A Solid Duke Preview

Breaking Brackets has a season preview up for Duke. It starts with the obvious/inescapable/soon-to-be annoying point that Duke has a new head coach. You have to address it obviously, but it’s getting old now. Good thing the season is about to start; people will at least find different angles to approach it.

Beyond that, they did a pretty decent job of breaking down the new players. What they didn’t get wind of apparently is that both Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell have exceeded expectations so far in practice. And they say this about Kyle Filipowski: “ We’ll see how he develops as a defensive piece, as he lacks a bit of quickness but makes up for that with his athleticism.“

Well if you say so.

The other thing that we think a lot of people are sleeping on is that Jon Scheyer has assembled a bunch of guys who can nearly all shoot. That in turn will open the floor for penetration. Interestingly, one of the guys who could benefit from that is Jaylen Blakes, who is pretty athletic but at least so far, not a great shot. If you have to guard the other four guys for their shooting prowess though, it could really open up a role for him, and he’s strong enough to take advantage.

In general though, it’s a decent preview, but as always, you can’t really anticipate the surprises. Dariq Whitehead’s injury was an unpleasant development but with luck, the other surprises will be positive.