There have been impressive signs throughout the college basketball season for multiple teams, but as I’ve said before, I really love what Duke has done on both ends.
Now ranked No. 3 in the country, I’d even go as far as to say Duke is the best team in America. After its past three wins against Arkansas, Florida, and Michigan State, I don’t know how anyone could argue otherwise.
Still, there’s a lot of season left, and The Athletic had some interesting thoughts about what might unfold. When examining Duke as of right now, Brendan Marks made some fair points, noting that there are still things we need to see from Duke’s supporting cast.
“It feels like we say this every year about Duke, but the Blue Devils’ latest freshman sensation might be one of the program’s best yet. Following in Cooper Flagg’s footsteps was never going to be easy. Still, Cameron Boozer has somehow done it, emerging as the runaway Wooden Award favorite while carrying Duke on his massive shoulders. The 6-foot-9 forward is the only Duke freshman with multiple 35-point games in a season … and he did it before the calendar even hit December.
“Duke’s complementary cast has been more hit or miss, but Caleb Foster, Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba II have still come through for the Blue Devils in every clutch situation so far. Entering Wednesday, courtesy of its four ranked wins over Kansas, Arkansas, Florida and Michigan State, coach Jon Scheyer’s team had the best strength of résumé in the nation, per EvanMiya,” he wrote.
While Duke’s supporting cast can obviously show more, I also think several of those players have had stretches of really good basketball. Outside of a few, there’s reason to believe this group can figure things out long-term.
We’ll see how everything unfolds over the next few months.
Duke is a very good team from top to bottom, and I genuinely believe it is just getting started. ACC play will show us if that is true or not. I suspect that Duke will be more than fine when it matters most.