Next up for Duke is State and while an entire generation of Duke fans has grown up taking State for granted, you'll all soon learn what your elders have known all along: it's a great program with great tradition. And as it's roared back to life rather suddenly, you'd best not make the mistake of taking the Pack lightly. Those days are over. If the Pack isn't fully back, it's not going to take much longer.
What Mark Gottfried has done at State is pretty remarkable: he took a set of players who really weren't pushed much or significantly challenged and he's remade them. Consider:
- Richard Howell has lost a ton of weight and become a real factor athletically.
- Scott Wood has become more than just a jumpshooter.
- CJ Leslie has become a much more complete player and a team player, neither of which seemed likely last year.
- DeShawn Painter has become a solid big man.
- CJ Williams and Lorenzo Brown have become an outstanding backcourt.
Consider also that all the starters are averaging between 11.4 and 13.4 ppg.
Like any sensible UCLA assistant, Gottfried spent time listening to John Wooden when he was working for Jim Harrick, and you'd have to think Wooden would be impressed with the turnaround.
State presents some specific challenges for Duke: first of all, the Devils don't match up very well with Howell and Leslie, smaller but more agile than their Duke counterparts.
Duke has a significant size advantage of course, but can you see Ryan Kelly or Mason Plumlee guarding Leslie? It works both ways, of course, but it may be tough for the Devils.
Duke will obviously have to do a good job on Williams and Brown, a taller backcourt than most ACC teams have.
It'll also be interesting, in general, to see what Coach K does with Gottfried's approach on defense and offense. He learned a lot from Jim Harrick, and while his personality may not have necessarily been stable, his teams rarely outsmarted themselves.
So far, for the most part, neither has State. They're unselfish, they're smart, and they're now disciplined.
Toss in some intriguing mismatches, and you have the makings of a dynamic game.
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