How Kyle Filipowski showed new confidence with his big opening night for Duke basketball
With his healthy hips and comfort in being one of the nation’s top players, Kyle Filipowski let his good vibes show Monday night.
The Duke sophomore flexed for the Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd after scoring inside and drawing a foul. He blew a kiss to a television camera after another play.
His 25-point performance in Duke’s 92-54 was expected, the norm for a player who led Duke’s ACC championship team in scoring and rebounding as a freshman last season.
His flamboyance, his comfort in the spotlight was new.
“I’m already comfortable being here,” the 7-foot Filipowski said. “Blowing a kiss to the fans for the start of a new college hoops season. I just wanted to have some fun.”
Averaging 15.1 points and 8.9 rebounds as a freshman last season was plenty fun for Filipowski, who was named ACC freshman of the year. But he did so on balky hips that have bothered him for years.
He also absorbed plenty of bumps and bruises along the way, like when he was hit in the throat during a game at Virginia Tech with no foul called. He sprained his ankle while, he thought, drawing a foul at the end of a tie game at Virginia. The officials, erroneously, the ACC admitted, waved the foul off and sent the game to overtime, where Duke lost.
Then Filipowski took an elbow to the face, opening up a wound on his cheek, during Duke’s 65-52 loss to Tennessee in an NCAA Tournament second-round game.
He started his offseason quickly opting to not enter the NBA Draft, even though he’d received a first-round grade from the league’s evaluators. A couple of weeks later, he had arthroscopic surgery on both hips to repair an abnormality that had caused him discomfort for years.
That spawned a new twist on his nickname: Two-hip Flip. Those words appeared on a fan’s sign behind the Duke bench on Monday night.
But those hips didn’t bother Filipowski one bit.
“Man, they felt incredible,” Filipowski said. “I wasn’t thinking about them once the whole game until I sat out the final stretch. I’m like, man, I didn’t have any pain or, you know, thoughts about my hips. It was actually just poetry for me.”
On the court, Filipowski played a forward position, the 4 position in Duke’s lineup, just as he did last season. That wasn’t the plan. With Dereck Lively, Duke’s center last season, now in the NBA, Filipowski was supposed to move into that role with 6-9 Mark Mitchell at the 4.
But Mitchell missed Monday night’s game with a sprained ankle. So 6-10 graduate student Ryan Young started at center with Flilpowski the forward.
He scored and scored.
“Truly, I didn’t know he had 25 until after the game,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “He just kind of snuck up on me a little bit. I thought our guys did a great job of looking for him, especially in that second half.”
But it’s how Filipowski played in areas other than shooting that impressed Scheyer. Filipowski grabbed seven rebounds to tie Young for the team lead.
He recorded just one assist, but made strong passes out of double teams that put him in place for more.
“They were trying to double him from the strong side,” Scheyer said. “They got him once but besides that he kicked it out for some wide open threes. We just missed them.”
Granted, this was a game against an Ivy League opponent that didn’t have any player on its roster as tall or as talented as Filipowski.
Tougher tests are coming, beginning Friday night when No. 12 Arizona comes to Cameron for an early season showdown of ranked teams. The Blue Devils play Michigan State the following Tuesday in Chicago.
But for the first game of what Scheyer, Filipowski and everyone else in the Duke program believes will be his final season of college basketball, Filipowski had fun and put on a show.
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 9:00 AM with the headline "How Kyle Filipowski showed new confidence with his big opening night for Duke basketball."