The Duke Blue Devils are one of the youngest teams in the nation with eight freshman and only one senior. Here are a couple of aspects to watch from this freshmen led team this season.
Another year, another preseason number one ranking and another year where anything less than a National Championship title is simply unacceptable for the Duke Blue Devils. Duke has the number one ranked recruiting class, headlined by Marvin Bagley III who reclassified in order to play this season for the Blue Devils.
With all of the hype and all of the expectations surrounding this particular Duke team, it’s very easy to look at this season with the single track mind of “championship or bust” and not pay attention to everything else going on throughout the season. Here are a couple of things to look for while watching this years team:
Development Of The Freshmen
People forget that Duke is absolutely loaded with freshmen talent this year. They have four of the top 10 recruits according to ESPN’s Top 100 and while that’s very exciting, it’s going to take some time for them to gel with their teammates. We saw it last year with Jayson Tatum, the year before that with Brandon Ingram and the year before that with Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow (Jahlil Okafor was dominant from start to finish). Those guys looked completely different from when the season started to when the season ended. Tatum’s slowish start can be attributed to the injury but by the end of the season we saw all of the tools come out that made him the number three recruit in ESPN’s Top 100. Tyus Jones became a cold blooded assassin and Justise Winslow asserted himself as a guy that could really get whatever he wanted on both ends of the floor by the time they won the whole thing. It’ll be easy to see who buys into Coach K’s philosophy and plays their role throughout the year. It’ll be very fun to watch who develops the most.
What Freshman Steps Up In A Big Spot?
Last season we saw Tatum simply take over games when Duke needed it. This team has so much talent that I don’t anticipate games where every guy is off. But there will be some random weekday game on the road in ACC play where Duke is struggling to pull away or a put a team away. It happens every single season. Grayson Allen is going to be more comfortable in his role as not the guy and that opens up a spot for one of these freshman to take over a game and win it. Bagley, Wendell Carter, Trevon Duval and Gary Trent Jr. are all capable of putting the game in their hands to win it.
Next: Duke Men's Baksetball Player Preview: Jordan Tucker
Facing Adversity
The narrative around young teams is usually “well how are they going to respond to adversity?” or some rendition of that statement. I’m not talking adversity playing Michigan State in the third game of the year in some silly made up tournament. I’m talking about the middle of January, losing on the road to some lowly ACC team and the gym is one three pointer away from exploding into space. It’s those kind of games where you get punched in the mouth early by a team you expected to steamroll that you really learn about your guys.