'Supporting cast' shows Duke is much more than NBA lottery pick Jahlil Okafor

INDIANAPOLIS – Duke center Jahlil Okafor, the most enticing talent in college basketball, had four fouls. And Michigan State wasn’t going away. There were nine minutes left Tuesday night.

Could the Blue Devils hold their seven-point lead without the one guy the Spartans absolutely, positively could not guard? Could they find enough baskets without the ease of throwing the ball inside to the 6-foot-11, 280-pound freshman?

This was going to be interesting.

Turned out to not be that interesting after all, at least in terms of any drama. Duke’s supporting cast – an unfair term for a bunch of guys that talented – immediately took control and pushed the lead to 13 points. Game essentially over. The lead was never single digits again, and the Blue Devils coasted in for an 81-71 victory in the Champions Classic.

This is not a vintage Michigan State team, and it is without a few pieces right now. It will be a while before we see how good the Spartans can be. But they will always challenge a team's toughness and effort, and Duke passed that early test in a big-time atmosphere.

Okafor finished with 17 points but scored just two points in the final 16 minutes. And it didn’t matter a bit.

Why? Because fellow freshmen Justise Winslow (15 points, six rebounds; think Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) and Tyus Jones are really good, and because senior Quinn Cook has effectively taken over stewardship of the team the way so many Duke seniors have done before him under Mike Krzyzewski.

Start with Cook, who had game highs of 19 points and six assists and drew the most postgame praise from both Krzyzewski and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo. This is his time at Duke, and he’s seizing it.

“The play of Quinn, his leadership through the game, was huge for us,” Krzyzewski said. “… Quinn’s leadership has been off-the-charts good.”

Izzo was asked about Okafor and Jones, but wound his answer around to the senior from Washington, D.C.: “The guy I like is Cook. Cook plays hard and with energy.”

His job running the team was threatened with the arrival of Jones, a five-star point guard, but Cook welcomed the challenge and the two have formed a cohesive tandem backcourt. They can play together – and play well.

“Quinn has helped me along,” said Jones, whose line was ridiculously efficient: 17 point on five shots, four assists, no turnovers, two steals in 31 minutes. “He’s been a big brother on and off the court. He’s given me confidence and told me to believe in myself.”

Jones was nothing more than a distributor in the first half, attempting just one shot and dropping off three assists. But he cranked it up when needed, scoring six straight points (on two assists from Cook) immediately after Okafor sat down with his fourth foul. On a team flush with talent, he has the perfect point guard mindset.

“I’ve always taken pride in being a well-rounded basketball player,” Jones said. “Playing the right way and making the extra pass is something I owed up to. That’s the player I wanted to be growing up.”

Said Izzo, who recruited Jones but lost out: “He just kind of lets the game come to him. That’s nice. But when you can throw it right, throw it left, throw it middle and throw it behind you and there’s someone who can do something with it, that helps.”

That guy in the middle is Okafor, who has a combination of size, skill and identity that makes him the likely No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA draft. In the game’s opening minutes he had a dazzling drop-step for a reverse layup, a face-up bank shot from the Tim Duncan repertoire, a layup off a pick-and-roll, and a soft alley-oop. The Spartans were not going to double-team him, and for a while it looked like he might score 40.

But Okafor isn’t in great shape yet. He tired quickly, and his defensive tenacity needs some work. (He blocked three shots but there wasn’t a lot of rim protecting going on.) He’s a work in progress, but nobody has more tools to work with.

“I love a guy who wants to be what he is,” Izzo said of Okafor, another player he recruited hard. “He’s a center who wants to be a center. Most centers used to want to be power forwards.”

Someone asked Krzyzewski about coaching “iconic big men” and the coach softly swatted that back.

“He’s not iconic yet,” K said. “You have to win to be iconic.”

Still, Krzyzewski did say Okafor has the ability to be his best true center, comparing him favorably to Elton Brand and Carlos Boozer.

“Jah’s the biggest one and can pass the best,” Krzyzewski said. “He just has to learn what he can do.”

Here’s what Duke can do: It can play well even when Jahlil Okafor is on the bench.