Duke basketball: 20 serious concerns about 2020-21 Blue Devils
By Matt Giles
Question No. 19 for the 2020-21 Duke basketball team…
Is Mike Krzyzewski bound to once again revert to a short bench come February and March?
Tired legs have been the go-to Duke excuse in a few too many postseasons over the years. Whenever the excuse comes up, whether among fans on Twitter or straight out of Mike Krzyzewski’s mouth, some folks are left to wonder why so many former heralded recruits sat so long on the bench.
With 11 players seemingly worthy of seeing action in big games this season, there should be no excuse for such a tired excuse come March 2021.
Most years, it seems Krzyzewski announces big plans to utilize a deep rotation. He’s already done so again this year. Most years, at least by the latter stages of the season, it seems in hindsight that the 73-year-old told a fib in the preseason, though he may have always thought at the time that he was speaking the truth.
True, playing time was more spread out last season than in other seasons past; for the first time in Coach K’s 40 seasons at Duke, 10 Blue Devils averaged at least 12 minutes per game. However, the Hall of Famer was erasing names from the rotation as the season wound down (of course, we’ll never know how he would’ve handled the postseason). This brings us to another concern…