Duke basketball peaking at perfect time for lengthy postseason run

The Duke basketball team is peaking at the perfect time for a postseason run. 

A team never wants to peak too early in the season and it appears as if the Duke basketball program is peaking at the perfect time.

Jon Scheyer is seeing his first Blue Devil squad finally get healthy and gel with less than two weeks before the start of the ACC Tournament after rattling off three straight victories, which could have been four in a row if not for an incorrect overturn on a call against No. 8 Virginia.

The team has played much better basketball since being embarrassed on the road against No. 19 Miami only 48 hours after its emotional victory over North Carolina inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke has a number of disappointing losses this season but only two have been noncompetitive, the aforementioned Miami debacle and a humbling 24-point loss on the road against North Carolina State in early January.

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Dariq Whitehead‘s return from a calf strain and recent availability has given the team more depth off the bench as well as another much needed scoring boost behind junior point guard Jeremy Roach and freshman forward Kyle Filipowski.

Tyrese Proctor looks much more comfortable playing with the ball in his hands, compared to earlier in the season when he was playing the role of a shooting guard, while Dereck Lively finally caught up to speed of the collegiate game and has become a defensive force in the paint.

The Blue Devils, when having its full compliment of players available, are 12-1 on the season with its only loss coming in the no-show outing against the Wolfpack.

Duke basketball with legitimate chance to improve seeding

Duke has two home games remaining in the regular season (Virginia Tech, North Carolina State) before finishing the campaign on the road against North Carolina as the NCAA Tournament seeding of the Blue Devils is still very unknown.

Many experts peg Duke as anything between a 6-seed and an 8-seed but there are still opportunities for quality wins before Selection Sunday.

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Seeds for the ACC Tournament remain unknown with so many games still to be played but a double-bye is still achievable for the Blue Devils under the right circumstances as the team remains one game out of the loss column for the No. 4 seed.

Victories over the Hokies and Wolfpack will go a long way to improving Duke’s potential conference tournament seed but clinching a double-bye could come down to the season finale in Chapel Hill.