Duke basketball freshmen overtake veterans in latest season development

Some Duke basketball freshmen overtook veterans in the latest season development for the Blue Devils.

It has not been the best of starts for the Duke basketball program as the Blue Devils sit at 2-2 through four games for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.

In that campaign, the Blue Devils lost to No. 13 Stanford and No. 1 UConn before defeating Army and Columbia and went on to reach the Sweet 16, so not all is lost with Mike Krzyzewski‘s team at the moment, but there needs to be some serious improvement.

Duke has fallen to No. 8 Michigan State and No. 6 Illinois, two veteran teams, but its wins over Coppin State and Bellarmine were as unimpressive as the defeats.

Most recently, the Illini walked out of Durham with an 83-68 victory over the Blue Devils on Tuesday night.

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Sophomores Matthew Hurt and Wendell Moore were supposed to take that next leap and become stars in their second seasons with the Blue Devils, and Hurt has made the jump, adding muscle in the offseason and becoming a more efficient and reliable scorer.

As for Moore, he is in the midst of a brutal three-game stretch where nothing can go his way. His defense has fallen off from a season ago, and not one thing has gone right for the North Carolina native in terms of shooting from the perimeter and driving to the basket.

Duke basketball freshmen starting to emerge

Following the sensational debut performance from Jalen Johnson, the Duke freshmen have been hot-and-cold throughout the young season, and Coach K needs someone to emerge alongside Hurt to rely on this season.

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Michigan State and Illinois walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium and were more physical than Duke and took advantage of the absence of fans in Durham, something the Blue Devils have desperately missed in the 2020-21 campaign.

Following another loss, we dive into another edition of ‘Stock Up, Stock Down’.