes to go around. That’s 18.2 minutes per player.

I’m pretty sure Duke isn’t going to have 11 players playing 18 minutes per game.

But is there a universe in which 11 players see regular time?

I can’t find a relevant example, a power-conference team with legitimate national-title aspirations in the modern era being the “relevant” part.

The 2014-’15 Kentucky team probably comes closest.

They had 10 players play at least 10.9 mpg, with an 11^th playing 7.1

No one played more than the 25.9 mpg played by Willie Cauley-Stein.

But Alex Poythress only played eight games, due to injury.

So, that leaves us with nine.

Future NBA all-stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Devin Booker both played around 21 mpg.

That team won its first 38 games and went into the Final Four undefeated.

But in their loss to Wisconsin, John Calipari played only seven players more than eight minutes, including Booker, who played 19.

Even the deepest teams compress their rotations in the biggest games.

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Scott had a pretty good career at Duke. He led the Devils in rushing in 2009 and 2010 and would have again had he not missed three games to injury in 2011. He moved to wide receiver in 2012 and caught 66 passes for Cutcliffe’s first Duke bowl team, the one that broke an 18-year bowl drought.

He ended his career with 1,159 rushing yards and 1,214 receiving yards, on 143 receptions.

Like, I said. Pretty good career.

Why am I talking about Desmond Scott?

Context. Scott led Duke with 262 rushing yards as a freshman, when Cutcliffe was still putting together an ACC line. That is the lowest total to lead Duke in rushing for a season. Jay Hollingsworth led Duke with 399 the season before. Duke’s leading rushers had less than 400 yards in 1991, 1997, 1999 and 2006.

All of these teams had losing records.

Nate Sheppard passed 262 rushing yards in the first half of Duke’s second game, a 31-27 win at Illinois.

This isn’t to cast shade on Scott or Hollingsworth or any other Duke football player, but rather to suggest that Sheppard is having a pretty special season.

The college-football universe is catching on. Earlier this month Hugh Straine wrote in Sports Illustrated that “the stud sophomore has been one of the most productive players in college football, and he might be the most valuable player in the entire sport. Duke has an identity, and it revolves around the run game. Sheppard leads that charge.”

Duke fans have plenty of experience rooting for players considered the best athletes in their sport. No fewer than 14 Duke men’s basketball players have won a recognized national player of the year award.

Michelle Cooper won the Hermann Trophy as the nation’s top women’s soccer player in 2022. Six Duke men have won the award, most recently Andrew Wenger, in 2011. Brennan O’Neill won the 2023 Tewaarton Award as the nation’s best men’s lacrosse player in 2023.

Women’s basketball, women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse have all produced national winners. Dave Sime was setting world sprint records as a Duke student in 1956.

But football? Some occasional great players and great seasons, to be sure. Offensive guard Laken Tomlinson was named first-team AP All-American in 2014, safety Jeremy Cash the following season.

Cash was named ACC DPOY in 2015. But Deshaun Watson was named OPOY and overall POY.

Duke hasn’t had an ACC POY since running back Robert Baldwin, back in 1994.

Baldwin was named third-team AP All-American that year. But as far as I can tell,the ACC Player of the Year received zero votes for the Heisman Trophy.

At least not in the top-10, which is as deep as I can find.

College football has an award for darn near every single thing, sometimes more than one for the same position group. The best long snapper in the FBS wins the Patrick Mannelly Award. Mannelly, of course, was an offensive lineman and long snapper at Duke before becoming an NBA star as the latter.

Duke actually has had one player win one of the more prestigious awards. But we have to go back pretty far.

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It was indeed one-sided. Try 62-7. The last time Duke scored that many points was the 1949 season-opener, when Duke beat Richmond 67-0.

The win was Duke’s eighth straight, the final four least season, the first four this season.

David Cutcliffe’s best Duke team won eight straight in 2013 before losing to Florida State in the ACC title game.

Just looking at the final score, you might think Manny Diaz has some sort of grudge against William & Mary or head football coach Mike London or Colonial Williamsburg, or whatever.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Duke played five quarterbacks. Fourth-string running back C.J. Givers scored the last of Duke’s eight touchdowns. True freshmen backups scored Duke’s 21 points, PATS included. A dozen different Devils caught passes. Two-dozen made tackles. Duke played some 80 players. Nate Sheppard only carried the ball nine times and still picked up 116 rushing yards.

Duke wasn’t perfect. The Blue Devils were called for four holding penalties, two of which nullified touchdowns. So effective was Duke offense that they subsequently scored a touchdwon and a field goal later in those drives.

A fake punt failed miserably and gave the visitors the ball at Duke’s 26. They lost nine yards and Luke Mergott blocked the field goal.

Duke didn’t force a turnover. But they didn’t commit one either.

Duke took the ball first and went 75 yards on 10 plays. With W&M selling out to stop the run, Walker Eget went five for six on that drive, a 24-yard scoring strike to Jayden Moore the play after Jared Richardson’s hold nullified Sheppard’s TD run.

The only real game pressure came late in the first period. With Duke up 14-0, Winston Watkins took advantage of some blown coverage with a 63-yard strike to Khylil Johnson, to the Duke six.

The Tribe scored on the bext play.

Was this going to be a game?

Nope.

Duke went touchdown, field goal, touchdown and touchdown and it was 38-7 at intermission.

Duke did keep W&M out of the end zone in the second half, the fourth consecutive time Duke has accomplished that this season.

Duke stopped the Tribe on downs inside the Duke five late in the first half. The visitors had the ball five times in the second half and each drive ended with a punt.

Duke’s defense had four sacks and nine TFLs. Linebacker Bradley Gompers had two sacks, one each for Chadwicke Cannon, Jr. and Kobe Smith.

End Tyshon Reed had two tackles, one a TFL and a quarterback hurry.

He said Duke’s defense got what it needed.

“Coming into the game, our big focus was just being us, dialing in on what we do.”

Duke had 28 first downs, to William and Mary’s seven, 638 total yards, to 170.

Eget ended with 16 of 22 passing, for 182 yards, Mahan 6 of 7, for 126 yards. Eget threw two touchdown passes, Mahan three.

Duke averaged 10.4 yards per pass attempt. 7.7 yards per rush.

“There were a couple of lapses, we weren’t happy about,” Manny Diaz said. “But I thought going into the game, we were going to play a ton of guys. It felt like the standard had changed. I think that is really going to help us for this season and for years to come. I think future Duke got better today because of how many guys got in. That’s how you sustain programs.”

Duke has a bye week, early than optimal, before going to Atlanta to take on a Georgia Tech program that has defeated Duke five straight times.

With football having an open date next weekend, I’ll tie some stuff together next week.

But I did want to share some highlights.

Jon Scheyer began with a heartfelt tribute to former Duke assistant and ESPN analyst Chris Spatola, who passed away earlier this week, tragically, suddenly and way too soon.

Scheyer recalled the end of the 2009 season, when Duke lost to Villanova in the Sweet 16.

“He hugged me and told me ‘we’ll be back and we’ll win the whole’ thing, which we did the following year. He’s the guy who texted me when it was announced that I was the next Duke head coach, ‘you’re built for this.’ “

Rest In Peace.

On to 2026-’27.

Other than Drew Scharnowski, Duke is healthy. Scharnowski had some knee stuff cleaned up recently. He says he’s aiming for Duke’s regular-season opener against Kansas in about a month.

He wasn’t on crutches and seemed to be walking okay. Cautiously optimistic on this one.

But he will miss Duke’s exhibition game against Belmont, his old school.

You’ll love Scharnowski. He’s an extrovert’s extrovert.

Speaking of health, Patrick Ngongba has been, is, and hopefully, will remain healthy. He’s going to be a force.

A couple of themes dominated.

Duke made no attempt to hide the fact that they are really deep. Practices will be fiercely competitive, which should make individuals and the team better. But nobody plays 11 or 12 guys, not reguarly and somebody is going to be sitting.

But Duke also isn’t going to go into an Elite Eight game with an injury-depleted roster. Strength in numbers. At least that’s the idea.

And defense will continue to define this team. Yes, Duke is huge, yes, Duke has shooters and facilitators galore but if you don’t defend, well, that’s a separator.

Speaking of defenders. Remember when Dame Sarr couldn’t finish through contact?

Forget that. He looks like he lived in the weight room this off-season. The man is sculpted.

He’s also tightened his handle.

Scheyer said Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje is having typical freshman ups and downs and JBB didn’t disagree.

But his teammates talked about him like he was from a different planet. In a good way.

Plus, he’s huge. And he hits 3s.

Did I mention he was huge?

Caleb Foster was “under the weather,” so we didn’t get to talk to him. But it’s clear that his leadership skills are recognized by his teammates.

More down the line.

Lots of others. That’s the nature of the beast.

Which is why William & Mary at Villanova may have slipped under your radar.

Villanova is a periennial FCS power. They won the whole thing in 2009 and made the semifinals last season. They joined the Patriot League in football for this season.

William and Mary did the same.

Villanova was ranked ninth in the FCS poll when they hosted W&M on August 28. The home team led 32-22, with less than a minute to play. William & Mary kicked a field goal with 53 seconds left. They recovered the onside kick and tied the game with a touchdown and PAT.

Twenty-two seconds left.

Villanova went to the air. Interception. William & Mary kicked a field goal on the game’s final play.

Three W&M scores in the final 53 seconds. On the road, as an underdog. William & Mary 35 Villanova 32.

I asked Duke linebacker Nick Morris, Jr. what that comeback told him about this week’s Duke opponent.

“That tells me a few things. One, that they play very hard. We got our scouting report this morning [Tuesday] and that was the message, that they play very hard. Also, that example of the Villanova comeback tells me that they believe they can win. I’m sure coming in to play a Power-Four team, they’ll have that same level of belief that they can come in and win.

“As a leader, the onus is on me and the other captains to make sure we aren’t taking a step back this week. We need to even ramp up the intensity this week because a lot of teams succumb to the temptation to treat a week like this, where the external perception is that the game is less important than it normally is against an ACC team, the tendency is to take a step back in intensity. But if we can ramp it up, we’re going to have a huge advantage over our future opponents.”

Manny Diaz has noted that Duke struggled early against Elon in each of the last two seasons--not overlooking Elon, just first-game wobbles. He also noted that William & Mary forces lots of turnovers. Their starting quarterback is 6-5 Winston Watkins, who started his career at Towson. Watkins is completing two-thirds of his passes.

Mike London is their head coach. He used to be the head guy at Richmond, then Virginia, where he had success against David Cutcliffe, early in Cut’s Duke tenure.

London’s Virginia tenure did not end well, 15 wins, 33 losses over his last four seasons. He’s been at Howard and now William & Mary since then.

That’s about as much as I’ve got. W&M’s season has started to head in the wrong direction after that opener. They edged Delaware State 22-15, got blown out by Lehigh--another top-FCS school-and then got absolutely mauled by Fordham. The final was 52-27.

Fordham was outscored 83-7 in its two previous games. The William & Mary game is their only win in four games.

Fordham rushed for 428 yards against the Tribe.

Without belaboring the point, that does not bode well for a team facing Nate Sheppard and company.

The odds-makers agree. Duke is favored by 43.5 points. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Duke favored by that much. Duke could totally control the game and still not cover the spread.

So, it comes back to Duke being the best version of Duke. Get off to a quick start, dictate the narrative, get those pesky penalties under control, play to the “standard” and let’s see what the youngsters can do.

“Practice, practice, practice.”

One of my favorites. I’ve used it before and I’ll probably use it again.

Yes, I think it’s funny. But it’s also a perfect segue to athletic success stories.

You probably have a favorite Duke football player. Nate Sheppard is doing things no Duke player has ever done. I’m planning on taking a deep dive into Sheppard’s season next week.

Then there are the players who have fought through injuries and surgeries and rehabs and doubts and fears. Nick Morris, Jr. Jerry Hasley. Walker Eget. Kobe Smith.

Did you know C.J. Campbell broke a fibula in preseason in 2022 at Florida State in 2022 and came back to play later that season? That doesn’t just happen by accident.

There’s another subset of players easy to root for. The players who waited in vain for their phones to ring or the texts to arrive, for the recruiting letters to pile up in what turned out to be empty mailboxes.

Duke talks a lot about playing with a chip on their shoulders.

But individuals play with chips on their shoulders.

Which brings me to Jonah Burton.

He’s a wide receiver, a transfer from Idaho State and Baylor before that.

Burton grew up in California, playing for several high schools, finishing at Simi Valley High School. He suffered a PCL injury there. That’s a poster cruciate ligament injury. That’s not as serious as an ACL but it’s still a knee injury, one that kept him off the field.

Then Covid kicked in.

Burton says he had some interest from the Ivies but uncertainty about the pandemic ended those.

Otherwise, nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Burton walked on at Baylor. Josh Cameron was another walk-on, another wide receiver.

They worked together to improve.

“We would get lifts after practice, I think we caught over 6,000, 7,000 jugs over the summer. Just that work ethic, as a walk-on, that was instilled in me as a freshman.”

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