New Hope for the Boys from Durham

Valentine's Day hasn’t brought much love and happiness to the Cameron Crazies. Over the past few years this day has marked the beginning of Duke’s recent late season collapses as they near the meat of the ACC schedule and the fast approaching NCAA tourney.

In recent seasons Duke has looked run down, nonathletic, and weak over the home stretch. Duke fans have been watching their team die out near the end of the year leading to early exits in the NCAA tournament.

Duke appeared to be going down that same road again this year, but then hope was gained after a huge statement win last Sunday night against Wake Forest. The Blue Devils looked fresh, played with intensity, and kept a fast paced style of basketball, restoring Duke’s true style of play as they try to start a run to get hot into the ACC and NCAA tournament.

Duke’s strengths are similar to the strengths of an international team; with their ability to spread the court with solid ball handlers and perimeter players on the court at every position.

They are able to create great mismatches that many teams won’t face with big men stepping out and opening up lanes.

Kyle Singler’s  ability to stretch the defense and draw a bigger post defender out on the perimeter allows for slashing guards like Gerald Henderson and now Coach K’s newest toy diaper dandy, Elliot Williams, both able to create and get to the hoop.

Duke is at their best when they take it to the hoop, opening up the entirety of the offense putting up 100 points against Wake Forest. The kick outs to Scheyer, Paulus, and Singler for open threes are created when the defense has to cave in to cover drives to the hoop.

Scoring 100 points hadn’t been accomplished since 2005 displaying Duke’s recent struggles over past couple years.

The potential pitfalls and challenges that Duke could face are the same types of problems that have haunted them through their dry spell the past four years. Duke has an extremely amount of trouble dealing with slashing athletic guards who can defend and enforce a fast paced frenetic style.

This was exemplified in the Clemson game in Little John where Duke was humiliated and looked completely lost. NCAA tournament losses to LSU, VCU, and West Virginia all exposed Dukes flaws of their inability to match those schools athleticism, and defend there guards from getting to the hoop leading to early NCAA tournament exits.

Another potential pitfall for this team in the future and the NCAA tournament is a team that is able to crash the offensive boards with height and an interior-post presence. A team with a go-to interior post player who can play a physical tough style will give Duke headaches.

Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, and Connecticut are the types of teams that Duke would have an extreme amount of pressure dealing with physical post presences like Dejuan Blair, Blake Griffin, and Hasheem Thabeet.

Lance Thomas, Dukes starting center, Miles Plumlee, and Brian Zoubek provide some height of the bench but neither of these players has any true presence down-low.

Shelden Williams must be crying when he watches teams attack the hoop with no hesitation.  

Coach K has fixed his mistakes of putting slower and more experienced lineups out on the court. Elliot Williams provides a solution for Dukes struggle with fast paced athletic slashing guards.

Before the Wake game Duke looked like they were going to have a lot of trouble getting out of the first round again like previous years. Now it looks if Duke can avoid a team that has a solid post player they should be able to at least make a run to the Sweet 16 and if their lucky Elite 8.?

Duke is back on track on getting back to their elite status but they will never get to their prime Duke years until they can land a true post player. The recent failures of post player recruits like Josh McRoberts and Brian Zoubek have lead to this down time for Duke.

Next year's recruiting class for Duke brings in two 6’10 athletic interior post players, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee, brother of Miles which should get Duke back to their glory days of winning NCAA championships, beating up on UNC, and being the elite of college basketball.