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At NCAA Tournament, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski backs freshman Cam Reddish’s big shots

Reddish, who is from Norristown and starred at Westtown Friends School, has been hot and cold from three-point range but knocked down five of 10 last weekend in two NCAA Tournament wins. The Blue Devils take on Virginia Tech in the NCAA East Region semifinals Friday night.

Duke's Cam Reddish, who is from Norristown and starred at Westtown Friends School, has been hot and cold from three-point range but knocked down five of 10 last weekend in two NCAA Tournament wins. The Blue Devils take on Virginia Tech in the NCAA East Region semifinals Friday night.
Duke's Cam Reddish, who is from Norristown and starred at Westtown Friends School, has been hot and cold from three-point range but knocked down five of 10 last weekend in two NCAA Tournament wins. The Blue Devils take on Virginia Tech in the NCAA East Region semifinals Friday night.Read moreSean Rayford / AP

WASHINGTON – Cam Reddish has been Duke’s most prolific three-point shooter this season, but he has gone through hot and cold spells from beyond the arc.

The Norristown native and Westtown Friends School graduate is shooting 33.3 percent from deep while knocking down 87 treys. He hit at a 31.2-percent clip in ACC regular-season play and 23.1 percent in the conference tournament, but bounced back by going 5 of 10 in last weekend’s two NCAA Tournament games.

Mike Krzyzewski, however, would prefer to look at some of the big shots his 6-foot-8 freshman forward has made this season, including a big three-ball in the final two minutes in the Blue Devils’ 77-76 escape against Central Florida on Sunday.

As the 72-year-old Duke coach said Thursday, “If you keep bringing cumulative into the moment, you’re not very smart.

“So whatever, good or bad, you’ve got to get rid of it,” Krzyzewski said before the No. 1 seed Blue Devils (31-5) practiced at Capital One Arena for Friday night’s East Region semifinal game against No. 4 seed and ACC rival Virginia Tech (26-8).

“In the last few games actually, Cam has shot very well. And he stays confident because he is confident and we’re confident in him. I know you all get involved with so many stats and whatever, but you have to be who you are in the moment you’re in, not the moment you were in. That’s what we try to get across to our kids: Just play this moment and don’t worry about what’s happened.”

Reddish, Duke’s No. 3 scorer with a 13.6-point average, drained a game-winning three-pointer just before the buzzer against Florida State and scored 16 of the Blue Devils’ final 30 points in the team’s comeback from a 23-point deficit at Louisville.

It’s all part of the maturation of a 19-year-old projected NBA lottery pick, part of Duke’s Fab Four freshman class that includes All-Americas Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett.

“It’s a lot of different things, playing my game, being who I am,” Reddish said in the Duke locker room. “I’ve become a better shooter, and I think I became a better defender. Obviously, I’m still a work in progress. I have a lot to improve upon, and I’m looking forward to just growing every day.”

The Blue Devils are playing the Hokies for the second time in just over a month. Virginia Tech captured a 77-72 victory on Feb. 26 at home. Neither Williamson nor Hokies floor leader Justin Robinson played in that game because of injury, but both will be on the court Friday night.

“Obviously they’re a really good team,” Reddish said. “They defend really, really well. They have a ton of good shooters. We’ll go out there just trying to be together, execute at both ends of the floor, and just play.”

Reddish said the Blue Devils’ win over Central Florida brought “more toughness and more stuff like that to the table,” which can only help his team moving forward. He called the team’s advancement to the Sweet 16 “a dream come true.”

“You see it all the time on TV growing up,” he said. “You want to watch it when you’re in school ... . Now that we’re officially in it, it’s a blessing. So we’re going to try to embrace it and enjoy it.”

Virginia Tech’s Outlaw to play

Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams said that fifth-year senior Ty Outlaw, who received a summons earlier this week charging him with misdemeanor marijuana possession, will play Friday. Outlaw’s apartment was searched last week, while the Hokies were in San Jose, Calif., for the tournament’s opening weekend. Williams said a drug test administered to Outlaw by “an outside agency” came back negative.