The Duke basketball team is going to play a different style this season.
Watching Duke basketball game in Jon Scheyer’s first season might not have been the most exciting brand of basketball as the Blue Devils won with its defense, rebounding, and toughness.
While it still yielded an ACC Tournament Title and exciting run into the NCAA Tournament, this season will be different.
Duke returns four starters from last year’s team and brings in another talented freshmen class, ranked No. 2 in the country by all recruiting services, headlined by 5-star prospects Caleb Foster, Jared McCain, Sean Stewart, and TJ Power.
Many expect the Blue Devils to be a serious contender for the National Championship this season and its offensive firepower is a major factor behind those opinions.
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Associate head coach Chris Carrawell told the media on Wednesday inside Cameron Indoor Stadium that the style that Duke plays this will be different.
“We are going to be a little smaller this year,” Carrawell said.
Duke basketball ready to showcase run-and-gun attack
Duke primarily played with two 7-footers in the lineup last season in Dereck Lively and Kyle Filipowski. Lively opted to leave school after his freshman season while Filipowski has returned to Durham for his sophomore campaign.
“You want to create a lot of possessions. You want to create pace and push the pace,” Carrawell continued.
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Jon Scheyer will have a lot to figure out in terms of his starting lineup and rotations with 12 players vying for playing time entering the season.
It’s likely that Filipowski will command a large bulk of the minutes at the center position while Mark Mitchell will play his more natural position of power forward as he was forced into a small forward role last season.
A 3-guard lineup will be a common theme in each Duke game this season and the coaching staff has made it clear that they want those guards to try and run its opposition out of the gym.