Duke basketball freshman breaks two program records in defeat
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Losses are never fun. But in Duke basketball's 69-64 loss to No. 6 Kansas at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis on Tuesday night, marking the first defeat of the No. 7 Blue Devils' Jon Scheyer era, at least there were several notable bright spots.
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One that shined brightest was Duke basketball freshman power forward Kyle Filipowski.
His admirable efforts on the boards and in the points column led to his third double-double in as many games, breaking a tie with 2017-18 one-and-done Marvin Bagley III for the most consecutive double-doubles to begin a Blue Devil career. (Bagley ended up with 22 double-doubles for the season, the most by any Duke rookie in history.)
Filipowski finished with a team-high 17 points and 14 rebounds against the Jayhawks. The 19-year-old, a 7-foot, 230-pound former five-star recruit who earned the season's first ACC Rookie of the Week honor, added one assist, one steal, and one block in his 33 minutes on the floor.
Although Kyle Filipowski had a subpar shooting night — 6-for-18 from the field, 1-for-6 from downtown, 4-for-4 from the charity stripe — his advanced basketball IQ and consistency through three games may have cemented his place in the starting lineup for the time being.
After all, the New York native's 36 rebounds thus far are also the most by any Blue Devil through the first three games of a freshman campaign. The previous record-holder in this respect was Mike Gminski, whose No. 43 forever hangs from Cameron Indoor Stadium's rafters, with his 33 boards three games into the 1976-77 season.
In other words, Kyle Filipowski's impressive start to his Duke basketball journey has put him in elite company alongside a pair of Blue Devil greats in Bagley and Gminski.
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