Duke basketball: Worst nightmare Blue Devils face next season

The upcoming Duke basketball season may include a recurring nightmarish scenario that would leave the Blue Devils with serious matchup issues down low.

Duke basketball big man Javin DeLaurier is a 6-foot-10, 235-pound senior who has averaged 7.0 fouls per 40 minutes since arriving in Durham — i.e., the over-under on his fouling out of a game would be set at 28 minutes. And freshman center Vernon Carey Jr. is a 6-foot-10, 270-pounder whose specialty next season definitely won’t be his stamina.

So what happens when Carey Jr. is trying to catch his breath on the bench while DeLaurier is sitting next to him with foul trouble? Worse yet, God forbid, what if injuries keep one or both of them out of several games?

Well, the best options left to hold down the five-spot aren’t exactly the most ideal options. Freshman forward Matthew Hurt is ultra-talented; of course, he’s also a 6-foot-9, 215-pound string bean. And though senior forward Jack White is tough as nails, he’s only 6-foot-7.

Scrolling farther down the list of candidates, lanky senior forward Justin Robinson is a 6-foot-9, 200-pound former walk-on. Nope, that won’t work.

Next, despite his 6-foot-9 height, freshman walk-on Keenan Worthington is, well, exactly that: a freshman walk-on. In other words, he won’t be much help, at least not in his first year.

So due to Marques Bolden opting to begin his professional career in lieu of returning to Durham for his senior year — as well as the graduation of Antonio Vrankovic, a slow yet reliable backup across his four college seasons — the 2019-20 Duke basketball roster is short one piece: the third option at center.

Yes, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and his assistants are to blame for being unprepared; however, as a result of Bolden waiting until the late-May deadline to announce his final decision to forego his senior year, one can hardly blame the staff for not being able to secure another quality big man with such short notice.

ALSO READ: 40 tough questions entering Coach K’s 40th season at Duke

Regardless, there is little time for excuses, for the glaring deficiency threatens to come into play literally right away once the Duke basketball season officially starts against Kansas on Nov. 5 at the Champions Classic inside Madison Square Garden.

DeLaurier had better have miraculously kicked his hacking habit. And Carey Jr. had better have spent his summer running several miles a day and only satisfying his hunger with kale smoothies.

Otherwise, stretches without either on the floor will serve as an invitation for Udoka Azubuike — a 7-foot, 270-pound chiseled boulder for Kansas who is a leading candidate to become the country’s top big man and should draw fouls at as high of a rate as any — to take over the game by repeatedly punishing the likes of Hurt and White.

Of course, after the game against the Jayhawks — win or lose — it’s not as if the problems that come with a lack of backup bruisers will just go away. Instead, the Blue Devils are likely to have no choice but to devise creative solutions to their shortage of bigs all season.

And the shortage could prove the No. 1 reason for a premature end to the season come March.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more updates, analyses, opinions, and predictions concerning all things Duke basketball.