Scheyer, Smith, Singler carry No. 8 Duke
February 9, 2010
DURHAM, N.C. (AP)—Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler reallycouldn’t ask for much more.
The Duke trio has found the setup that every college basketball playerdreams of: plenty of shots, lots of points and abundant minutes. The formula hascarried No. 8 Duke to the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference heading intoWednesday’s trip to rival North Carolina, and the Blue Devils’ hopes of making astrong push in March could hinge on how well their “Big Three” holds up underthat burden the rest of the year.
“We ideally would like to have balanced scoring, but it’s not really how itis,” Singler said Monday. “The responsibility that Jon, Nolan and myself has,we don’t necessarily look at it as pressure because we have each other to helpeach other out.”
So far, Scheyer, Smith and Singler are each averaging better than 16 pointsper game and entered Saturday’s win at Boston College as the nation’s topscoring trio. All three are ranked among the ACC scoring leaders—Scheyer andSmith rank second and third, respectively—while they account for abouttwo-thirds of the Blue Devils’ scoring output, shot attempts and made freethrows.
Scheyer, a senior, leads Duke (19-4, 7-2 ACC) at just under 19 points pergame and leads the league by shooting 91 percent at the foul line. Smith isaveraging about 18 points, while fellow junior Singler is averaging about 17points as an inside-out threat. No other Blue Devils player averages more thanseven points.
They could be in line for a big performance against the defending nationalchampion Tar Heels (13-10, 2-6), who have struggled to defend the perimeter allseason and are limping through their worst stretch under coach Roy Williams.
“All three of us work on scoring off each other and getting great looks,”Smith said. “Scoring for us just comes because we’re all veterans and we’veplayed in a lot of games. Now we’re at the point where we’re so comfortable outthere that scoring sometimes comes easily.”
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has been content to rely on the trio to lead theoffense, saying there’s a significant gap between the “Big Three” and the restof the team in experience and scoring ability.
“If only two of them were scoring, I’d be disappointed,” Krzyzewski joked.“The way we have set up our team, those three guys have to be put in prominentpositions to score and they’ve come through pretty well in doing that. That’sthe nature of our team. If we had a fourth really big scorer, then I’d try tofigure that out.”
The biggest concern, however, might be the amount of mileage each player ispicking up while hoisting all those shots. Scheyer leads the ACC at more than 36minutes played per game, while Singler is third and Smith is fourth at 35minutes each.
Singler—who seemed to wear down late in his freshman year—has logged 40minutes in five games, while Scheyer and Smith have done it three times each. InSaturday’s 66-63 win at BC, Scheyer and Smith played 40 minutes and Singlerplayed 39.
Yet Krzyzewski said he’s not worried about them wearing down, saying he iscareful with limiting their workload in practices and that players want to stayon the court in games.
Scheyer isn’t complaining, either.
“This is it for me,” the senior said. “I’m taking care of my body everyday. I feel great. I can’t remember I felt tired in a game in terms of beingwinded where I needed to come out.
“In terms of minutes, I know even though I might play a lot of minutes, Iowe it to the team to give it everything I had for those minutes,” he added.“If it got to a point where I was pacing myself or not playing defense like Icould, then I’d say there’s something wrong with this. But that’s not thecase.”