Kyle Singler, Kyrie Irving Lead the Duke Blue Devils Past the Princeton Tigers

Duke’s tilt with Princeton last night went about as expected. Devilicious’ take here. This year’s Devils are going to be as good as advertised. There may be some chemistry issues here or there, and I hope people stop with the undefeated talk immediately—it’s not happening. But Duke’s guard penetration and three point game could be nigh unstoppable this year when it’s even remotely clicking.

If rumors are true about Andre Dawkins expanding his game to get into the lane on occasion, and he showed that a bit tonight, Duke will have 3-4 guards that can pull up in your face or drive the lane, depending on how you choose to guard them. I’m curious if Seth Curry can be as wily as his older brother at creating his own shot when the three is not there. If that comes along too—oh, my.

And then there’s Kyle Singler. Oh yeah, him. But there are some concerns too, and I’ll get into them below.

Kyle Singler: Ho hum. 16 points, 4 rebounds. The guy is a talent and will have Nolan and Kyrie feeding him all year. It was a solid, if a bit pedestrian, game but other than one defensive brain fart, no complaints. The Plumlees defensive lapses are going to create foul problems for Kyle this year. More on that later.

Nolan Smith: 22-4-6. He’s not getting a ton of player of the year buzz in the ACC, but I could see him usurping Kyle when it’s all said and done. He’s got onions and a swagger. Not douchey Jason Williams onions, but BAMF Nate James onions. That’s not always the case with Duke teams.

Kyrie Irving: I hadn’t seen him before and had NO idea his three-point shot was that good. How do you guard this kid? He’s not as explosive or as strong as John Wall (he’s not too far off, though), but his shot already looks better. He’s going to give the coaches some headaches on occasion, but he looks like he’s got a lot of William Avery in him but taller, and that’s a good thing.

The Plumlees: Sigh. I think these guys can be good, really good. Mason clearly has more upside, but that’s stating the obvious. A poor man’s Blake Griffith is potentially there. But both of these guys got lost multiple times off the ball on defense. I get that Princeton will do that to you, but I am dreading a match-up against a skilled big man like Jared Sullinger.

Not only do the Plumlees foul A LOT, they lost their guy leading to two of Singler’s fouls last night. Right now, they are adept at put backs, defensive rebounding and weak-side help defense on blocks. And maybe that’s enough. But something tells me at least a few times this year, including the tourney, someone is going to go all D’Juan Blair on Duke’s inside players. I want to see if these guys can hold their own on the offensive boards too now that Brian Zoubek isn’t there. This wasn’t the game to find that out.

Ryan Kelly: I was watching, wondering, what he actually brings to the table. But if you saw him last year, it’s clear he’s put on what looks to be about 30 pounds and, unlike the Plumli, (that’s the right plural, right?) he played some pretty solid off the ball team defense from what I could tell. He could be a nice contributor in the Nick Horvath mold.

He supposedly has a three-point shot too. We’ll see. I feel like he should be wearing goggles and playing in gray sweat pants from the athletic department of some New Jersey prep school. You know the guy. The guy at the pick up games that is always yelling “follow your shot” to complete strangers and throws the check in bounce pass a little too hard as if he’s compensating.

Still, when I started paying attention to him, he looked to be pretty solid when on the floor if you can get past his awkward appearance. Don’t be so superficial, guys!

Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry: Both of these guys played well, and if they continue to play like this, Duke is going to be like that ‘Nova team with Allen Ray and Kyle Lowry after five cans of NOS. Curry is going to have to adjust to not being the man, but I think he has more upside than Dawkins. That said, Dawkins knows his role, and seemed to be more in the flow of the Duke offense in the first half.

As mentioned, if these guys can create their own shot regularly as well as hit the three, I’m not sure how you guard Duke on the perimeter unless all four of the guards are off that night.

What will be telling is if these guys can play defense against the big boys. Marty Pocius was as skilled an offensive player as Duke has seen in the past six years outside of Gerald Henderson (don’t believe me, watch Lithuania in the World Championships), but he couldn’t get it together on defense. I wonder if the same thing might happen to one of these guys by the heart of ACC season.

Josh Hairston: Frankly, I like what I saw. He looks the part, and was vocal out there for a freshman, which K likes. Whether he becomes Nate James or Jamal Boykin is another matter. I’d still be surprised if he’s in the rotation in February. Surprise me Josh!

Tyler Thornton: I think I had zoned out by the time he got any real minutes, but apparently he played. I am sure his two points were off some amazing highlight dunk so all of you can tell me how bad of fan/blogger I am.

Whatever. I had to catch up on the Walking Dead last night.

Tyler’s box score looked pretty decent. Unless there are injuries, we won’t see again him after January 1, so I clearly missed an opportunity here.

All in all, an, an A-. I thought the Plumlees' weaknesses (and ergo, Duke’s weakness inside on the defensive end) showed, but Duke may be good enough where that is a minor problem. Princeton clearly couldn’t handle Duke’s perimeter defense or cover its guards, so take everything with a grain of salt. But all in all, there is not much else to complain about. Duke looks very good.

Welcome Mr. Irving

Also last night, but not on my TV – Maryland handled Maine and the ‘Noles crushed UNC Greensboro. Yawn.

Tonight we have Miami at Memphis, which should be reasonably exciting. Also on tap, Clemson-Wofford, Wake Forest-Hampton, Georgia Tech and Kennesaw St (which I SWEAR when I lived in Atlanta was a community college. Am I wrong?), and UVA playing something called a “USC Upstate.”

I was really hoping that was University of SOUTHERN CAL, Upstate, because that would be hilarious. But it appears to be in South Carolina, which I didn’t realize even had an “upstate.” Isn’t that called North Carolina? Danny Wimbledon, I need a verdict.

Hope to have a post up Wednesday on Va Tech KSU. That should be a fun game, assuming I survive Frank Martin’s stares which can kill you from inside your TV set if you don’t look away...

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