Rasheed Sulaimon came into this season with high expectations for himself, as did most all of college basketball and Duke fans. Sulaimon had averaged 11.6 PPG in 29 minutes per game as a freshman and was coming back better than before, surrounded by even more talent. The shooting guard position seemed to be Sulaimon’s to lose as well, with freshman and fellow Texas native Matt Jones the only other true shooting guard on the roster. Sulaimon was riding an extreme high after his very successful freshman campaign and his gold medal winning summer on the U-19 USA Team, making him a back-to-back gold medal winner. There were even whispers of the 6’4” Texan making the leap to the NBA, but his draft stock never firmly solidified itself in the first round.

Rasheed Sulaimon rises up to send it to OT versus unbeaten Syracuse. (Footbasket.com)

Unfortunately for Sulaimon, this type of performance didn’t materialize and surrounded by talented offensive threats like Rodney Hood and Jabari Parker, he wasn’t having the ball in his hands as much as he would’ve preferred. Sulaimon made his living as a slasher his freshman year, darting into the lane and creating his own shots. With shooters and primary offensive options like Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly spotting up, this worked well for last year’s Duke team. But with Parker doing exactly that at a much higher clip, those lanes were shut down and a lot of touches for Sulaimon were disappearing. Instead of adapting to a new style of play and efficiently playing alongside Hood and Parker, Sulaimon resisted and was thrown into Coach K’s doghouse where he stayed up until recently, even chalking up a dreaded DNP-CD in December against Michigan. Sulaimon didn’t exactly “break out” immediately after that game versus Michigan, playing only 5 minutes versus Gardner Webb. But since the December 19 game versus UCLA, Sulaimon has been improving and playing with a newfound sense of confidence, outside of two outliers at Clemson and Pittsburgh. Read the rest of this entry »

He knew he had it within him all along. The skinny 6’9” “power” forward from Philadelphia had always played with an infectious sense of energy — the quintessential ‘hype man’ for Duke. But in Amile Jefferson’s freshman season, he primarily logged spot duty minutes at a clip of about 13 minutes per game. Stuck behind senior frontcourt leaders Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee, Jefferson struggled to get into a groove and find a defined role in Duke’s system. Coming into this year, the 2012 McDonald’s All-American made it his business to add weight to his frame so he could take advantage of a vacuum of low-post talent in the frontcourt.

Amile Jefferson has taken Coach K’s lessons to heart

Without a true post presence on the floor but all his other pieces aligning, Mike Krzyzewski needed either Jefferson, Marshall Plumlee or senior Josh Hairston to anchor the post while flanked by perimeter-oriented forwards Rodney Hood and Jabari Parker. Given that the Parker/Hood tandem is a highly efficient scoring duo, the center role in Duke’s scheme this year primarily requires competent rebounding, post defense, and communication while anchoring the back line of the defense. While Jefferson will never be the kind of defensive shot-blocking presence as Kansas’ Joel Embiid or Arizona State’s Jordan Bachynski, he can arguably check the boxes that Duke desires in a big man.

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Tuesday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Mike Krzyzewski gave another chance to a starting lineup that had started four consecutive games back in November. Amile Jefferson and Rasheed Sulaimon replaced Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton, playing well enough to earn a combined 64 minutes in Duke’s 79-57 win over Georgia Tech. After an evenly played first half, Rodney Hood’s second straight 27-point game and the Blue Devils’ energy level rolled past a Yellow Jackets team trying to adjust to playing without Robert Carter, Jr., in the wake of his meniscus injury.

Rodney Hood Scores 27 Again As Duke Beats Georgia Tech
(photo: www.goduke.com)

The last Duke game featuring sophomores Jefferson and Sulaimon as starters turned out to be the worst defensive Duke performance in at least a dozen years, a narrow 91-90 home win over Vermont in the sixth game of the season. After that contest, in an effort to establish a tougher defensive identity, Mike Krzyzewski inserted seniors Hairston and Thornton into the starting lineup. The Blue Devils made measurable progress defensively after the change, but for Duke to reach its full potential as a team this season, the more talented sophomores will need to be on the court more than the solid but offensively limited role players.

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1. Winston-Salem Journal and Raleigh News & Observer: In honor of Wake Forest‘s best win of the Jeff Bzdelik era, here are a couple of posts on the Demon Deacons. Dan Collins gives some context to the Wake Forest-North Carolina rivalry (and a good reminder of how awesome Randolph Childress was). Speaking of Childress, I can’t help thinking he’s played a role in Codi Miller-McIntyre‘s leap this season. He also should prove an asset recruiting, as he seems to have the charisma Bzdelik is missing.
2. State of the U: Good catch-up with Miami assistant coach Michael Huger on where the Hurricanes are and where they need to improve in conference play. Huger pointed to the team’s need for a leader to step up, also saying “Davon Reed is trying to emerge as that guy.” The fact is this team has a ceiling because of its youth and its talent (though I–and Syracuse–underestimated them coming into conference play). But if Jim Larranaga and his staff can get this group to start gelling, this will be a strong core to build around going forward.
3. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Bad news out of Atlanta as Robert Carter Jr. is sitting out indefinitely to undergo knee surgery. Brian Gregory noted the time table could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on the severity of the tear. The news is a particularly big blow because Carter obviously worked hard in the off-season to improve his conditioning, which will suffer with an extended time away from the team. Carter’s absence will most affect the team’s proficiency on the boards and protecting the rim as his likely replacement Kammeon Holsey is a significantly worse shot-blocker.
4. Charlottesville Daily Progress: North Carolina isn’t the ACC’s only puzzling team: Virginia is also a total enigma. The Cavaliers don’t have any really good wins (well, at least they didn’t until dismantling Florida State in Tallahassee), but they’re statistically solid (35-point beatdown to Tennessee notwithstanding). While I had no idea what to think of the Tar Heels coming into the season (or now), I felt positive that Virginia would be a contender in the ACC. The team’s non-conference schedule all but emptied its bandwagon, but the win against the Seminoles has me with one foot back in.
5. Durham Herald-Sun and CBS Sports: Good story from Steve Wiseman on Andre Dawkins, who’s earned his spot in Duke’s rotation not just with his lights out three-point shooting but also an improved presence on the defensive end of the floor. Dawkins still isn’t a good defender, but his effort and execution are vastly improved over previous seasons. Also while on the subject of the Blue Devils, I think Coach K made the right call benching Jabari Parker. Yes, Parker was the best player on the floor, but he had been forcing things all night, and it’s important for him to understand when to take a step back. That said, in the future (especially more important games), I think Parker should stay in because he’s the best player on the floor and opposing teams will have to guard him as such.

1. Winston Salem Journal: Somehow missed this a couple of weeks ago, but this is an awesome mini-series on the history of the ACC. Things are broken down by decade with all the top coaches, players and quotes highlighted. If you’ve got a few minutes, it’s definitely worth reading all the way through. Also who knew Frank McGuire felt so offended by the full-court press?
2. Sports Illustrated: And make it two great Andre Dawkins stories. Seth Davis did some great reporting on Dawkins’ struggle with depression following his sister’s death. It’s really hard to read these stories and know that someone didn’t get any help for over a year while he was hurting so much. It seems like Dawkins is in a much better place now, and props go out to the Duke staff for directly intervening when they did. Though for all of the positivity in this story and surrounding Dawkins’s return this season, he’s only logged two total minutes in Duke’s two games this season. Obviously, it may be a matter of rust or conditioning (or an embarrassment of wealth on the wing, more likely), but here’s to hoping Dawkins finds his way back into the rotation.
3. Lynchburg News Advance: Normally, game recaps don’t deserve a spot in the M5, but not all wins are created equal. After a bad horrendous opening loss to South Carolina Upstate, Virginia Tech showed some major grit in coming back from 19 down in the first half to beat West Virginia on Tuesday. The Hokies were left for dead after getting down 29-10, but freshman Ben Emolgu and UNC Wilmington transfer Adam Smith combined for 41 points in the victory. James Johnson has to be pleased both with the win and the production of his newcomers, who will be crucial if the Hokies hope to exceed expectations in conference play.
4. Reuters (via Chicago Tribune): A couple of big news items are hidden in this piece. First, the ACC Tournament will not be going to New York in 2016. It will be going to Washington, DC. Alas, Maryland won’t be able to revel in the home court advantage, as the Terrapins will be playing in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago that season. Geographically, the capital city makes sense (thanks to the new northern schools’ collective impact on the ACC footprint), and flights should be easy to come by. Second is that the official date for Louisville leaving the American conference has been set for July 1, 2014 (a year earlier than scheduled).
5. Orlando Sentinel: Okaro White was thrust into a leadership position last year. Sure, Michael Snaer was the heart and soul of Florida State’s team, but White was expected to help manage the youngest team Leonard Hamilton has trotted out in recent memory. That was a big change from being an important offensive player on a team of juniors and seniors. This year, White sounds more ready for the challenge — which is also easier because the team he’s leading is a year older. Experience is a big part of playing good defense (see, Duke’s defense on Tuesday night). The game is faster and the systems more complicated than anything players see in high school or AAU, and already, Florida State’s experience is paying dividends.

1. The residual from Tuesday’s Champions Classic buzzed throughout the sports world on Wednesday, with considerable discussion devoted to rank-ordering the superstar freshmen who were on display (Parker, Randle, Wiggins was a popular order), discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the four teams, and projecting the areas in which each will get better. But perhaps the biggest storyline that came out of the game was related to the interview that Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski gave afterward. In response to a media member’s question about the not-exactly-secretive practice by NBA teams to tank games in order to position themselves for high draft picks next summer, Coach K waxed poetically in his response about the virtues of good old-fashioned competition: “As an American, I wouldn’t like to think that an American team would want to lose or create situations where you would want to lose. […] Maybe I’m naive and I’m going to go read a fairy tale after this.” Full clip here. Speaking of competition, ESPN cleaned up with its broadcast of the double-header, recording the second-highest rated regular season non-conference game in history for #1 Kentucky vs. #2 Michigan State, and the nightcap game wasn’t terribly far behind.
2. Sports Illustrated hit the newsstands on Wednesday with spectacular timing, choosing to release its 2013-14 College Basketball Preview issue in the wake of all the good Champions Classic vibe and avoiding the AP and USA Today/Coaches polls’ mistake of choosing Kentucky for its top spot. Utilizing a neat four-region cover format, the experts at SI instead went with Louisville as its preseason #1 team, although there aren’t any real surprises among the rest of their list (Harvard at #20, maybe?). For their full top 20 rankings and excerpts of some of the articles printed in the preview, check out this SI.com One and One post here; for complete scouting reports on each of the ranked teams, check out their online post here. But if you really want the full experience, get analog and enjoy the magazine the way it was intended — in hard-copy, ink-and-paper, magazine format.
3. Speaking of the Cards, the AP announced on Wednesday that the school had negotiated the exit fee from its one-year foray with the AAC as it looks to head to the ACC next July. The final number turned out to be $11 million, which is roughly the revenue that Louisville creates in the price of a handful of hot dogs and beers at the Yum! Center during a basketball game. OK, not really, but the most profitable basketball program in the nation — estimated to bring in an annual surplus of $23-$28 million per year — shouldn’t have any problem whatsoever in finding enough couch change to write the check. With a move to its new conference starting next season and all the additional television revenue that will come with being a part of the dominant east coast sports league, expect those coffers to continue to rise.
4. When Louisville joins the ACC in 2014, the next basketball season will culminate in a blockbuster ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the 25th time. But with the push to save itself and add teams from above the Mason-Dixon Line, the league is looking to make its hallmark event a bit more inclusive and cosmopolitan than the longtime location of league HQ. A part-time move to New York City is an inevitability, but before the nation’s oldest conference tournament heads to the Big Apple, the league has decided to take baby steps with a trip to Washington, DC, in 2016. The ACC has accepted this dance with the District once before at the Verizon/MCI Center in 2005, an event that was notable for its relatively light attendance over the course of the weekend. The DC area had also hosted several ACC Tournaments prior to that at the old Capital Center in Landover, Maryland, but in all of these events, the Terps and maybe Duke were the only real attractions. Syracuse, Notre Dame and to a certain degree Pittsburgh, on the other hand, all have huge alumni bases in the East Coast megalopolis between Washington and New York, now just an easy train ride between city centers. And Louisville fans travel well. Contrasted with nearly a decade prior, expect the 2016 ACC Tournament even without local team Maryland involved to be a fantastic success.
5. Finally today, if you read nothing else, read this story from SI‘s Seth Davis about Duke guard Andre Dawkins‘ struggles with clinical depression. By all accounts, depression is a medical condition that people who don’t suffer from it have a lot of trouble understanding. Why not just pick yourself up? Why not just find something that makes you happy? The truth is that picking yourself up and finding something meaningful is extremely difficult for those with the disease. The complicated brain chemistry involved with the condition doesn’t just go away because they want it to, and as Davis elucidates so nicely with the story on Dawkins, the only way it can be solved is through therapy and (sometimes) medical intervention through antidepressants. The happy ending here is that Dawkins is back on the Blue Devils for his senior season and he really wants to play basketball again, something that he had almost no desire to do two years ago. That’s a win right there, and Davis should be commended for bringing this encouraging story to the forefront. Even if you hate Duke, you’ll have to root for Dawkins after reading this one.

Duke had a successful 2013-14 season but it will be remembered as three seasons in one. Led by the senior trio of Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly, Duke got off to the best start in the country, winning its first 15 games against a very tough schedule. Then Kelly went down with a foot injury and the Blue Devils dropped to merely a good team, going 9-4 without him in the lineup. Kelly’s dramatic return in a 79-76 win over eventual ACC champion Miami gave hope to Duke as a national title contender, but they couldn’t quite get there, losing to a superior Louisville team in the Elite Eight.

Ordinarily, losing three quality starting seniors would indicate a worse season to come, but thanks to a pair of highly regarded new forwards, Duke is expected to remain a national contender. Mike Krzyzewski has also made it clear that a change in style is coming. Duke will not have the veteran post players it had last year, but it will be a much more athletic and deeper team so look for the Blue Devils to push the tempo on both ends of the court. It’s been said that the makeup of this team is similar to Coach K’s 2012 USA Olympic team. That team lacked a true post scorer and was built around versatile play-making forwards on offense and a switching pressure defense. Look for Krzyzewski to use that experience to build this Duke team in the same fashion.

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1. SBNation: Read this article on Andre Dawkins. Seriously great stuff from SBNation‘s Brandon Sneed. Just terrific reporting and writing.
   
2. Augusta Free Press: Chris Graham doesn’t trust Tony Bennett yet. And I’m with him to a point. I don’t trust that Bennett’s system is designed for postseason success. Despite their consistent goodness, Wisconsin only made the Final Four once under Dick Bennett and has never made the final weekend under Bo Ryan. That’s still nothing to sneeze at by any means, but it doesn’t lead me to trust the plodding pace-based offense. That said, Graham takes it too far. I do trust Virginia to contend in the ACC. Bennett’s team was unbeatable at home last season, and everyone of note is back.
3. Wilmington Star News: Here’s a good article from Brett Friedlander on Travis McKie, who is looking forward to a more experienced Wake Forest team this season. Last year, it was McKie and senior CJ Harris accompanied by a talented group of freshmen. This year Harris is gone, but the sophomores should be more accustomed to embattled Jeff Bzdelik’s system as well as the social and academic rigors of college. That should lift a burden off of McKie’s shoulders and make the team better — how much better remains to be seen.
4. Lynchberg News & Advance: Last weekend members from Virginia Tech‘s 1973 NIT championship team came back to Blacksburg to catch up. That game 40 years ago was hotly contested, as the Hokies won on Bobby Stevens’ buzzer-beater in overtime. Incredibly, the Hokies “won their four NIT games by a total of five points.” That’s unbelievable! That might be the most clutch (or luckiest) postseason run of all time. And remember, this is before the NCAA expanded, so the NIT was a much higher profile tournament than it is now. Unfortunately, that anniversary will likely be the high point in Virginia Tech’s basketball campaign unless James Johnson has some serious tricks up his sleeve.
5. Winston-Salem Journal: NC State alum Bucky Waters is steeped in ACC history. He played in the earliest days of the ACC before going on to coach at Duke in the early 1970s. Interestingly, with the continued expansion it’s more fair than ever to name the conference champion based on the ACC Tournament. Imbalanced schedules make comparing records a futile exercise, but every team gets its shot to win this year in Greensboro. Like most fans Waters sounds excited for the new ACC. It’s clear he misses the old geographically-driven conference with its more natural rivalries, but “the money is going to determine — as it has already — everything.”

Duke’s roster this season is merely a shell of its former self. Gone is the backbone of the team, gone are the three seniors, gone are the leaders, gone are 47.9 PPG. You get the point. Duke lost its three leading scorers and a huge part of its 30-win Elite Eight team. Yet people are excited about the prospects of this team, even perhaps more excited than last season. Duke returns both its junior floor general, Quinn Cook, and its sophomore shooting guard and McDonald’s All-American, Rasheed Sulaimon. Another two McDonald’s All-Americans return in sophomore forward Amile Jefferson and redshirt sophomore center Marshall Plumlee. Where Duke changes up the offensive schemes and flips the script is with the two future NBA swingmen on the roster, Mississippi State transfer Rodney Hood and blue-chip freshman Jabari Parker.

Quinn Cook calls Duke’s new offense ‘a point guard’s dream’ (USA Today)

Don’t be mistaken, though, Duke is still Duke. They will continue to have shooters spotting up around the arc for open looks: postgraduate sniper Andre Dawkins, freshman Matt Jones, Sulaimon, Cook, and even senior perimeter stopper Tyler Thornton all can and will fire away with a green light from deep. But as ESPN.com’s Eamonn Brennan pointed out in a recent excerpt about Duke, Mike Krzyzewski above all adapts to his team’s strengths. And with a team full of athletic and versatile players like Parker, Sulaimon, Hood, and Jefferson, Krzyzewski has this year’s team poised to run early and often. “Last year’s team couldn’t run like this team can now,” senior captain Thornton exclaimed.

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1. One of the downsides of taking a high-profile job is that some of your most questionable moments are brought out in public and Steve Alford learned that the hard way as his move to UCLA has prompted journalists to bring up the Pierre Pierce incident where Pierce was accused of sexual assault and Alford declared Pierce’s innocence (Pierce subsequently pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was eventually thrown off the team when he was involved in another similar incident). Yesterday, Alford finally relented and issued an apology (likely brought on by a wealthy booster or the school’s administration) in which Alford admits a mistake in judgement when declaring Pierce’s innocence and used the Iowa administration along with its lawyers as his own personal scapegoat for his ridiculous comments in 2002 (at least somebody learned something from the Mike Rice incident).
2. When Andre Dawkins stepped away from the Duke basketball team last season for personal reasons we were not sure if he would ever play for the team again, but it appears that he will be playing for the Blue Devils next season. While Dawkins has generated more publicity for his off-court issues (none of them his fault–coming to Duke early, his sister’s) he certainly has the ability (8.4 points per game during the 2011-12 season) to contribute to the team. The only problem is that the Blue Devils have more plenty of perimeter talent, but very little inside with the departure of Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly.
3. When we heard that Rick Pitino had promised his team that he would get a tattoo we assumed that he would back out of it, but he is sticking by it at least publicly. The latest news on the Pitino tattoo is that he is that it “will be a cardinal and it will say 2013 champions.” Honestly we wouldn’t expect anything less from Pitino. We just hope that there is some amusing photo of it in the Louisville preseason media guide. Actually we hope that he saves its unveiling for next season’s Louisville-Kentucky game as he shows it to taunt the Kentucky fans.
4. On Wednesday we pointed out that even though almost everybody had Russ Smith leaving Louisville there was one person — Smith himself — who had not come out with his intent to leave. Now it appears that Russ (or at least the people around him) appears to be having a change of heart as Rick Pitino said yesterday that Smith is 50-50 on the decision. On one hand we are not sure how much Smith can improve his NBA Draft stock with one more season since he will not get any taller and we really doubt that he will improve his decision-making markedly, but he is still a likely second round pick which means he would probably spend next year in the D-League or somewhere in Europe if he leaves the Cardinals program.
5. So, this Andy Enfield guy had a pretty good couple of weeks, right? On top of the pretty good couple of years, on top of the pretty good couple of decades… you get the picture. The new USC head coach stopped by the Tonight Show to see Jay Leno on Wednesday night, and well, it’s not hard to see how this guy has been mostly successful at everything he’s touched.