Duke Continues to Prove They're the Biggest Disappointment This Season by Kaleb Aschenbrenner (D
Coming into the season, the Duke Blue Devils were looked at as an easy favorite to win the National Championship. They have been nothing but a disappointment this season, however.
They are coming off yet another loss, this time to a scrub team in NC State, who has loses to Illinois (12-8) Creighton (18 point blowout), UNC (by 50 points) Boston College (9-11), Georgia Tech, (11-8) and Wake Forest (12-7). In what should have been an easy 20 point win, Duke let NC State hang around, and get the “upset” win. While you could make the argument that Duke hasn't been with their head coach for the last few games, that's not enough to make a valid excuse to why they have been playing so poorly. There are many reasons why Duke has been the biggest disappointment this season.
Let's start with the obvious. Grayson Allen has been TERRIBLE. He has been nothing but a constant distraction all year long with his actions on the court. His actions on the court, have overshadowed his poor play this season. Coming into the season, Grayson Allen was named the Preseason Player of the Year, and rightfully so. Last season, Allen averaged a stat line that, arguably, would have made him a top five pick in the draft (21.6 PPG/ 3.5 APG/ 4.6 RPG/ .46 FG%/ 41 3FG%). I'm not sure quite what happened, but this year he has seen those numbers drop drastically. Thru 17 games, he's averaging just 15.2 PPG, while shooting just .39% from the field, and .33% from three. It's not just his poor play on the court that has distracted the Blue Devils. He has been a constant distraction with his actions on the court as well, with his constant tripping of players and his temper tantrums as well. Overall, in my opinion, he has been the most disappointing player this season, both by his playing and his immature actions on the court.
While you could put most of the blame on the poor performance from Grayson Allen, he is not the only thing not working for the Blue Devils. Coming into the season, there was a lot of hype around the incoming high school recruits Duke managed to bring in. The center of the hype was focused on #1 ranked Harry Giles, and #10 ranked Frank Jackson, both of whom have failed to live up to the hype.
Let's start with Giles. Coming into the season, Giles was looked at as an odds on favorite to be drafted #1 overall. That's literally how much hype he had around him. While he has a bad past of knee injuries, Duke still went with the star PF. While he sat out the first couple of games due to said knee injuries, the hype was still very real for his debut. The hype was short lived. While he is still adjusting to the college level of play, his hype, along with his draft stock, has fallen drastically. In just 8 games played, he's only managed to average 5.1 PPG, along with 4.8 RPG. He has failed to score above 12 points in a game this season. If Duke wants to turn it around, they are without a doubt going to need their number one recruit to turn it around.
Now to Frank Jackson. Jackson wasn't as hyped coming into the season, but fans were still met with high expectations. He hasn't been AS much of a disappointment, but he's still failed the high expectations that were set for him. He started off looking like he would be able to lead the Blue Devils, dropping 18 points, 4 assists and 4 steals in his debut game, then followed it up by dropping 21 the next game. In his first 8 games, he managed to score at least 10 points or more. That trend has dropped off, as the competition level increased. In the month of December, he didn't manage to score 10 points in a game at all, only managing to score 9 against UNLV. While his numbers in January did start off looking like the Jackson the fans had hoped for (managed to score 15 in back to back games), the numbers once again dropped. He only managed 3 points in back to back games, against ranked opponents nonetheless. He's only managed to score 10 points one time since January 7th. While he has been more productive than Giles, he still has a lot of work to do to be able to live up to the expectations he once had.
While you can point fingers at whoever you want, the question to what's wrong with Duke has a simple answer. They lack leadership and they lack direction. They're a young team with a lot of potential, but they need a solid leader, someone to step into the role of captain, now that Allen had that right pulled from him. While there is still plenty of time for Duke to improve and still be able to contend for the NCAA title, they have a long road ahead of them in order to reach that goal.
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By Kaleb Aschenbrenner
