Duke is the better team, but military academies are cut from a different cloth.
Date 11/8 || Time 6:00 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ACCN
Before we start talking about the Duke-Army game on Friday night, let’s look back at the coaching history at Army, because there are some really interesting characters.
First of all of course: former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and his mentor, Bob Knight, who both had long and brilliant careers. But there are others.
Tates Locke destroyed his reputation at Clemson, but he was a fine coach. Former Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio was there too (he also destroyed his reputation, in his case at Louisville). Former K assistant Pete Gaudet coached there as well. But the most interesting coach, by a long shot, is one you probably never would have guessed: Joe Stilwell.
He wasn’t a bad coach either, racking up a 49-17 record in three different stints (1902-04, 1907-11, 1913-14) but destiny had other ideas. Vinegar Joe, as he would become known, commanded U.S. efforts in the China-Burma theater during World War II.
The current coach is Kevin Kuwick. he’s had one year and finished 10-22 but has worked with some great coaches before: Brad Stevens at Butler, Thad Matta at Ohio State, Archie Miller at Dayton and Bob McKillop at Davidson. That’s a nice basketball education.
A Notre Dame ROTC grad, he served 10 years including a presumably dangerous tour in Iraq.
Army is a very different sort of job of course. Obviously Duke has more talent. Guys like Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster are all likely NBA players at some point.
Ask yourself this though: if any of those guys were at a place where gunfire broke out, would they run towards it or away from it?
Our guess is that like most of us, they would run away from it.
Anyone at West Point is likely to run towards it. It’s a very different mind set and deeply admirable in many ways. Yes, they’re trained to be warriors, but they’re also trained to think and to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. It’s a fascinating place.
Due to the nature of a military academy, Army is less likely to have the sort of turnover that Duke saw last season. The Black Knights don’t have normal structure for their teams. Duke gives scholarships and the NCAA limits those. We’re not sure if West Point still requires people to be on some sort of a team but it used to. That might explain why there are 27 players listed on the roster and we’re sure they don’t all travel and indeed only 10 played in the opener against Albany.
Josh Scovens, a 6-6 sophomore from Greensboro, put up 22 points against Albany. He also had five rebounds. Jalen Rucker, who has an interesting history with Army basketball,
Tate Laczkowski, a 6-8 freshman, had 10 rebounds.
Ryan Curry, a 6-0 sophomore, appears to be the point guard.
We’re sure that Duke has been all over the video from Army’s win over Albany but it’s hard for most of us to really get a sense of this team.
As noted, Duke will have far more talent, but Army is a team that’s likely to be full of hardasses and those guys can be tough to deal with. It’s not that they’re likely to win - Duke will be heavily favored. It’s that, win or lose, they’re going to play hard as hell. They’ll hustle. They’ll set bone-rattling picks. They’ll dive for balls.
In short, we expect Army to show a lot of heart. It might not overcome Duke’s talent, but it’s likely to leave an impression and possibly a few bruises.
One last thing: after SMU left the AAC for the ACC, the AAC picked up Army. This is the last season Army will spend in the Patriot League.
