Big game allows Duke’s Paolo Banchero to ‘feel good again’ following off-court issue
Scoring 10 or 11 points in their fourth and fifth college basketball games would be fine for many college basketball players.
Paolo Banchero isn’t just any college basketball player, though. He was voted as the ACC’s top player in October before he’d played a game for Duke.
After he scored a season-high 28 points in Monday night’s 107-81 Duke win over The Citadel, Banchero admitted the early morning Nov. 14 incident where he was cited for aiding and abetting driving while intoxicated played a role in his two lowest scoring games of the season last week.
“You know, my teammates have my back so it wasn’t too hard on me,” Banchero said in his first public comments since he and teammate Michael Savarino were pulled over in Orange County. “Not gonna say it wasn’t on my mind the last two games. It was. But I feel like today was a bounce back game for me and I felt good out there.”
Savarino, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s grandson, faces a DWI charge and had his driver’s license automatically suspended for 30 days. He was driving a 2017 White Jeep, registered to Banchero, when N.C. Highway Patrol officers stopped him for a stop sign violation at 1:10 a.m. on Nov. 14.
The 20-year-old Savarino admitted to having consumed alcohol and, according to police, performed “poor” on a field sobriety test. He registered a .08 blood alcohol content during a breathalyzer test at 2:38 a.m.
Because Savarino was driving Banchero’s car, the 19-year-old Banchero faces a lesser charge of aiding and abetting DWI.
While Savarino is not allowed to take part in any team activities, Banchero has started all three of Duke’s games since the incident. Krzyzewski said that’s because it was “two different situations.”
Asked if he had any regrets, Banchero shook his head and said, “no.”
Banchero did admit to it being a learning experience for he and the team.
“I mean, I think we all learned from it,” Banchero said. “Can’t really say much about it but we learned from it and we handled it as a team and, yeah. We moved on.”
It took Banchero a bit to move on in terms of his on-court play.
The News & Observer was the first to report the news of the Duke players’ brush with the law around 8:45 a.m. on Nov. 14. That night, Duke played Gardner-Webb at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Banchero averaged 19.3 points per game over Duke’s first three games. But, that night, he hit 4 of 9 shots to score 10 points as the Blue Devils won 92-52.
In Duke’s next game, an 88-55 win over Lafayette last Friday, Banchero made 4 of 12 shots and scored 11 points.
But he looked like a far better player against The Citadel, making 10 of 19 shots and all six of his free throws. He added eight rebounds and six assists to his 28 points.
“Paolo was really strong with the ball tonight,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s something he’s been working on. We’re a different team when he’s like that.”
Krzyzewski added that Banchero, “was really good with the bounce tonight. He went somewhere strong with his dribble tonight. That made us better.”
That’s a good thing, provided Banchero is now clear-minded enough to maintain that play. Duke faces No. 1 Gonzaga on Friday night in Las Vegas and travels to face Ohio State on the road Nov. 30.
Banchero has a Dec. 15 court date scheduled in Orange County on his aiding and abetting DWI citation.
Duke’s first ACC game is Dec. 22 at home against Virginia Tech.
Getting Banchero’s legal part of this all wrapped up in time for ACC play sounds like a good idea for all involved.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 1:55 AM.