Duke’s freshman guards step up in win over No. 10 Baylor

By Sam Federman (@Sam_Federman)

NEW YORK — Ahead by four with four minutes to play, Duke sent a pocket pass to Ryan Young in the low post. With freshman Jared McCain in the opposite corner, the Blue Devils had the look they wanted.

“I knew the corner defender was either going to help or stay with me,” McCain said. “He made a bad decision, and I was able to capitalize off of it.”

That triple was one of three, and three of a career-high 21 points for the California native. He opened the scoring with a mid-range jumper, and he hit plenty of important shots down the stretch leading to No. 21 Duke pulling away from 10th-ranked Baylor for a 78-70 victory.

“McCain hurt us,” Baylor head coach Scott Drew noted. “That three-pointer that he hit in the corner by the bench was really big, and that one was on us. We did a bad job following the scouting report.”

It could be argued that Duke’s two most impactful players tonight were freshman guards, in McCain and North Carolina native Caleb Foster. The latter adeptly found his way into the lane in multiple instances, finishing at the rim to a tune of 12 points.

“I thought Caleb ran our team great,” head coach Jon Scheyer proclaimed, “and on defense, he played his butt off.”

In the era of the transfer portal and COVID seniors, fewer and fewer freshmen are given the responsibility on the biggest stage of the sport that McCain and Foster had tonight. With sophomore Tyrese Proctor sidelined due to an injury, the newcomers were up to the task in their first game at Madison Square Garden.

McCain has stayed even-keeled this season, maintaining his reputation as one of the best shooters in the country. A notable name before he entered college on the court, he also amassed a significant following on social media, but turning away from that has led to success.

“I got off social media,” McCain said. “I knew (Duke haters and more) were coming, I just deleted everything. My brother is running it, so just getting off that and just knowing that I have to stay close to the people who I’m close with, being close with the team and my family, and trust their words and talk to them about what I can do better.”

“Where they could’ve folded, they rose to the occasion,” senior Jeremy Roach said of his sproutly backcourt mates. “I went through the same ups and downs, but the growth they’ve had early is big time. They’re always asking questions, always trying to learn, always trying to find ways to get better. That’s kind of rare in some of these five-stars, but it’s big for us.”

Roach, who has assumed a leadership role on this team, told his teammates down the stretch, “this is man time, you’ve got to be a man out there.” His 18 points were big, but his presence on the roster is even bigger than that.

“It’s a make or break point for the season,” Scheyer said. “Jeremy is like, ‘it’s not going down this way,’ and the whole team has responded together.”

Baylor’s freshmen also had a big night, with Ja’Kobe Walter scoring 15 points, and Yves Missi recording a double-double with five blocks. But when Missi briefly went to the locker room with what appeared to be a neck injury in the second half, Duke’s star big man Kyle Filipowski scored baskets on back-to-back possessions, pulling the Blue Devils back into the game. And for Walter, after he had a big start to the second half, he was held without a field goal in the last 15 minutes of the affair.

“We knew if we just ran up on him, kind of trail him off the screen, we’re with him,” Roach said of the Duke defense shutting one of the top freshmen in the country down during the stretch run. “He tried to play one-on-one, and that was probably going to be our best bet. When you give a great player like that catch and shoot shots, he starts to feel himself, you’ve just got to take that confidence away, and me and Jared did a great job of that.”

Duke’s bench was very light tonight, with Jaylen Blakes being the only guard to come off the bench, only receiving 10 minutes. The reliance on the freshmen, as well as Roach, is a risk Scheyer had to take, but it paid off with a huge reward. Duke finally has a statement win on its resume after disappointing losses against an underwhelming Arkansas team and at Georgia Tech. And to do so at a sold out Madison Square Garden, only made the victory more special. 

“There’s really no words to describe it,” McCain said. “It’s New York at Christmas time. I’m going to see the Rockefeller (Center) tree tomorrow. I’m excited, this is just a surreal moment.”