Duke Basketball: Blue Devils prove little depth is little problem

The Duke basketball freshmen starters are the stars of the show who rarely face foul trouble and barely need breathers.

Minutes from the Duke basketball team’s bench are dwindling — and for good reasons:

Junior backup Javin DeLaurier plays as if he has no fingers. Sophomore Alex O’Connell enters games with a look on his face that suggests he is daydreaming about whether his next hairdo should be dreads or a mohawk. And the outside shot of Jack White has become less reliable than an ashtray on a motorcycle.

Meanwhile, the four freshmen starters — who represent the top recruiting class in the history of the sport — appear to have bypassed the freshman wall and are all excelling either at or beyond expectations. And the fifth starter, junior big man Marques Bolden, seems to be making maximum use of his physical tools.

Granted, it was less than a week ago when Ball Durham published an article that attempted to be as positive as possible about the Blue Devils’ bench.

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The headline from that article still holds true; however, the reason the bench now seems to not pose a problem is due to the observation that heavy use of the bench seems totally unnecessary.

In the time since that article was written, No. 2 Duke knocked off No. 3 Virginia while only utilizing two reserves, DeLaurier and White, who played a combined 24 minutes and contributed a total of two points, two steals, and a rebound.

Also, during the impressive 81-71 win in Charlottesville on Saturday, the starters only committed a total of seven fouls and seemed less winded in the final minutes than the Cavaliers, whose bench minutes nearly tripled that of the Blue Devils (21-2; 9-1 ACC).

R.J. Barrett, who had a game-high 26 points and hit a career-high six 3-pointers, and Tre Jones, who had 13 points and seven assists, each played all 40 minutes against UVA.

Logging 36 minutes apiece were Cam Reddish, who had 17 points and five 3-pointers of his own, and Zion Williamson, who added 18 points to his three steals and three blocks without committing a single foul (and with four minutes to play, he had the energy to travel about 20 feet — then leap what seemed to be another 20 feet — in seemingly less than a second to block what Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter must have thought was going to be a wide-open shot from the corner).

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So if the freshmen studs are able to sustain an aggressive defensive effort against one of the nation’s best and most disciplined teams while barely fouling, why substitute for them at all?

Well, with three of Duke’s next five games coming against opponents who are currently ranked — the Blue Devils next play at No. 16 Louisville at 9 p.m. on Tuesday (on ESPN) — fans may discover that coach Mike Krzyzewski has figured out that the only player who needs a substantial break during big games is Bolden.

And when Williamson or one of the others ever do need a breather in close contests, the 39th-year coach could start opting to call a timeout to accomplish that — rather than subbing in a junior who can’t catch the ball, a sophomore who can’t pay attention for extended periods of time, or a junior who has missed his last 19 attempts from downtown.

And by the time March (and hopefully April) rolls around, fans shouldn’t be surprised to see a six-man rotation — the best candidate to be the only man off the bench is obviously White, who is in a shooting funk but does consistently catch the ball, pay attention, and make heady plays on both ends of the floor.

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To sum it up, the four freshmen likely all have a maximum of 17 games left as Blue Devils before bolting to the NBA, so Coach K might as well play them as often as possible while he is lucky enough to coach them.

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