Duke basketball: 20 serious concerns about 2020-21 Blue Devils
By Matt Giles
Question No. 3 for the 2020-21 Duke basketball team…
Is the overall experience level worthy of Duke’s top 10 preseason ranking?
At first glance, the answer to this question is a resounding “No” — at least if we’re talking about ACC experience.
Of the five scholarship players on the 2020-21 roster with any significant college experience — Patrick Tapé, Jordan Goldwire, Joey Baker, Matthew Hurt, Wendell Moore — there’s only one who has ever averaged double-digit points. And that was Tapé, who did so only once, scoring 11.3 points per game as a junior at Columbia two seasons ago, against mostly Ivy League competition.
On the other hand, none of the five experienced collegians are bums. Each has a specialty or two, and four of them experienced plenty of learning moments as important pieces to a 2019-20 Duke basketball team that finished 25-6 (15-5 ACC) and No. 11 in the final AP Poll. That leads us to our next question…