“The March Towards March” is a column by Curran Rastogi about college basketball teams and their journey to March Madness.
On June 21, 2021, history was made after Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced he’d be retiring from college basketball following the 2021-2022 season, commencing a farewell tour for the ages. His young Duke team made it to the Final Four where they fell in an instant classic to in-state rival North Carolina, ending Coach K’s farewell tour without a championship.
For Blue Devil fans, it was a disappointing way to see their beloved coach go out. For Duke’s many haters, it left them with a small sense of satisfaction. Duke’s success over Krzyzewski’s tenure has provoked a lot of envy from rival fans, leaving the entire college basketball community to wonder what a post-Krzyzewski Duke would look like and the success they’d have.
Coach K was succeeded by one of his former players and associate head coach Jon Scheyer. Scheyer won the 2010 National Championship as Duke’s leading scorer and was revered by Coach K for his basketball IQ. In his first year coaching Duke, Scheyer has the team at 16-6 overall with a 7-4 conference record. Although this may not seem to be the most impressive, this team looks much better than its record shows and deserves more recognition.
Scheyer and the Blue Devils started at No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll due to one of their best recruiting classes in recent years. They picked up forward Dariq Whitehead (the No. 2 player in the country), center Dereck Lively II (No. 33), center Kyle Filipowski (No. 4) and forward Mark Mitchell (No. 20), according to 247Sports. They also got transfers guard Jacob Grandison and center Ryan Young, feeding their high expectations. The team lived up to these expectations early on with only two losses in non-conference play against Kansas and Purdue and wins against Iowa, Ohio State and Xavier.
In conference play however, the team started to slip down rankings and lost by at least 10 points to lesser teams like Wake Forest, NC State and Clemson. However, the Blue Devils have won three of their last four and seem to be on an upward trajectory.
Central to Duke’s success has been sharing the basketball and rebounding very well on both ends of the floor. They are third in the ACC in assists per game with 15.5, first in offensive rebounds per game with 10.4 and second in total rebounds per game with 34.6. This allows the Blue Devils, who have players who can create scoring opportunities off the dribble all throughout their rotation, to maximize their chances to hit shots. It also makes them a much harder team to defend as any player can lead the team in scoring every night.
This setup falls in line with Krzyzewski’s philosophy, who said in a Forbes article that “[he likes] to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable.” Duke basketball is at its best when its players create scoring opportunities for each other.
On the defensive end, Duke has allowed the fourth least points per game in the ACC and has the third lowest field goal percentage allowed. Duke’s on-ball defense has allowed them to be the 33rd-best defense in the nation according to KenPom. The team is full of smart, athletic defenders which allows them to switch onto other players to guard if need be. Lively anchors this defense as a defensive stopper; with his height and athleticism, Lively averages two blocks per game, coming off a four-block game where the Blue Devils beat Wake Forest. Lively has not lived up to expectations offensively, averaging 4.4 points per game, but the Blue Devils need to keep him on the floor for his defense and as a lob threat.
For all their strengths, Duke is still a very inexperienced team that has problems closing out games. However, guard Jeremy Roach and Grandison can provide this team a veteran presence in important situations. Similarly, Filipowski is Duke’s best player who can be called upon in these situations.
Can this team make a deep run in March? Yes. Duke is currently projected to be anywhere from a 5-7 seed by most bracketologists. This team has many important games ahead of them, such as North Carolina at home and away, at No. 23 Miami and at No. 6 Virginia. These games will be telling on how the Blue Devils can hold up in the gauntlet of March Madness and the overall strength of the roster as a whole. If the tournament started today, Duke could very easily make a run to the Elite Eight, but if they want to make a return to the Final Four, these upcoming games will be crucial.
“The March Towards March” runs every Thursday.