Mike Krzyzewski is right, this is an old-fashioned Duke basketball team

Mike Krzyzewski has mentioned that this is an old-fashioned Duke basketball team and he is right, but the Hall of Fame coach danced around the specific reasons why.

Some Duke fans are concerned about Wednesday’s blowout loss to North Carolina State while some are just willing to say it was an outlier and move on to Saturday’s matchup with Virginia Tech.

Both sentiments can be true, but Wednesday’s showing proved the point Mike Krzyzewski has made in the last few weeks, most recently in Duke’s blowout win over Notre Dame.

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The Hall of Famer has mentioned that the 2019-20 version of Duke is an ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘old-school’ version of the Blue Devils. And he’s right.

Coach K outlined that there is no Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Marvin Bagley, or Jayson Tatum on this team, which hints at his reasoning for saying this group is ‘old-fashioned’ because there are not a lot of professionals on this Duke team.

This Duke team can most notably be compared to the 2009-10 team that won the National Championship with a starting five of Nolan Smith, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, Lance Thomas, and Brian Zoubek.

Smith, Singler, and Thomas all made stops in the NBA, with Thomas still lurking in the Association, but never averaged more than 9.0 points per game in a given season.

An all-time legendary Duke team, but just didn’t have the professional firepower as other Blue Devils teams had that did not win the National Championship.

Vernon Carey Jr. is clearly the top pro-prospect for this Duke team and the latest ESPN NBA Mock Draft has the freshman going No. 29 overall, which in my opinion is way too low for a freshman averaging 18.0 points and 8.8 rebounds per game in the ACC.

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Tre Jones is slotted at No. 30 in the same mock draft, which seems reasonable for his skill set, but the only other Blue Devil in the projection is Cassius Stanley at No. 49 overall.

The ‘upperclassmen’ of Jack White, Javin DeLaurier, Jordan Goldwire, Alex O’Connell, and Joey Baker show no NBA signs as of yet, while White, an Australian native, should have an overseas professional career in his future if he wishes to pursue it.

Duke’s other freshman of Matthew Hurt and Wendell Moore have been too hot-and-cold, with Moore being more reliable throughout his game than Hurt, who was projected as a lottery pick upon his commitment to Duke.

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Pressure only gets ramped up on the current freshman as the Blue Devils will bring in a six-man recruiting class into Durham next season and only three scholarship players, White, DeLaurier, and Justin Robinson, scheduled to leave the Blue Devils on paper.

It would be a shock to see Carey Jr. stick around in Durham, but the case could be made for everyone else on the roster to return for at least one more season.

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The potential roster breakdown for the 2020-21 season is opening a can of worms that should be saved for another day, but it’s not a negative that the 2019-20 version of the Blue Devils is ‘old-fashioned’.

It just means that Duke cannot solely rely on its talent to win, which can be seen in three of the four losses this season. The Blue Devils must use its talent, skill, basketball IQ, and legendary coach to best its opponent in its hopes of cutting down the nets, like the 2009-10 squad.

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