Duke Basketball: Takeaways from Blue Devils 900th win at Cameroon Indoor

1. Jordan Goldwire provides a spark

The junior out of Norcross, Georgia was inserted into the starting lineup against Wake Forest. This is a change from last Wednesday’s win over Georgia Tech when Coach K went with Joey Baker in the starting lineup but only played him four minutes while playing Goldwire 37 minutes. With K going with Goldwire in the starting lineup, it felt a bit easier for K to manage the rotation. Goldwire played 30 minutes while Baker was able to get in a solid 17 minutes off the bench in the blowout win but Goldwire’s spark was needed for a team that needs to avoid getting complacent early.

Goldwire has become a better secondary playmaker this season, as evidenced by his increase in assist rate (from 10.6% last season to 17.7% in 2020) and drop in turnover rate (from 20.4% last season to 17.3% in 2020). He showed off this growth against Wake Forest, collecting 10 points and dishing out six assists in his 30 minutes of playing time. But when Goldwire is on the floor it is usually for his defensive acumen and everything else is simply a cherry on top for Duke basketball.

A big part of Wake Forest’s offense is the ability of Oliver Sarr (6.0 FTA per game), Brandon Childress (5.2 FTA per game), Chaundee Brown (4.0 FTA per game), and Torry Johnson (2.5 FTA per game) to get to the charity stripe. Goldwire, a solid team defender, played a part in Childress going 0-for-6 from the field with no free throws. Torry Johnson was a bit more successful with 13 points and six free throw attempts but he had one assist and two turnovers. Duke brought it on both ends of the floor in the win and Jordan Goldwire was a big reason why.