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

The fifth inexcusable Duke basketball excuse next season: Expectations

There’s nothing unfair about the expectations awaiting the 2021-22 Duke basketball squad. Rather, judging from the abundance of early preseason rankings out there, it looks as if the Blue Devils will begin their campaign pretty much right where they belong: just inside the top 10.

There won’t be a “Fabfest Five” Sports Illustrated cover like there was in advance of the 2018-19 Zion Williamson & Friends show. There won’t be a sizeable number of first-place votes (except for the predicted ACC standings, that is).

In essence, after last season’s dismal results and taking into account Mike Krzyzewski’s current six-year Final Four drought, there certainly won’t be the usual masses endlessly hyping up the Blue Devils.

No, whether fans admit it or not, Duke will first have to re-establish itself as a bonafide present-day powerhouse.

See, despite a record 24 five-star prospects who have come through Durham between 2015-16 and last season, the program’s total record during this six-year span is 152-51, equating to a 74.9 winning percentage.

Compare that to the 35 seasons from Coach K’s first day on the job in 1980 through the 2014-15 title run, when his overall record with the Blue Devils stood at 945-251, a 79.0 winning percentage. And that includes the 38-47 start to his Duke basketball tenure.

Simply put, the 2021-22 mark must wind up better than 75 percent. Naturally, that means far fewer than double-digit losses (keep in mind, two of the program’s three seasons with 10-plus losses across the past 25 years have come since 2015-16).

Aside from maybe Coach K’s age, there are no adequately logical excuses for that not to be the case.