All Eyes On Freshmen As Duke Plays Blue-White Scrimmage

There were 10 players on the court, but most eyes were on a trio of freshmen.

That was the scene at Duke's Blue-White scrimmage Saturday night, as the Blue team knocked off the White team 69-64 in front of 9,314 excited fans.

Freshmen Kyle Singler and Taylor King guarded each other for the entire 30-minute game and exchanged plenty of offensive punches. King wowed the crowd with five first-half 3-pointers on his way to 19 points and six rebounds. Singler scored from all over the floor to net a game-high 23 points on 9-for-17 shooting and added nine boards.

The other highly touted freshman, point guard Nolan Smith, started slowly — making just two of seven first-half shots and turning the ball over twice — but got the white team, which also featured Singler, back into the game in the second half with several drives to the basket and a pair of steals. Smith finished with 19 points and five thefts.

Playing at a tempo that belied the "scrimmage" tag, the game didn't feel meaningless to the newcomers.

"It felt like a real game," Smith said. "It wasn't until the buzzer that I realized I was playing against Duke, but it was a great game."

King got the crowd rocking when he stepped into a pair of 3-pointers in the early going without a hint of hesitation. After making his fourth triple of the half, he bobbed his head up in down in excitement.

"I wasn't really nervous," King said. "I was just looking for a good shot and trying to let it go. Fortunately I got on a roll and I started making a lot of shots."

From the opening seconds, when he grabbed Lance Thomas' tip, Singler was in the middle of the action. While it took him a while longer than King to wow the crowd, he had one of the highlights of the night when he emphatically slammed home an ally-oop from Jon Scheyer in the second half, causing the student section to chant, "Kyle Singler."

Singler was at his best, however, in slyly getting to the basket several times before help defense could block his path. Senior captain DeMarcus Nelson was most impressed by a baseline move Singler made where he drove past King and then quickly switched hands to avoid 7-foot-1 Brian Zoubek and draw a foul.

"That was a big-time move," Nelson said. "During the move, I even thought that was a good move."

Singler, however, was brought back down to the earth when an attempt at a second ally-oop — this time from Smith — was swatted away by sophomore forward Gerald Henderson, who scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds and added four assists.

"I saw it happening before it happened, so I just kind of anticipated it," Henderson said.

The White team, which was much less experienced than the blue — which featured Nelson, Henderson and junior point guard Greg Paulus — trailed 41-29 at halftime, but Smith sparked a rabid comeback with his intense defense that created several transition baskets.

At one point the white team tied the game 57-57 before Henderson scored three consecutive baskets — sandwiched around two white points — to keep the Blue squad in front 64-59.

Smith scored 15 points in the second half, including seven in the first three and a half minutes.

"It felt great," Smith said. "The first half I was a little nervous to make plays and play for the crowd, but I settled down and it was just a great feeling to get out there.

"It was exciting playing with so much emotion in here. When the fans get into it your adrenaline just gets rushing and you're making plays that just make you want to yell. I think in the last two minutes of the game we were just on 'E.'"

While coach Mike Kyzyzewski reserved judgment on the freshmen's performance, saying he'll have to review the tape, the more experienced players lauded the youngsters, but also weren't surprised.

"All three of them, they all played well — extremely well," Nelson said.

"They showed that they (didn't have) stage fright at all tonight."

Perhaps the most telling thing about the freshmen's performance was their competitiveness. All three played the entire game, and with the exception of one possession where King watched his shot instead of hustling back on defense — which resulted in a layup for Smith — they didn't let up, playing to win until the final horn.

"I don't want to say I was satisfied, because we lost, but I thought I played fine," Singler said. "I missed some easy shots that I could have made, some plays that I could have made.

"When it came down to it, we needed some plays, but unfortunately we couldn't make those plays."