Nolan Smith Making Loss of Irving a Bright Spot of Duke's Season, Not a Disaster

Coming into the new season following a national championship, the Duke Blue Devils were on a high note after reloading the starting line-up and roster while Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek graduated from the program. 

The major piece to the puzzle, and the key for Duke’s season, was none other than Kyrie Irving, a point guard who was being asked by Coach Mike Krzyzewski to replace Scheyer, a key player for Duke last season in route to their national championship. 

While many weren’t sure if the freshman from New Jersey was up to the challenge when it came to filling the void left by one of the best players to compete at Duke University, Irving surely didn’t disappoint when he took the court.

Shortly after the first couple of games got underway, Irving found his rhythm and became an unstoppable force when driving to the basket. His jump shots were dropping, his assist-to-turnover ratio was outstanding and he was consistently scoring while also defending the opposing team’s best player.

While much hype was given to UNC’s freshman Harrison Barnes before the season began, it was Kyrie Irving who was outplaying Duke’s rival school’s best player early on and was even looking like a National Player of the Year candidate.

In two major early season tests for the Blue Devils, against then-ranked No. 3 Kansas State and then-ranked No. 5 Michigan State, Irving was the best player on the court in both contests while also locking down two of the best guards in the country: Jacob Pullin and Kalin Lucas.

After their tough encounter with Michigan State, Duke travelled to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to face Butler University in a rematch of the 2010 NCAA National Championship game.

That's when things started to take a turn for the worst for the Blue Devils, and when their entire season seemed to be hanging in the balance.

Once he played the entire first half and didn't really contribute much offensively, Irving got things going in the second half against the Bulldogs. He was unable to penetrate the defense for a majority of the game but finally got things going towards the end.

After scoring a number of points consecutively for Duke, and almost putting away Butler, Irving drove to the basket, stopped, and was going to pull up for a jump shot.

The shot never went off, however, as Irving grimaced and held onto his foot for some time.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski immediately took his star player out of the game to be examined, only to allow Irving to enter back into the game only a few minutes later.

Although the injury didn't seem to look too bad when it occurred, it was later discovered that he had a ligament injury and Coach K stated that he would be out "for a long time." 

While this was horrible news for the Blue Devil faithful, the team still had to move on without their prized recruit and point guard. And, although they would miss his presence on the floor, other players were going to have to step up and contribute while trying to fill the void left by Irving.

It was also no shock to Duke fans when Coach K approached senior Nolan Smith and asked if he would move from shooting guard to point guard during the time that Irving was going to be out—possibly even for the entire season.

This entire plot line sounds a lot like last season, when Jon Scheyer, who had played shooting guard his entire life, was called upon by Coach K to become the team's point guard in his senior season. While many weren't sure how he would handle the pressure, Scheyer embraced the role and became a much better player because of the drastic move.

This season, Nolan Smith is going to have to embrace the role much like Scheyer did last season. 

While many were skeptical when Coach K started Smith at point guard for a few games during his sophomore season, most people now have confidence in Smith's ability to run the team since he has developed into one of the best guards in the country over his four years at Duke.

One of the major problems that people were going to have with the move, however, was the fact that he would be more of a facilitator and less of a scorer. Duke was going to have to rely on the likes of Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry to compliment the point total of fellow senior and All-American Kyle Singler. 

That certainly seemed to look like what was going to happen in Smith's first game as point guard this season, dishing out a career-high 10 assists yet scoring just two points from the field. Smith has since found his aggressive style of play once again, as made evident by his 28-point explosion against Miami University, in just his fifth game as point guard.  

So you see, while Duke may still be trying to get their offense and defense adjusted since Irving's injury, Nolan Smith is a very capable ball-handler, leader and scorer while on the court, and will make the loss of Irving a bright spot for Duke's season instead of a disaster.