These Duke basketball grades include both nice surprises and real letdowns.
In order to have any chance of beating uber-talented Illinois in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN) on Coach K Court, several pieces to the Duke basketball rotation will surely need to post significantly better grades than they have through the team’s 2-1 start to the season.
After all, none of the three games to date — an 81-71 home win over Coppin State on Nov. 28, a 75-69 home loss to Michigan State this past Tuesday night, and a 76-54 home win over Bellarmine on Friday night — were particularly easy on the eyes on the part of the Blue Devils.
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Some of the blame for the unsightly play should fall on 73-year-old Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Hall of Famer’s frequent small-ball scheme in the first two outings of his 41st campaign in Durham certainly drew heavy criticism from fans and analysts. There just aren’t enough sure-thing sharpshooters in town right now to pull it off.
Strategical issues aside, though, several Blue Devils haven’t exactly been worthy of top marks in the execution department. But how has each player performed overall thus far? Well, let’s now attempt to answer that by ranking the 11 who have been on the floor at any point and giving out individual grades on a 100-point scale. We’ll begin here with the most disappointing one of all…