What Will It Take for Duke To Get Over Spring Allergies?

For some, spring is all about warming up, freshness, and the blossoming of everything around us.

For many, it's about allergies.

The Blue Devils have certainly seemed allergic to winning in the spring of their last few seasons. Their shooting hasn't warmed up, their players haven't been fresh, and hopes of a return to a Final Four haven't blossomed.

This season has been a bit of an enigma so far for Duke.

They started the season perceived to be in a familiar place—a good team just a few pieces short of being great.

However, after a strong start, the Blue Devils began creeping into Final Four discussions once again.

But a conference loss to North Carolina State and an embarrassing defeat (much more so than the score would indicate) to Georgetown in recent weeks have many wary of picking the Blue Devils to go far in March.

Granted, the season is far from over and it's not like Duke has fallen apart.

The Blue Devils currently sit atop the ACC standings, and they have been dominant at times against Top 25 teams.

But there are major issues that need to be addressed.

What will it take for the Blue Devils to get over their spring allergies and be a major player in March once again?

To start, Kyle Singler needs to start playing more like Kyle Singler.

As the best player on Duke's roster, Singler needs to start having dominant performances on a regular basis.

It isn't like the preseason ACC Player of the Year is having a bad season—he's averaging 16.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

Despite those stats, he isn't having the year he was expected to have.

His move to being exclusively a perimeter player has been a tougher transition than expected. He has had a difficult time getting by smaller, quicker defenders and has often had to settle for contested shots, a likely reason for his 40.7 percent field goal percentage (his lowest percentage in his career at Duke).

Why he doesn't spend more time posting up the smaller players guarding him instead of trying to beat them off the dribble is a bit of a mystery. He has had success posting up in past seasons, and he was usually playing against bigger players.

Whether it's through returning to the power forward position on offense or simply initiating his offense less from the perimeter and more from mid-range, Singler needs to get the ball closer to the basket to find more consistency on offense.

Singler figuring some things out would certainly help the Blue Devils put things together, but they will need more contribution from outside the Singler, Jon Scheyer, and Nolan Smith tandem if they hope to return to the Final Four (or Elite Eight for that matter).

Last season, talented Duke freshman Elliot Williams made a big leap in his contribution about midway through conference play. The spark he gave Duke was a big part of what propelled them to win 10 of their final 12 games of the season.

Duke currently has two talented freshmen in Andre Dawkins and Mason Plumlee who are capable of having the impact Williams had late last season.

Dawkins started the season as strong as any freshman in the ACC, but he hasn't been the same as of late, perhaps affected by the loss of his sister in early December.

Plumlee was forced to sit out the beginning of the season with a broken wrist.

Since coming back, he has had a few very impressive games (his play against Georgia Tech and Wake Forest was promising). However, he hasn't been consistent, and he has yet to make much noise since arguably his best game against Wake Forest a few weeks ago.

If either Plumlee or Dawkins can step up and give Duke a legitimate scoring option outside of Singler, Smith, and Scheyer, the Blue Devils chances to win in March will improve greatly.

Last season, Duke looked all but lost in mid-February after losing four of six games.

Nevertheless, coach Mike Krzyzewski made adjustments and the Blue Devils turned things around, winning the ACC tournament and getting past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since J.J. Redick graduated.

Duke certainly hasn't hit the same kind of wall they hit around this time last year, but they are still in need of a late season spark to ignite their chances in March and finally get over their springtime winning allergies.