Duke basketball: Where Blue Devils should rank right now

The Duke basketball team ought to see a significant plunge in the rankings.

Following the 83-68 beatdown in Cameron Indoor Stadium at the hands of No. 6 Illinois on Tuesday night, it’s now totally clear that the 2020-21 Duke basketball squad isn’t at all worthy of its current position at No. 10 in the AP Top 25 Poll.

Question marks abound in the paint, on the perimeter, and pretty much anywhere in between. Sure, the defense is solid. Yet the offense is practically putrid, evident in the group’s silly standstill strategy and16.0 turnovers per game, not to mention the poor shooting percentages: 44.2 percent from the field, 32.7 percent from three, and 65.6 percent from the foul line.

Forwards Matthew Hurt and Jalen Johnson are the only two Blue Devils who seem to have starting jobs on lock. And Hurt has been the team’s only consistent weapon throughout the 2-2 start, though he is a combined 1-for-9 from beyond the arc against the two ranked foes to date.

ALSO READ: Is Matthew Hurt ready to be Duke’s No. 1 option

Meanwhile, several guys have been downright disappointing, particularly Wendell Moore. The sophomore wing is shooting 23.3 percent from the field, including 11.1 percent from deep, after coaches had hyped him up in the preseason for supposedly being ready to assume a starring role.

Last week, coming off a discouraging escape in Durham against lowly Coppin State in the season opener, then-No. 6 Duke stunk on Coach K Court in a loss to Michigan State and again in a sloppy win over Bellarmine.

This week, as Ball Durham had predicted via Twitter, the Blue Devils fell only to No. 10. Yet one has to suspect that ratings-hungry ESPN played a part in ensuring the Blue Devils dropped no further than that so that it could advertise Tuesday’s feature ACC-Big Ten Challenge matchup with Illinois as a “Top 10 Showdown.”

So should Duke basketball be unranked at this juncture?

Despite all of the early struggles, the Blue Devils should still be ranked come Monday, even if based on potential alone. After all, the deep roster includes nine players who were ranked among the 60 best in their respective classes coming out of high school.

That said, consider Duke’s obvious weaknesses, the lackluster average scoring margin of 73.5 to 70.8, and the four opponents’ combined 12-7 record thus far.

All in all, there is no way the Blue Devils should be any higher than No. 15 when they travel to Notre Dame to take on the 2-2 Fighting Irish at 9 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN). Actually, they probably should sit somewhere around No. 20.

Duke hasn’t been unranked since February 2016.

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