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Duke Basketball: Blue Devils Kick Off Season with Workout and Cookout

By Kevin Connelly

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 21: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of United States reacts during the Men's Gold medal game on Day 16 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Carioca Arena 1 on August 21, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 21: Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of United States reacts during the Men's Gold medal game on Day 16 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Carioca Arena 1 on August 21, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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The Fourth of July is for relaxing with family members and enjoying some good barbecue, but the Duke Basketball team kicked off its season with its first team summer workout.

The Duke Basketball season has unofficially started as the team took part in its first summer workout of the year.

In preparation for the teams upcoming Canada trip in August, the NCAA allows teams taking part in international trips to have a limited number of summer workouts.

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The Blue Devils come into this season with a relatively very new roster as the entire starting five from last season has moved onto the NBA and Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski brings in the No. 1 recruiting class according to ESPN.

The incoming class is comprised of the ESPN Top-3 players R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Cam Reddish, along with No. 17 player Tre Jones, the brother of former Duke star Tyus Jones, and reclassified recruit No. 41 player Joey Baker.

The Blue Devils return Javin DeLaurier, Jordan Goldwire, Alex O’Connell, Marques Bolden, Antonio Vrankocvic, Jack White, Justin Robinson, Mike Buckmire, and Brennan Besser.

The only players that were not at the workout were Vrankovic and Besser. Vrankovic is playing with his national team of Croatia and Besser is taking part in his Walk on America campaign to raise awareness for the Developmental Disability Community.

The Blue Devils head north of the border for three games starting on August 15 through August 19.

After the first workout of the season, the team headed over to Coach K’s house for a Fourth of July barbecue where they spent the afternoon playing cornhole, pool volleyball, or having water gun fights.

Some players, such as Zion Williamson, headed over to the basketball court where he showed off his high flying dunking abilities.

The entire afternoon was documented by the DukeMBB Twitter and Instagram pages where everyone looked like they really enjoyed themselves.

The early workouts will be very beneficial to the young Duke Blue Devils as they need to build chemistry both on and off the court if they want to achieve all of their goals for the upcoming season.

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