Duke Basketball: How will life after Grayson Allen affect Duke

In the age of star college basketball players not staying four years in college, Grayson Allen was the exception at Duke, staying all four years contributing in different ways every year, but now that Allen is gone, what is next for the Duke basketball program?

While Grayson Allen was at Duke he went through a roller coaster of events.

His freshman year he started out as the forgotten freshman.

According to 247Sports Allen was ranked No. 26 in his class behind the star studded freshman class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, and Justise Winslow.

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Allen finished his freshman year with a bang in the National Championship game. He was a spark off the bench and brought intensity the Blue Devils lacked in the game. Allen ended up contributing 16 points as Duke went on to beat Wisconsin in the 2015 National Championship game.

In his sophomore year he had a high workload as the Blue Devils mostly used a 6 man rotation.

With this workload, Allen quickly became a star on the college basketball scene. During this stardom, Allen was criticized for tripping incidents throughout his sophomore season. The season ultimately ended in a Sweet 16 exit against Oregon.

After all the controversy surrounding Allen’s sophomore season, it was a surprise that he returned for his junior year.

Allen was surrounded by premier talent in his junior year with Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles, Marques Bolden, Luke Kennard, and Frank Jackson. The team never reached its full potential as they ended the season in a second round lost against South Carolina.

In Allen’s senior year he gained the honors as the sole captain on a young Duke team.

Similar to the year before, the Duke team had young premier talent on the roster. This talent included Marvin Bagley, Wendell Carter Jr, Gary Trent Jr, and Trevon Duval.

His senior year had him moving from point guard to shooting guard game to game. Allen acted as a leader and distributor on the floor, instead of a volume shooter like years past. This helped elevate the Blue Devils, but the season ended with an Elite 8 loss in overtime to Kansas.

Now that Allen graduated and is playing for the Utah Jazz what is next for the Blue Devils without Grayson Allen?

Allen left the Blue Devil basketball program in the hands of the No. 1 recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite.

The five players highlighted in this class are RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, Zion Williamson, Tre Jones, and Joey Baker. These freshman look to bring home a sixth National Championship to Durham, North Carolina.

The Blue Devils also bring back the experience of Marques Bolden, Javin DeLaurier, Jack White, and Alex O’Connell who all played with Allen. All of this talent should make the Blue Devils national championship contenders once again.

Currently, the 2019 and 2020 recruiting class have no commitments.

This is an unusual feeling for the fan base as Duke has not had a problem landing top level recruits in the past few years. This could change on Monday though as five-star forward Wendell Moore plans to announce his decision on Monday, October 8. Also, on Saturday, October 13 Jeremy Roach from the 2020 class will make his first official visit to the Blue Devils.

Although the Blue Devil fan base will miss Grayson Allen, it seems they’re in good hands for the future.

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