Duke Basketball: Power Ranking Most Important Blue Devils Heading into Big Dance

The Duke Blue Devils have the ACC tournament to worry about between now and the NCAA Tournament, but it's not like Duke is fighting for a ticket to the Big Dance. The Blue Devils are in.

Exactly what will become of Duke once the Big Dance gets underway is the interesting part. This particular Duke team is strong, as Duke teams usually are, but it's all too easy to question whether it is elite.

Since you're asking, I don't think the Blue Devils are an elite team. But you know what? That doesn't matter. In the NCAA Tournament, hot teams prevail more often than elite teams. If Duke gets hot, it will go far.

But to get hot, the Blue Devils need key players to heat up. As far as this particular team is concerned, five players stand out as being more important than all the others.

5. Andre Dawkins

Good three-point shooting can make a huge difference come tourney time. Any team that gets got from beyond the arc stands a good chance of going far in the tournament.

Andre Dawkins is a guy who can get hot beyond the arc. The fact that he led the team with a three-point shooting percentage of 41.0 says as much, but only to a degree. Dawkins is a streaky shooter more than he is a consistent shooter, which is true of most three-point shooters.

When Dawkins is on, he's on. He had several games during the regular season in which he made as many as five threes, and he also had games in which he made seven and eight threes.

Explosions like those are what Duke will be hoping for. In the event that Dawkins gets hot, Duke's decent offense will become a great offense.

4. Mason Plumlee

Mason Plumlee went through a tough stretch of games at the end of the regular season, but he finished strong with double-digit points against Wake Forest and North Carolina despite playing limited minutes.

It's hard to gauge what kind of impact Mason is going to have in a particular game. When Duke's shooters are struggling, he'll get more touches in the paint and more points. When he's not scoring, he'll at least pull down rebounds.

And then there are times when he does neither (i.e. both games against Florida State).

Mason is not a dominant big man by any stretch of the imagination, but the Blue Devils are obviously much more effective when he's being productive on offense and/or on the boards. They just can't have him go into another slump once the tournament gets under way.

3. Miles Plumlee

While Mason was struggling towards the end of the regular season, Miles Plumlee was lighting it up.

After being a general afterthought for much of the season, Miles finished the season playing heavy minutes and putting up impressive numbers. He had a couple double-doubles down the stretch, and even had a game in which he pulled down a Kevin Love-like 22 rebounds.

Regardless of what happens with his brother, Miles just needs to keep up the good work. He's established himself as a reliable player in Coach K's eyes, and Coach K has every excuse to keep riding him.

If Miles happens to come back to earth, hey, there's always Mason.

2. Seth Curry

Seth Curry is Duke's second-leading scorer, and his job is basically to take some scoring pressure off of Austin Rivers.

Sometimes, Curry performs his job perfectly. Other times, not so much.

The trouble is that Curry is another guy who's a streaky shooter. He rarely takes an excess of shots, but it wasn't uncommon to see him finish a given game with just two or three buckets next to his name. That's not going to cut it in the tournament.

And of course, it will help if Curry gets hot from three. He definitely has it in him to do so. He's not his older brother, mind you, but he's pretty good.

1. Austin Rivers

Honestly, did you think you'd find anybody else at No. 1?

Austin Rivers is the most important player on the Blue Devils, and it's not close. He's the team's star, and Duke is far more dangerous when Rivers is at his best.

Rivers had to put up with a lot of scrutiny during the regular season, but the truth is, his freshman campaign was pretty impressive. He was consistently good and occasionally great.

Rivers is going to take his shots; make no mistake about that. The Blue Devils will be in trouble if and when he starts forcing shots, and they'll be in even more trouble if Rivers starts missing threes. He's going to take five or six a game, and he's not always efficient.

Anything less than the best from Rivers is going to be a problem for Duke. He's only a freshman, but he'll have to lead the way.