Duke coach Jon Scheyer discusses AJ Griffin’s ’emergence’ after win over Wake Forest

Duke forward AJ Griffin got his first career start on Wednesday night, and he took advantage of his opportunity.

Griffin scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He also played solid defense and helped limit Wake Forest to 2-for-16 shooting from distance.

After the game, acting head coach Jon Scheyer spoke about Griffin’s “emergence” in recent weeks.

“AJ Griffin has just been coming on,” Scheyer said. “He’s been playing well. Really, it’s been AJ’s emergence.”

He was a +19 on the night. For comparison, Jeremy Roach — who Griffin replaced in the starting lineup — was a team-worst -16 vs. Wake Forest.

Griffin started off slowly at Duke as he was still recovering from an offseason injury when the 2021-22 campaign began. But he’s now scored in double figures in six of his last seven games, with four of t

hose outputs coming vs. conference opponents.

Since Dec. 14, he’s averaging 13.1 points per game while making 62.7 percent of his field goal attempts. He’s also shooting 50 percent from 3-point range on a volume of 3.7 attempts per game over that span.

If Griffin is able to maintain strong play, it will be a big boost for Duke over the second half off the season. He’s a potential lottery pick alongside Paolo Banchero and is proving to be one of the best shooters on the team.

Duke is back at home on Saturday vs. NC State.