Duke basketball: 5 keys to have a magical March run
March has arrived, and the Duke basketball program is looking for a magical run.
It was a bad start to the month of March for the Duke basketball team, but the Blue Devils are looking to get things corrected in time to bring hardware back to Durham.
Mike Krzyzewski will begin his final postseason in Brooklyn, New York at the ACC Tournament, where his team is the No. 1 seed after finishing as the regular season championships but with its NCAA Tournament seeding still unknown.
Things tip-off on Thursday afternoon against the Syracuse Orange when Coach K can hand Jim Boeheim his first non-vacated losing season in his coaching career.
The Orange dominated Florida State in its First Round game on Wednesday afternoon to set up the third meeting of the season between the two historic programs, a series which has been dominated by Duke this year.
Duke basketball loaded with firepower this season
This year is no different for the Duke Blue Devils, but a loaded team will enter March with the ACC Freshman of the Year in Paolo Banchero and ACC Defensive Player of the Year in sophomore center Mark Williams.
Banchero was also named to the All-ACC First Team as the potential Top-3 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft came in third place in the conference’s Player of the Year voting.
Williams was named to the All-ACC Third Team and, obviously, the All-ACC Defensive Team while gathering some votes as the Most Improved Player in the conference.
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Junior forward Wendell Moore also picked up votes for Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year as the Duke captain was named to the All-ACC Second Team and All-ACC Defensive Team.
Paolo Banchero, Trevor Keels, and AJ Griffin were named to the All-ACC Rookie Team as Griffin was named to the All-ACC Honorable Mention Team and Keels had one vote for the Freshman of the Year.
Mike Krzyzewski came in second to Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes for Coach of the Year.
Duke will rely on all those players for its magical March run.