DURHAM, N.C. - On Friday night here at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the reigning national champions in both NCAA Division I and Division II will face each other in an exhibition game to open the 2015-16 season as Division I national titlist Duke hosts Division II national titlist Florida Southern. Tip-off for Friday's exhibition opener is slated for 7 p.m.
Friday's exhibition game with Duke is the first of two exhibition games against Atlantic Coast Conference foes as the Mocs will travel to Syracuse, N.Y. next Sunday, Nov. 8 for a 2 p.m. exhibition game against the Syracuse Orange in the Carrier Dome in its final tune-up for the regular season.
"I'm am thankful for the opportunity to open my Florida Southern coaching debut at a historic venue like Cameron Indoor Stadium and coaching against the all-time great (Coach) Mike Krzyzewski," Moccasin first year head coach Mike Donnelly said. "But at the same time, I am grateful to Coach (Linc) Darner for what he established here and all the success he had and for last year's team, which includes assistant coach (Tyler) Kelly and the returning players who were a part of that national championship team because without that success, we wouldn't have this opportunity tomorrow night."
It marks the seventh consecutive season that Duke is playing an exhibition game against the Division II national champion from the previous season and what is unique about this year's game is for just the second time since the Blue Devils began facing the reigning Division II national champions that they are also coming off winning a national title. Duke won the national title in 2010 and opened the 2011 season by hosting the 2010 Division II national champion Bellarmine.
Friday's game marks the head coaching debut of Donnelly, who was named the program's 23rd all-time coach this past May after spending the previous five seasons at Southern Connecticut State. Donnelly compiled a 97-49 record at Southern Connecticut and is 195-152 in 12 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
"It's an honor and thrill to take our team on the road and play at Duke. When I was going through the interview process, at the end, (FSC Director of Athletics) Pete Meyer said to me, "You guys open up at Duke," which made things pretty exciting," the Moccasin coach added."It is a thrill to go against Coach K on the other side of the bench, to be at Duke, to play at Cameron Indoor, but most importantly, to lead this basketball program. This program is a winning program with a ton of support and they love their basketball here at Florida Southern and with that it takes a lot of responsibility I take very, very seriously."
When the Moccasins' last took the basketball court on March 28, 2015, they collected a 77-62 victory at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind., over Indiana (Pa.) in the championship game of the 2015 NCAA Division II Tournament, but the Mocs that take the court on Friday at Duke will be a drastically different team than the one that took home its second ever national title last season.
The Mocs lost all five starters and six seniors from last season's school record 36 win squad and returns just four players that played a significant role on last season's team. In addition, Donnelly also welcomes back six lettermen and has added eight newcomers to this year's roster. As a team, FSC brings back just 33.4 percent of its scoring, but three of its top six scorers do return from a year ago.
Among the key returners for the Mocs this season are senior guards Dylan Travis (Omaha, Neb.) and Domimique Williams (Haines City, Fla.) and junior guard Michael Volovic (Carmel, Ind.), who are all three serving as captains this season. Travis was the team's No. 3 scorer in 2014-15 as he averaged 11.2 points per game, while Williams and Volovic were the fifth and sixth leading scorers last season as they averaged 9.6 points and 7.6 points per game, respectively.
In addition to those four key returners, some of the top newcomers this season for the Mocs are senior forward Dylan Karell (North Miami Beach, Fla./UCF), junior guard Sheldon Zablotny (Erie, Pa./Niagara County Community College), junior guard Trey Moore (Omaha, Neb./McCook Community College) and sophomore forward RJ June (Sanford, Fla./Northwest Technical Community College).
With all that newness this year, Donnelly thought its was important for his team to tune-up for Friday's exhibition at Duke by conducting a Red-White Scrimmage game this past Monday at Jenkins Field House. In the Red-White game, the Red Team posted a 106-101 win as Volovic scored a game high 37 points and Williams added 24 points for the winning squad. Travis was one of five White team players to score in double figures in teh game as he posted a triple-double with 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
"I think it was important for our guys to play in a game-like situation prior to playing the game at Duke," Donnelly commented about the Red-White game. "We really tried to set it up and simulate a game-like situation and give the guys a little bit of a feel going into the Duke game. The venue will be different, the crowd will be different, but at least they got their feet wet a little bit."
In reviewing the game film from the scrimmage, Donnelly was pleased with how both teams played the other night.
"I was really pleased with how the guys performed, sure it wasn't perfect, but our guys were able to play fast and competed at a high level and it was good to see them get after it in a game-like environment," the Mocs coach stated. "As a coach, I am a lot more comfortable having played a game as opposed to having not played a game."
Much like the Mocs, their opponent on Friday, Duke, will also have an almost entirely new starting line-up as they return one starter and several key contributors from last season's 35-4 team that captured Duke's fifth national championship. Three of Duke's starters from last season were drafted in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft, while the fourth starter, guard Quinn Cook was an All-ACC selection after averaging 15.3 points per game and hitting a team-best 102 3-pointers last season.
The Blue Devils lone returning starter is senior forward Amile Jefferson, who averaged 6.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game as a junior a season ago. The other key returners for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski's 36th Duke team are sophomore guard Grayson Allen, who scored 16 points in the national title game win over Wisconsin, junior guard Matt Jones, who averaged 6.0 points per game in 39 games and was named to the South Region All-Tournament Team and fifth-year senior center Marshall Plumlee, who shot 76.2 percent from the field last season.
Along with the limited numbers of returners, Duke also signed the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the country once again and also gets sophomore forward Sean Obi eligible this year after sitting out in 2014-15 following his transfer from Rice University. As a freshman in 2013-14, Obi led Conference USA in rebounding (9.3 boards per game) and also averaged 11.4 points per game. Among the freshman Krzyzewski signed was 6-foot-6 guard Luke Kennard, who was the Parade National Player of the Year, 6-foot-10 center Chase Jeter, who was a McDonalds All-American and the Gatorade Nevada Player of the Year, 6-foot-2 guard Derryck Thornton, who was ranked as the 17th-ranked prospect nationally and 6-foot-9 guard/forward Brandon Ingram, who was named the Preseason ACC Freshman of the Year.
"Coach K has brought in another tremendous class of freshman recruits," FSC's coach added.
When asked about his team's prepartion for Friday's game against Duke, Donnelly said that he has kept things simple for his team.
"We've tried to watch clips of their returning players. Grayson Allen, we know he will be the focal point for them offensively and Marshall Plumlee seems like he's been there forever. Matt Jones was a key contributor last year and Amile Jefferson is also an outstanding player. We just tried to get familiar with their personnel," Donnelly added. "With the new guys, we've tried to watch video. We know Thornton, Jeter, Kennard and Ingram are the best of the best. I know those guys will be fired up to play and we better be ready to compete as well."
Donnelly said that the biggest key for his team on Friday against Duke will be to make sure from a focus point, from an intensity standpoint, from an athletic standpoint and from a speed standpoint that we play at the highest level and execute at the highest level possible.
"Our guys also have to rebound really well, have to challenge shots well and really try and keep the ball out of the middle for us to do what we want to do defensively, we're going to have to execute at a high level," the Mocs coach said. "We also have to get back in transition, be organized and match-up accordingly and quickly. It is the simple things, offensively, moving the ball as quickly as possible, not being stagnant, not having one guy over-dribble and three or four guys standing and watching. If we do that, we'll never get a shot off if that would be the case."
A live online broadcast of Friday's game at Duke will be available for a fee online on the Blue Devil Network at www.GoDuke.com. In addition, there will be a watch party for the game held on the Florida Southern campus at Jenkins Field House beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Following its two exhibition games against Duke and Syracuse, the Mocs will open the 2015-16 regular season by playing two games at the SSC/GSC Challenge in Livingston, Ala. The Mocs will open the event on Nov. 13 against West Alabama at 3 p.m. and then face Delta State on Nov. 14 at 1 p.m.
