Duke's DJ Steward is one of those guys who never seems to lose his smile.
"Unless," he said, "I'm really, really locked in."
For Steward and the Blue Devils that will come Wednesday when the first official basketball practice of the 2020-21 season begins and it's locked-in time. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will have a team that should have impressive speed and versatility, not to mention freshmen such as Steward aching to get their minutes and play.
Krzyzewski will make the call on who plays and who sits and he'll have myriad options with this team. For every Jordan Goldwire, a senior guard who started 15 games last season, there's a Steward or a Jeremy Roach pushing to get on the court.
Goldwire, Wendell Moore Jr., Matthew Hurt, Joey Baker _ they've been there, been hardened by playing in ACC games, in the national spotlight. But there are the freshmen _ Steward, Roach, Jalen Johnson, Mark Williams, Jaemyn Brakefield, Henry Coleman III. There's Patrick Tape, the graduate transfer who played at Columbia.
"It will definitely be fluid," Steward said Tuesday on a media call. "There's 11 players who can play, potentially play big minutes. The starting lineup can pretty much change game to game. You just never know.
"We're a deep team that can pretty much play in transition. We can play really fast and also make shots, as well. We're going to be able to make a lot of shots."
And the advice from the upperclassmen?
"That the competition rises," Steward said. "When we start practice the competition level is going to rise.
"Every game is going to be hard. We're the hunted. So we also have to be hunting at the same time because we'll always have an 'X' on our back. We have to always go out there and work hard and try to be the hunters."
For Steward, coming to Duke from Chicago has meant moving into the Washington Duke Inn. It has meant entering what amounts to the Blue Devils' basketball bubble during the pandemic.
On a Duke-produced day-in-the-life video, Steward showed off his many pairs of basketball shoes _ although noting Moore's shoe game was better and "extremely crazy" _ and the meaningful items sprinkled about his room.
Framed are the four words "Work hard, stay humble" that Steward said have been instilled by his mother, Katicha Jackson-Williams. By his bedside was a notebook that says "Think Big, Believe Big and the results Will Be Big." On the door to his room: "Blessed."
Steward was recruited out of Whitney Young High in Chicago, which also produced former Duke star Jahlil Okafor. A five-star recruit, the 6-2 combo guard was a McDonald's All-America and ranked the No. 2 player in Illinois by ESPN, and Steward said he also played wide receiver and safety on the football team as a freshman, toughening him up a bit, he said.
A lot of schools were after him _ North Carolina, Louisville, Indiana _ and Duke got him. And no, it did not hurt that Okafor played for Coach K and won the 2015 national championship.
Steward said two players who have stood out during Duke workouts have been Hurt and Goldwire. He called Hurt "an amazing shooter and amazing scorer" and noted Krzyzewski has mentioned how much the 6-9 sophomore forward has improved, and said Goldwire has been a leader, rugged defender and handled the ball well.
"He's also been pretty much leading me on the court and telling me where to go and let me know how Duke is going to be and how we're going to play," Steward said.
The Coach K way. That's how the Blue Devils are going to play in Krzyzewski's 41st season.
"It's going to very intense and I know he's going to help me learn the game well," Steward said of the Hall of Fame coach.
Baker, in a recent media call, said this will be a Duke team that a lot of people will enjoy watching. Steward seconds that.
"We have a lot of people who show emotion on the court," he said. "Positive guys. There are a lot of guys who smile when they play."
DJ Steward always being one.
