Season Wrap-up
Duke Blue Devils 2022-2023
2022-2023
Duke Blue Devils
27-9 Overall (14-6 ACC)
ACC Tournament Champions
Final AP Poll #12
NCAA East Region 5-seed
As I said in the final edition of Quotes & Notes, Duke’s NCAA Tournament loss was disappointing but the season was certainly not a disappointment. The team, Coach Scheyer, and his staff have a lot to be proud of this year - I know I was proud to pull for them all season. Here are some of my favorite things from the 2022-2023 season.
Here comes Duke. Growing up, my dad and I always looked forward to “Midnight Madness,” which marked the official start of college basketball practice. At Duke, it became the Blue/White scrimmage before morphing into Countdown to Craziness. Although the dates and rules regarding practice are different now, I still look forward to Countdown every year - I think it highlights something that often gets forgotten: sports are fun. Every year, I love seeing the team come out and have fun with each other, while interacting with the fans in Cameron. I still get as excited for the new season as I did when I was twelve, and know that with Countdown in the books, the first game is not far behind. Since October 21st, the growth and development of this year’s team, both collectively and individually, was awesome to see.
Duke at Madison Square Garden. I love it every time Duke visits the “Mecca of Basketball.” I was lucky enough to see Duke play at MSG in 2018 - it was awesome and will be a future re-watch. I can’t explain it but there is just something different about a basketball game in The Garden. Duke defeated Iowa 74-62 in the second game of the Jimmy V Classic.
The second half against Pittsburgh. After trailing by 11 points at the break, Duke outscored Pitt 45-26 in the final 20 minutes for a 77-69 victory, as Flip finished with 28 points and 15 rebounds. Here’s every bucket from the second half comeback.
Coach K attends a game in Cameron. The Krzyzewski’s attended Duke’s game against Notre Dame to salute Mike Brey on his departure as head coach of the Fighting Irish. Mark Mitchell’s clutch 3 from the corner iced a 68-64 win for the Blue Devils. I’m so happy for Coach and Mrs. K in their new stage of life.
16-0 at home. For the first time since 2014, Duke went undefeated in Cameron Indoor Stadium. It was the Blue Devils’ 12th unbeaten season at home since 1980 (1986, 1991, 1992, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2023) and Coach Scheyer became the only first-year coach in ACC history to go undefeated at home.
ACC Awards. Five Blue Devils earned All-ACC honors (listed alphabetically):
Kyle Filipowski - Rookie of the Year; All-ACC 2nd Team
Derek Lively - All-Defensive Team; All-Freshman Team
Tyrese Proctor - All-Freshman Team
Jeremy Roach - All-ACC Honorable Mention
A Blue Devil has won 9 of the last 12 ACC Rookie of the Year awards and this marks the fourth straight year with a Duke player on the All-Defensive Team.
Greensboro. What an awesome weekend at the ACC Tournament. Duke set season highs for points (96) and assists (27) in their quarterfinal win over Pittsburgh. The Miami match-up was, as Coach Scheyer remarked after the game, “as high of a level of game as we've played.” Five Blue Devils scored in double figures, including 15 points and 5 assists from Tyrese Proctor, to set up a rematch with Virginia. Duke held UVA to 17 first half points and led wire-to-wire as Jeremy Roach closed out a great team victory in the championship game. It was the Blue Devils’ ninth title in Greensboro and their league leading 22nd ACC Tournament title overall. MVP Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach were named to the All-Tournament 1st Team, Derek Lively earned 2nd Team honors, and Jon Scheyer became the first person to win the ACC Tournament as both a player and a head coach.
Season Stats
I separated the stats I tracked during the season into wins and losses. It’s easy to see that limiting turnovers was one of the keys to winning games for Duke, giving up 9.4 points off turnovers in wins compared to 19 points off turnovers in losses. In fact, the Blue Devils only lost once all season when they gave up fewer than 10 points off turnovers (8 at Virginia Tech).
Duke on the glass. The Blue Devils finished the season with a +7.8 rebounding margin per game, good for 5th nationally among Division I, and is the second highest rebounding margin for Duke since 2010 (+8.1 in 2017-2018). Here are Duke’s full statistics for the season.
Toughness. Duke was tough all year, fighting through adversity and injury to finish one game shy of sharing the ACC regular season crown. Everyone in the rotation made big-time plays on both ends of the floor. I started writing down all the winning plays I loved and the list quickly became too long - maybe I’ll work on that for a separate post. Collectively, Duke relied on their toughness and togetherness to win a number of games, and be in a position to win several others. Think about all the plays required to win against Oregon State (54-51), Xavier (71-64), Ohio State (81-72), at Boston College (65-64), Miami (68-66), Wake Forest (75-73), and NC State (71-67), as well as the Iowa, Pitt, and Notre Dame games I mentioned above. Both rivalry games with North Carolina could have gone either way - Duke made a few more plays to win them both, including 14 rebounds and 8 blocks for DLive in Cameron. And of course, you don’t beat Miami and Virginia in consecutive days without making winning plays throughout both games.
Coach Scheyer on the most rewarding part of the season. “I don't think it's even close for me. It's seeing these guys grow as players, as people, seeing our team do the same thing. I felt like we made huge strides from November to now. I think our team is night and day. We ran into the wrong team on the wrong day. They outplayed us today, and you have to credit them. But I felt like we could play with anybody in the country. That's for me by far the most rewarding thing. To represent the school where I played, where I've coached for the last nine years has meant the world, and I'm just proud of these guys for what they've done.”
I loved the 2022-2023 Duke team and look forward to seeing their ACC Tournament banner hanging in Cameron - it was a special season for the Duke program.
Thanks for reading, Go Duke!
Sources
Pumped that Tyrese Proctor is heading back for his Sophomore year!