Duke basketball: 5 excuses Coach K cannot honestly use next season

The first inexcusable Duke basketball excuse next season: Youth

Even if the 2021-22 Duke basketball roster was laden with youth, then that would not be a logical excuse to utter in the case of Mike Krzyzewski and his staff. After all, they themselves are the recruiters who are responsible for continuous short-lived stockpiles of likely one-and-done talents via their landing multiple five-star talents in each of the past eight recruiting classes.

Facts.

But next go-round, despite the recruiting strategy in Durham as of late, experience among the anticipated scholarship Blue Devils is right on par with a typical college hoops bunch:

• Two fifth-year seniors in Marquette transfer Theo John and Davidson transfer Bates Jones
• One regular senior in Joey Baker
• One junior in Wendell Moore
• Two sophomores in Mark Williams and Jeremy Roach
• Four freshmen in Paolo Banchero, AJ Griffin, Trevor Keels, and Jaylen Blakes

Remember, John and Jones already have four years of playing experience under their belts.

With that in mind, let’s do some basic math. If a 10-man crew consisted of 2.5 members per class — assuming, of course, half-humans actually existed and that there was no such thing as fifth-year guys — then the average level of returning experience would be 1.5 years per player.

What is this average for Duke next season? Well, it’s 1.5 years per player.

Exactly.