Best Version of This Duke Basketball Squad Requires ‘Aggressive Pat’

Duke Blue Devils On SI approached Duke basketball junior center Patrick Ngongba’s locker first following the No. 2-ranked Blue Devils’ 113-52 home win over the unranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers on Thursday night. At that point, it must have been obvious to the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Virginia native that he was attracting the most attention from the media, whether he liked it or not, due to his career-high 28 points in helping to power the squad to its blowout victory.

But as one can see from that encounter in the opening seconds of the following video, Ngongba was quick to exhibit his team-first mentality. Initially, he tried to deflect the praise to Blue Devil sophomore point guard Cayden Boozer, who finished the night with a career-high 12 assists to go along with 11 points, three rebounds, and three steals.

“It felt great,” Ngongba explained to Duke Blue Devils On SI about his performance after finally accepting the fact that he would be the go-to interview for the media in the locker room. “My teammates, they were giving me the ball where I could score easily. And I feel like I did a good job of finishing and hitting the open shot.”

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‘Green Light’ From Duke Basketball Head Coach Jon Scheyer

Evidently, fifth-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer is on board with the idea of Patrick Ngongba II, who shot 10-for-13 from the field, 2-for-3 from three, and 6-for-10 at the charity stripe against the Chanticleers, continuing to display his expanded offensive toolbox early and often in contests moving forward.

“I think the biggest thing for Pat, we don’t want him to feel like he’s in a box,” Scheyer noted in his postgame press conference after Ngongba had also totaled nine rebounds, one assist, and one block across his team-high 25 minutes as a starter. “He’s a traditional big from one standpoint, where he can post and score inside. But he’s not a traditional big because he can shoot, he can handle, he can really play-make, as you guys have seen.

“So for me, it’s…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/best-version-duke-basketball-squad-015422186.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-09 01:54:00

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