Vernon Carey: Facing Senior Big Men Is Tough But "That's College"
Freshman center Vernon Carey Jr. scored 11 points in each of Duke’s first two games this season. Against Kansas, he had six rebounds two blocks and a steal, despite matching up with senior All America candidate Udoka Azubuike.
Against Colorado State, he had three rebounds, two blocks and a steal and hit all five of his shots from the field. That was against another senior and all-conference player in Nico Carvacho.
Two experienced senior big men are a tough introduction to college basketball for someone who never played the post in high school.
“I’m just trying to get down low more and be more physical down low,” he said. “I think I kind of shied away from that last school year. I’m adjusting and learning how to do that better.”
As for the tough matchups, Carey embraced the learning experience.
“Two seniors,” he said, “but that’s just college basketball, really. You’ve got to adjust on the fly. I felt like I did a pretty good job, but there’s always room for improvement.”
Carey has played with a number of different teammates, as Coach Mike Krzyzewski experiments with lineups on this deep Blue Devil team.
“Coach just said be ready to play with anybody on our team, really,” Carey said. “We’re going to have a lot of guys. We have depth this year. I really feel like that’s a benefit to our team.”
The team has improved steadily in the early going, and Carey credits trust among teammates.
“Especially from our first exhibition game, I felt like our toughness and our preparation (improved),” Carey said. “Just focus on Coach’s game plan each game. Trust is one of our key words. We have our values right there on the wall (in the locker room), and one of them is trust. That’s one of the values we try to focus on.”
