Duke has more scorers on its bench than many teams do in their starting lineups.
Two freshman reserves posted big point totals Saturday, with Taylor King scoring 18 and the 'other' freshman, Nolan Smith adding a career-high 17, showing off his ball handling and driving skills during the Blue Devils' 95-67 rout of Michigan.
"Before the game, Coach K was like, 'We're going to play everybody in the first couple of minutes, so just get ready, play your [tail] off, pretty much,' " King said. "That's what they did, and we just brought guys in, put different lineups in ... and see what works."
Gerald Henderson had 12 points and DeMarcus Nelson and non-starter Jon Scheyer both added 10 for the Blue Devils (9-0), who shot 49 percent and built an insurmountable lead by reeling off 14 straight first-half points, a dominating stretch led by King and Smith. For the fourth time in nine games, the Blue Devils' leading scorer came off the bench -- with King doing it three times.
"Without those reserves, we wouldn't have the type of success that we're having," Nelson said. "On any given moment, we're going to need somebody to step up."
Duke opened with nine straight victories for the third time in four years, won its NCAA-best 56th straight non-conference home game and improved to 3-0 against the Big Ten by sending the Wolverines (3-6) to their sixth loss in seven games.
Ranking prediction: Duke bumps up a notch to the 5th spot, Tarhole nation keeps the top spot, without having played a top 25 team yet.. yep, cause they're unc.. yawn, and the bias train rolls on...
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