Jared McCain set a Duke freshman record with eight 3-pointers and matched a school freshman mark with 35 points as the No. 9 Blue Devils defeated Florida State 76-67 on Saturday.
McCain hit seven 3-pointers in the first half and shot 60% overall (12-for-20), including 8-for-11 from long distance in his seventh game scoring 20 or more points. His point total tied Zion Williamson’s 35-point performance against Syracuse in 2019.
“That’s crazy,” McCain said. “That’s nuts. I just thank God. … It’s wild company to be with.”
Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton was comfortable with his club’s defense against McCain, ultimately chalking the performance up to an opponent having a moment.
“It seems as though every team will have a player, or several players, that are capable of going off for big numbers, against you,” Hamilton said. “And I thought our defensive game plan, for the most part, was fine.
“But all of us who have played basketball, seems to have had one of those nights where they can’t miss, regardless of how you’re defended. And I thought McCain had one of those nights.”
McCain’s accuracy from 3-point range was a surprise. The 6-foot-3 guard had made a total of seven 3-pointers in his four games.
The latest episode of The Brotherhood Podcast — still the only in-house college hoops podcast — featured Duke basketball’s trio of 2023-24 captains in senior guard Jeremy Roach, grad center Ryan Young, and sophomore guard Tyrese Proctor. Naturally, they spent some of their 40-minute chat discussing their leadership role.
Young asked Roach and Proctor which teammates they voted for as captains. They both named each other and Young.
“I was the same,” Young said about his votes for Roach and Proctor before pointing out another name he may have favored. “I might have thrown in Jared.”
It would be unheard of for a rookie to become a captain before playing his first Duke basketball game. But first-year Blue Devil guard Jared McCain, a hardworking, upbeat, always-talking five-star talent who arrived in Durham with over two million TikTok followers, is no ordinary teenager.
“I think I threw Jared in there,” Proctor noted.
Then Young explained their rationale.
“I just thought, it is hard to put a freshman up there as a captain, especially when we have these old guys,” Young recounted. “So, I didn’t know how much [head coach Jon] Scheyer would take that into account.
“But one, his work ethic, obviously. He’s here. He pushes guys. But for as much as he talks, you go down the roster, he’s a top-four-or-five guy in terms of just being vocal, which is pretty impressive for a freshman.”
At least this year, Jared McCain won’t be a Blue Devil captain. However, that doesn’t mean he won’t be a natural leader, potentially as a Day 1 starter alongside Proctor and Roach.
And that’s not all he provides. Earlier this week, the official Duke basketball account reminded folks of McCain’s sharpshooting by posting a highlight of the reigning champion of the McDonald’s All-American Game 3-Point Contest recently catching fire from deep in the program’s practice facility:
Duke basketball season, the second under Scheyer’s command, begins at home against Dartmouth on Nov. 6.
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