Duke basketball: Predicting next season’s starting lineup

Predicting Duke basketball’s starter at center: Mark Williams

Toward the end of the largely discouraging 2020-21 Duke basketball campaign, Mark Williams clearly emerged as a potent force for the Blue Devils in the paint.

A keen shot-blocker. A positive on-court personality. A dependable finisher around the rim. The list goes on.

Not only did the 7-footer out of Virginia earn starting nods in each of the final 11 games, but between the last six outings, in particular, the former five-star recruit also managed some awfully promising averages:

• 16.7 points
• 7.8 rebounds
• 1.7 blocks
• 1.5 steals
• 74.6 field goal percentage

To the delight of Duke basketball fans everywhere, Williams unveiled on Thursday his decision to stick around for a second year in Durham.

With that news, assuming Mark Williams performs at or above the level he did down the stretch as a freshman last season and that Paolo Banchero matches or exceeds his own expectations, the Duke basketball frontcourt should wind up in the conversation as the most formidable in the country.

One obvious indicator of that potential prowess is the fact that these predicted starting roles for Williams and Banchero each come with a much higher level of certainty than the starting forecasts here for positions one through three.