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Duke Basketball Actually Received Some Disrespect This Offseason
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- Duke Basketball Actually Received Some Disrespect This Offseason
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
What's interesting about Duke's roster this season is that it's arguably the best in the country, but most don't consider it to have a first-team preseason All-American.
The Athletic recently released its preseason All-American list, with Duke having just one player on one of the first two teams, senior guard John Blackwell. Blackwell, an All-American last year at Wisconsin, has an opportunity to come in and be among the top players in college basketball. He already proved last year that he has the skill set to be just that, and now a year older, there's reason to believe that he's going to improve upon his 19.1 points per game and 38.9% 3-point shooting on 7.3 attempts per game at Wisconsin last season.
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While ACC play is going to be different than the Big Ten, there's no reason to worry too much about him struggling in the ACC. The Big Ten is arguably the better conference, so Blackwell should fit right in.
What does raise questions, however, is whether Duke is getting the respect it deserves for its roster. Player by player, Duke seems to be in as good of a position as any team in the country.
However, to only have one preseason All-American from The Athletic and other outlets does lead to some questions about what others are seeing in this team that I'm possibly not, as I think there's an argument that multiple players should be on the All-American list.
"Blackwell was The Athletic's top available guard in the transfer portal this spring, following three standout seasons at Wisconsin. By choosing Duke, he guaranteed he'll be one of the faces of the sport this season. The 6-4 flamethrower will benefit from playing alongside a dominant frontcourt. Blackwell already made 38.9 percent of his 3s last season, but in three exhibitions with the Blue Devils — including against Top 25 foes Kansas and Tennessee — he shot 10-for-19 (52.6 percent) from deep while defenses keyed in on Duke's bigs. Expect more of the same all season…
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"Blackwell could have gone elsewhere and commanded a larger share of the offense. But at Duke, he'll get the same off-ball looks that turned Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans into NBA players over the past two seasons — and possibly make a Final Four doing so," The Athletic wrote .
Ultimately, preseason rankings, preseason All-American lists, and everything else that happens before the year really don't mean anything.
The situation at hand for Duke right now is to win a national championship, and if the team comes out and takes care of business, nobody's going to care about who landed on a preseason All-American list.
Duke would have multiple All-Americans if everybody plays as well as some expect them to, but more importantly, finish the season with a nice big ring.
