The replay: Duke basketball missteps, Wolfpack stumbles and a Canes roadie on deck
Paolo Banchero started as usual for Duke last Tuesday night, and again on Friday, just days after Banchero was cited, along with teammate Michael Savarino, on charges related to a DWI stop. Savarino was not with the team for what became a 92-52 win over Gardner-Webb at Cameron Indoor Stadium, nor for the team’s game Friday against Lafayette.
Savarino and Banchero were charged in a driving while impaired incident with Savarino behind the wheel of a Banchero’s car early last Sunday morning.
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Banchero faces a lesser charge of aiding and abetting a DWI after he and Savarino were pulled over by state Highway Patrol officers around 1:10 a.m. Sunday. The 19-year-old Banchero was charged and released at the scene while Savarino, 20, was arrested and charged with DWI. His breathalyzer reading was 0.08.
Savarino, a former walk-on who was put on scholarship this season, is the grandson of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Savarino’s driver’s license was suspended as a result of his arrest.
Neither Duke officials nor Krzyzewski specifically said Savarino is suspended. But he is no longer taking part in team activities due to his arrest. He has court dates scheduled for Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 in Orange County.
Krzyzewski called the situation “a violation of our standards.”
The Manny Bates effect
It was bound to happen, given just how valuable Manny Bates is to his N.C. State basketball team. And it took Oklahoma State to figure it out.
With Bates in street clothes for the year, a team was bound to take advantage of its post presence. The Cowboys did, finding a rhythm late in the game to secure a 74-68 win over the Wolfpack in the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase.
With the bigger bodies and deeper bench, Oklahoma State outscored the Pack 42-24 in the paint and had 56 bench points. The Cowboys had an overall 44-39 rebounding advantage over N.C. State (3-1), which was outrebounded for the first time this season.
“We’ve got to continue to get better,” head coach Kevin Keatts said. “I thought some of our young guys, or our new guys, didn’t play well under the circumstances. This was similiar to what we will get in an ACC game, so it’s a good opportunity for us to learn, especially early in our season.”
Go west, young Canes
The Hurricanes were among the best teams in the NHL to begin the season, opening with an 11-2 record. But, this past week saw the start of a grueling, two-week test, with a six-game road swing played mostly in the Pacific time zone.
So far so good.
The Canes dispatched the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-2, to open the trip last Tuesday, and then gutted out a win Thursday against Anaheim, which despite a slow start to the season, had won eight games in a row before falling to Carolina.
Most encouraging was the play of rookie Seth Jarvis, who scored the winning goal in both games. Also solid in the opening wins was goalie Frederik Andersen.
“We’ll take the win,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They’re the hottest team in the league and you can see why. They’re really fast and you could tell they were really confident in what they were doing. The game had a little of everything. Had a lot of grind in there, some good physical play.”
— Steve Wiseman, Jonas Pope IV and Chip Alexander contributed to this report.