Duke Basketball: Seth Curry Will Be Key to Blue Devils Success in 2012-13

The Duke Blue Devils basketball team is off to an amazing start to their 2012-13 campaign, coming out of the gates hot with a 2-0 start and a momentum-building 75-68 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats.

Seth Curry, Duke’s star guard, has been a catalyst for this early-season success, and if the Blue Devils are to continue this dominant run, he must continue dominating the opposition.

Against UK, Curry was instrumental in Duke’s winning effort—going off for 23 points (on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 on his three-point attempts) while grabbing three rebounds, dishing a dime, blocking a shot and recording a steal in 34 minutes of play.

The 6’2” senior is the team’s leading point getter, and along with forward Mason Plumlee, he’s been shouldering the majority of the scoring load for the Blue Devils. That has to continue for the duration of the season; otherwise, Duke is going to find itself struggling to win games.

Seth, brother of Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, has become a leader for the Blue Devils, both vocally and through example.

He’s displayed amazing toughness by battling through a lower right leg injury that has impacted his ability to practice. It certainly hasn’t stopped him from gritting through the pain and making an impact come game time. In fact, Curry logged the most minutes of any Duke player against the Wildcats.

However, it’s definitely concerning that coach Mike Krzyzewski has admitted his star guard isn’t in great shape at the moment, and the leg injury doesn’t seem to be healing at a rapid pace.

Should Curry be forced to miss time, there’s a good chance that the Blue Devils start slumping. They are already without freshman Marshall Plumlee due to a stress fracture in his foot and don’t have the depth to withstand an injury to their best offensive player without suffering serious consequences.

Behind Curry, there’s unproven freshman Rasheed Sulaimon and a defensive-minded stopper in Tyler Thornton. Neither could be relied upon to make up for the scoring that Duke would lack should their starting SG be sidelined.

Coach K has his work cut out for him in figuring out a way to keep Curry fresh, but also allowing for him to get enough minutes per game to get his points and help the Blue Devils to victory.