I was thinking about it today and this season wasn't all that bad. First off, I will say I have high expectations and I don't really see the point in making excuses. Coach K has built the best program in the country at Duke and, no we shouldn't take it for granted, but nor should we be happy about "average" seasons.
We had 9 losses if I'm not forgetting any. Eight were in conference and 7 out of those 8 came to teams seeded ahead of us who you would expect to make the NCAA tournament. FSU was our only bad loss. Then, out of conference we lost to #20 Marquette. If you look at both polls, 7 out of 9 of the games we lost, the team is currently ranked in one poll or the other. So, FSU and GT are the only un-ranked teams we lost to. Then, also consider we beat #20 Air Force and #10 Georgetown.
So those are the facts. It's not a great season cause we did lose 9 games, but it's not all bad either. This actually surprised me looking at the full picture. Our offense looked inept at times early in the season, yet even playing as poor as we have by Duke standards, we are still not a bad team. And, we're certainly better now than we were early in the season.
Our major weaknesses from my perspective are lack of penetration from the point guard position, lack of an inside game, and lack of quickness. Gerald Henderson is quickly becoming a great wing player, Scheyer and Paulus are solid three point threats, and we play good team defense. The lack of quickness and penetration could easily be solved next year if Nolan Smith pans out, but I think we definitely need someone who can help Paulus out against quicker guards. An inside game probably isn't going to happen for us anytime soon, but most teams don't have that. It's unfortunate that McRoberts is such a disappointment and doesn't seem to be improving.
I think if this team can avoid quicker guards in the tournament, we could make a run, but even if we don't, at least things aren't so bleak as they sometimes appeared this season.
Also, just wanted to add that I think Coach K needs to re-think the recruiting strategy a bit. I think part of the reason we are lacking athleticism is K is shying away from the super athletic players who might leave early based on potential. I think the program might need to sacrifice some 4-year players to get some top notch athletes. Also I had a horrible thought today that GH could decide to go pro if he wants too, but I really hope he doesn't.