Here's a write up from a Duke fan. Be sure to check out the link below the write up to check out what duke fans are saying about Arizona Vs Duke in their game thread.
Duke MBB v Arizona (11/10, 7:00 PM EST, ESPN2) Pre-game and In-game Thread
The non-conference schedule ramps up in intensity in earnest on Friday night as the Duke Blue Devils host the Arizona Wildcats. This is the first of a home-and-home series between the two programs; Duke makes the return visit to Tucson next fall. Both Tommy Lloyd and Jon Scheyer are in early years of their head coaching careers after serving as long-time assistants to Hall of Famers (future in the case of Mark Few). They both bring similar approaches to their predecessors.
Lloyd loves to push the pace. His first two years in Arizona saw him install the Gonzaga offense and a penchant for recruiting international players. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 in the nation in tempo. Like Duke, Arizona has a lot of guards and a mix of youth and experience. The star player is also a big man. Arizona's Oumar Ballo is a 7-footer from Mali that began his career with Lloyd at Gonzaga before transferring with his current head coach in the summer of 2021. Ballo is one of those 5th year senior giants that you see in the college game. His role is to defend the rim, rebound the ball, run the court hard, get to the rim, and score. He is the leading returning scorer and rebounder on the squad. Ballo was the Most Improved Player in the Pac-12 last season and showed that he can score efficiently around the rim and grab boards. He is big, he is long, and he affects everything down low. He will be a load for this Duke squad to handle.
Ballo has a few traits that can be exploited. He is not particularly quick on his feet and can be cooked in the pick-and-roll. Proctor and Filipowski have developed a nice 2-man game that I am sure we will see on Friday night. Filipowski may find that he can take Ballo off the dribble or just pull him out of the lane to allow others to get to the rim. Ballo also is a poor free-throw shooter, hitting under 60% from the FT line last season. Behind Ballo, Lloyd has size and youth on the bench. The only true C is 7'2" FR Montiejus Krivas from Lithuania. We'll probably see 7'0" SO F Dylan Anderson - more of a stretch 4 type - and 6'10" SO F Henri Veesaar also take some minutes in the post. Veesaar did not play Monday night against Morgan State, so he might not be able to go on Friday night. Lloyd likes to seal his big men down low early in the shot clock to create easy looks in transition. Expect to see a lot of bumping and pushing for position.
While Ballo gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so, this squad has an abundance of guard depth. The starters are expected to be 6'2" SO PG Kylan Boswell, 6'4" SR Caleb Love (no introduction necessary around here), and 6'5" SR G Pelle Larsson from Sweden. Boswell takes over for the fiery Kerr Krissa, now at West Virginia. Boswell is a good shooter (39% from 3 as a freshman) that has a lot of promise as a PG. He will be tested this year to make sure the other players on the court can get their shots. Love is someone that can and will take shots at any time. Larsson is a "good at lots of things/master of none" kind of guard. He is a veteran and has been through it with this coaching staff for the past 2 seasons. Behind the three starters, Lloyd brought in former Alabama PG SO Jaden Bradley. The Concord, NC native started 22 games for Alabama last season so it was a bit of a shock to see him transfer to a likely bench role at Arizona. He is fast and can score going downhill. Like Love, Bradley struggled with his 3-point shot last season (31.8%). Lloyd also landed 5-star FR G KJ Lewis from the talented Duncanville, TX high school program. Lewis is expected to play a good amount of minutes and projects as an athletic wing that is farther along as a defender than a scorer at the moment. We might not see much of 6'0" FR PG Conrad Martinez from Spain in the game.
The one starter I haven't mentioned yet is the other forward, 6'7" Keshad Johnson. You may remember him from last year's San Diego State squad that was the National Runner-Ups. He is a junkyard dog-type undersized 4 man that cleans up misses and crashes the boards. His offensive game is limited to finishing lobs and getting put-backs, although he is very good in that role. Last season's Arizona team featured multidimensional big man Azoulas Tubelis, whose game was very similar to Kyle Filipowkski. Johnson is a very different type of player. He and Ballo are going to dominate the glass and score around the rim and in transition a ton. It will be interesting to see how Ballow adapts to being a bigger focus of the defense without Tubelis this year to take some of the attention away from the rim. Arizona also has 6'9" SO F Filip Borovicain on the bench that can add a stretch-4 element to the offense if needed.
Arizona looks big because of Ballo and their bench, but they are kind of small once you look at the rest of the starters and projected depth. In that sense, they look a little like Duke if Coach Scheyer did his recruiting at the UN instead of the East Coast. Arizona has thrived during the regular season under Lloyd with the up-tempo style and international flair. The postseason has been a different story. In 2022, the Wildcats lost as a 1-seed to Houston in the Sweet 16. Last year's team lost in the first round to undersized 15-seed Princeton in the first round. A more notable upset that same week kept this loss on the backburner to some degree. Arizona fans are surely hungry to see their team back in the hunt for a Final Four, a place they haven't been since losing to Duke in the 2001 National Title Game. The Final Four this year is in Phoenix. The bright lights of Cameron Indoor Stadium might be on the path for at least one of these teams.
See more Duke fan comments below.
https://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?49711-Duke-MBB-v-Arizona-(11-10-7-00-PM-EST-ESPN2)-Pre-game-and-In-game-Thread&s=f6c351fe48045f15646ee3fc177e3a3c
This was actually pretty well written and mostly accurate. I can count the errors on one hand, so I'm impressed.
It's an exciting time to be in Arizona wildcat fan. This should be a fantastic game, hopefully we can leave Durham with a W, and extend our winning percentage against them. Arizona has the highest winning percentage against Duke of any team in the nation. BTFD!
This is a Chat GPT write up. For sure.