Duke Basketball: Biggest Lessons Learned in Nonconference Play

Now that nonconference play is in the rearview mirror, Duke's focus is solely directed toward navigating the rough seas of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Blue Devils haven't won or shared the regular-season title since 2009-10, their longest drought since 1987-90.

With no losses on the ledger and plenty of strong team and individual performances, the nonconference schedule provided us with a lot of answers about what to expect from this young but talented Duke lineup. It also gave us an idea of how things will go from here on out, assuming certain things do or do not change.

With the ACC opener coming up Saturday against Boston College, here's a look at some lessons learned from the first two months of the 2014-15 season:

The freshman starters are really good

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski landed a superb recruiting class in the offseason, and he's putting it to good use. The Blue Devils have started three freshmen in every game, and the trio of point guard Tyus Jones, wing Justise Winslow and center Jahlil Okafor are averaging 41.7 points per game.

Okafor has been by far the best of the lot, with the 6'11" post putting up Player of the Year numbers (18.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 68.5 percent shooting). He's really ramped things up over the past four games, with three games of 24 or more points and a 20-rebound outing.

Jones is dishing out 5.5 assists per game to go with 10.8 points, while Winslow adds 12.1 points and 4.8 rebounds.

They've all been amazingly consistent, rarely having anything close to an off game.

Quinn Cook can be a leader

As much as Duke has been carried by first-year players, it's been the contributions from senior guard Quinn Cook that have made the biggest impact. Playing a team-high 32.7 minutes per game, Cook is averaging 14.5 points on 49.6 percent shooting that includes a healthy 40.3 percent from three-point range.

Cook has, at times, tried to jack up too many threes when the look isn't there—his 77 attempts are more than any other two Blue Devils—he's made up for it with the leadership provided on the court while playing alongside Tyus Jones. He's also worked somewhat as a second point guard, averaging 3.3 assists and posting a strong 2.8-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

There's not much help on the bench

While Duke's starting five lines up favorably against pretty much any other unit in the country—Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller ranked it as the top starting lineup in the U.S.—the same can't be said for the Blue Devils' reserves. Actually, there's little to say about that group, since they've not provided much production so far.

At 6.9 points per game, junior Rasheed Sulaimon is the top bench scorer. Marshall Plumlee's 2.8 rebounds per game make him the top post reserve, and all of the backups have only accounted for 43 assists.

As a whole, Duke's bench plays 707 minutes, or less than 59 per game. That's less than 30 percent of the playing time, as four starters are playing at least 26.8 minutes.

Beyond Sulaimon and Plumlee, the production is even more sparse. Freshman guard Grayson Allen, one of the team's nine former McDonald's All-Americans, has played only 78 minutes, while forward Semi Ojeleye had only logged 63 minutes in six games before leaving the team to transfer to SMU.

Okafor could be a liability at the line

If there's been one thing that stands out as a potential pitfall for this team down the stretch, it could be when its best player heads to the free-throw line. It hasn't led to a problem yet, but it could be based on early returns.

Okafor is shooting 50 percent from the line, making 29 of 58 attempts. Teams haven't really started keying in on this yet and trying to foul him on purpose, but part of that is because Okafor's moves as soon as he get the ball are often too fast for defenders to properly react.

But when the ACC schedule begins and Duke is facing stronger interior opponents such as Louisville, North Carolina and Syracuse, he's apt to get fouled more often. That will put him on the line more, and likely in critical situations.

Okafor will need to get better with this part of his game, or he risks being an offense-for-defense substitution in late-game situations to avoid becoming a scoring liability.

The real challenges still lie ahead

The first two months have been nice, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Aside from the matchups with Michigan State in Indianapolis and Connecticut in New Jersey and the trip to Wisconsin, very little about the nonconference schedule will compare to the ACC slate coming up.

Duke doesn't have a particularly easy stretch at any point, but it does have some rough runs. The biggest one comes between Jan. 17-31, when the Blue Devils will play four of five on the road (including three straight) against Louisville, St. John's, Notre Dame and Virginia.

That quartet is a combined 48-4.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.