Scott Rich

A lot of those assists were from the usual suspects.

The Boozer brothers both had four assists.

The unusual suspect who I think we also need to mention is Nick Kemenia.

Nick had four assists in 15 minutes.

He had five points off the bench.

He looked more like himself.

He looked like the Nick Kemenia who was in the starting lineup for that stretch.

I think for the first time in a few weeks, if that ankle really has been bothering him,

This was the first sign that he might be over that hump.

And he's a guy who we need on this team moving forward.

I thought that he finally embraced the potential we saw in the scrimmages where he was almost operating like a de facto point guard when he was in the starting lineup before Dame got back from his early season injury.

He was facilitating.

He was attacking and kicking well.

and when you're attacking and kicking with a 6'7", 6'8", frame, that's something that's really hard to contend with on a defensive side.

That was really encouraging for me.

I think that Nick Kemenia as the offensive spark off the bench is going to be a big factor for this Duke team because we love Malik Brown, we love Dame Saar, but those are defense-first guys.

If someone on this team is going to be the offensive spark plug off the bench,

that we need of, hey, it's a slow start and it's a slow offensive start, not a slow defensive start.

We need Nick Kamenya to be able to come in and be that spark plug and that creator.

And he did that yesterday.