We have just started our second full week of practice, so the season is in full swing. We had an exciting first week!! From our Countdown to Craziness event, to an Open House with Player Autographing, and, finally, with our 1st Exhibition game vs Pfeiffer, our players and staff had a full schedule. The support we had from the fans for all of these events was amazing!! It made our whole team and staff that much more excited to get going with the season.
With all of the preseason workouts, open gyms, and practices, it is always great as a team to get a chance to play against a different opponent like we did with Pfeiffer. We were happy with our performance in our first game as a group. There are obviously alot of things for us to continue to work on and improve, but overall, we saw some good things. The best part was getting valuable game experience for our young guys. All three freshmen contributed in a big way! Ryan Kelly had 18 pts on 8-11 FGs, Mason Plumlee had 18 pts, 12 rebs and Andre Dawkins chipped in with 12 pts on 3-5 shooting from 3pt range. In order for us to be the team we want to be, we are going to need each of these guys to be able to contribute. It was also a great confidence builder for our two sophomores. Miles Plumlee and Olek Czyz did some really good things and showed all the hard work that they have put in over the summer. We feel real good about our veteran production and leadership. Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith will all be counted on heavily, and adding the young talent and enthusiasm will be a big boost to our team. It will be exciting to see how we can grow and improve as the season goes on.
It was also fun to see the start of the NBA season this week. We are so proud to, once again, have the most alumni of any school on opening day NBA rosters. We take great pride in developing our players and seeing them realize their dreams of becoming NBA players is great. We will have 14 former players on opening day rosters. Congratulations to Gerald Henderson on being the newest Duke rookie in the NBA, and to Grant Hill for being the oldest veteran (had to recognize my old teammate). The other stat that I liked seeing was that our collection of NBA guys’ combined salary is also the highest amongst any college program. Our 14 players will combine to make over $82 million dollars this season!! That’s incredible! Good luck to all of our guys with the starts of their seasons. We will all be watching and cheering you on!
We have another busy week ahead with a hard week of practice that will culminate with our annual Coaches Clinic on Saturday. Come on out and check us out if you can. It’s a great day for coaches and also fans who want to learn more about the game and our program.
Happy Halloween to all Blue Devil Fans! I’m looking forward to trick or treating with my very own G.I. Joe and Snow White!
Sincerely,
Coach Collins
