Duke basketball: Predicting next season’s starting lineup
By Matt Giles
Predicting Duke basketball’s starter at point guard: Jeremy Roach
Sure, Jeremy Roach experienced his fair share of struggles as the freshman floor general in Durham last season. Those experiences, though, are what should give Duke basketball fans plenty of hope in regards to next season’s outlook for the former five-star recruit.
If nothing else, Roach proved durable as a rookie, appearing in all 24 games and drawing a starting nod 18 times. Furthermore, he never once displayed a dangerous level of discouragement despite the program’s unusually frequent losses and his own fairly frequent mistakes.
Averaging 8.7 points, 2.8 assists, 2.2 rebounds, 0.8 steals, and 2.0 turnovers in 27.4 minutes per game while hitting only 31.3 percent of his attempts from 3-point land and only 67.5 percent from the foul line, Roach undoubtedly came up short of his predecessor’s production on both ends of the floor.
But it’s OK if the 6-foot-1 Virginia native isn’t Tre Jones.
No, Jeremy Roach just needs to be the best possible version of Jeremy Roach, a persevering, multifaceted weapon who could persistently pose a problem to ACC foes if he spends the summer dedicated to improving both his shooting and decision-making.
After all, although this next face will be new to the program, it should help that it’s quite a familiar face to Roach…