Duke basketball: Three chief concerns from updated roster measurements

Chief concerns from updated Duke basketball roster: Matthew Hurt’s weight

The good news is Matthew Hurt did what was needed by packing on 21 pounds during his time back at home in Minnesota. Now, as a 6-foot-9, 235-pound stretch-four, the roster update further validates his dad’s claim in August that he arrived back in Durham at 240 pounds (after reportedly putting up 50,000 shots during quarantine). Video evidence did the same.

With the added weight now to help avoid getting pushed around by powerful ACC forwards, Hurt should stand to see an increase to his 20.5 minutes per game as a freshman. And we could presume that the extra playing time and additional pounds would translate into a significant boost in the 20-year-old’s average points (9.7 last season) and rebounds (3.8 last season).

The bad news is that such quick muscle gains for a hoopster — it certainly doesn’t appear that jelly rolls account for the increase in Hurt’s case — often come with an adjustment period in terms of shooting, ballhandling, passing, and whatnot. Potentially more problematic for Hurt, whose wheels were barely average at 214 pounds, is that more pounds don’t typically equal more speed.

That said, it seems a safe bet that Hurt will be better off now that he has shed the “skinny” label once and for all. It is worth monitoring, though, how the personal transformation plays out.

As for the rest of the heights and weights not noted here yet, let’s begin with likely freshman standout Jalen Johnson, who arrived as a 6-foot-9, 220-pound versatile forward, up from the Wisconsin native’s 6-foot-8, 215-pound listing in high school. Fellow freshman forward Jaemyn Brakefield is pretty much exactly as advertised at 6-foot-8, 216 pounds.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1301959356754341890?s=20

Rounding out the scholarship pieces, senior Jordan Goldwire appears to have dropped a pound to his current 6-foot-2, 184-pound frame, and senior Mike Buckmire trimmed by five pounds to 6-2, 175.

Redshirt freshman walk-on Michael Savarino, a point guard who also happens to be Mike Krzyzewski’s grandson, beefed up three pounds to 6-foot, 185 pounds. The other redshirt freshman walk-on, power forward Keenan Worthington, gained 14 pounds and is now 6-foot-9, 225 pounds.

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