Stat Leaders

[lavell12]

Here are my top 3 in each of the man catagories.

Points
Singler 16.7
Nelson 14.3
Paulus 13.8

Rebounds
Thomas 6.2
Zoubek 5.8
Nelson 5.3

Assist
Paulus 4.8
Smith 3.1
Scheyer 2.2

Blocks
Zoubek 1.2
Thomas .8
McClure .6

Free Throw
Scheyer 87%
Paulus 83%
King 80%

Field Goal %
Thomas 61%
Zoubek 57%
McClure 48%

Three Point %
King 44%
Paulus 42%
Scheyer 39%

Minutes
Nelson 29:31
Paulus 28:54
Singler 27:33

I just made up these off the top of my head. Noticed the minutes will go down b/c of the depth of this team.

[Cameron]

My two favorite categories

Scoring
Singler 17.0
Nelson 15.2
Scheyer 13.8

Three Point %
Paulus 47% (68 triples)
Scheyer 44% (80 triples)
King 41% (66 triples)

[ACCBBallFan]

I would expect Zoubek to lead the team in rebounds by a wide margin 8.5 over Singler, and Nelson each in the 5.x range, helped by lots of long rebounds off 3-point shots.

It remains to be seen how many of Zoubek's rebounds are stat stuffer offensive grabs of his own missed shots, like Sean May used to do, but he will rack up a bunch of rebounds with his size if he is given the PT I think he deserves.

[Got_Duke]

why in the world are we trying to predict PPG, RPG, 3point %, etc.?

these are extremely ambiguous and IMPOSSIBLE to predict

though I do not find fault in the attempt, and the excitement around the fact that the season is just about upon us!

[bdh21]

Here are my top 3 in each of the man catagories.

Points
Singler 16.7
Nelson 14.3
Paulus 13.8

.
.
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I just made up these off the top of my head. Noticed the minutes will go down b/c of the depth of this team.

Here's a friendly little piece of trivia: Who was the last Duke freshman to average 16+ points per game?

[monkey]

Here's a friendly little piece of trivia: Who was the last Duke freshman to average 16+ points per game?

That's tough. J Will was a little under 15. I think Brand was doing it for most of the year but then fell off when he came back from injury. Gotta think it was pre-K.

[monkey]

That's tough. J Will was a little under 15. I think Brand was doing it for most of the year but then fell off when he came back from injury. Gotta think it was pre-K.

I take it back. Johnny Dawkins?

[OldPhiKap]

Vargas?

[bdh21]

I take it back. Johnny Dawkins?

Dawkins averaged 18.1 his freshman campaign, but his class arrived under different circumstances than just about any other K recruits.

[throatybeard]

Vargas?

You mean the assassin from Thunderball?

[Indoor66]

You mean the assassin from Thunderball?

Actually I think it was the artist from Playboy.

[Cameron]

Good point about Singler being a freshman and how it's not exactly the easiest task for one to jump right into the ACC averaging 16, 17 points a night. However, if any freshman in the Coach K era has had the most perfect setup to try and do, it's probably Kyle Singler.

As K has already stated, Kyle is going to be our most rounded player from the beginning, and looked upon to score a ton of points for what was a very poor offensive unit a year ago. DeMarcus led our club in scoring last season, but we all know he is somewhat unreliable from night to night. He's either in a groove or nothin's goin'. Period. Last season Greg proved to be a very solid scorer for us, epsecially during the final ten games; however, he's our point guard first and foremost, so I wouldn't expect him to be leading the club in scoring this season. Unless he's morphed into Jason Williams, which woudn't be such a bad thing Jon and Gerald are the only other guys I could see possibly see leading our club in point production this season (Lance, David, Taylor, and Nolan will be very good, but won't be leading our team. And Marty and Brian are complete question marks at the time being).

If Kyle can adjust to the ACC game fairly quickly--and of everything the Duke coaching staff has said of him so far I worry very little about this--then I see no reason why he couldn't average more than 15 points per game. He has all the tools. I'm not saying he's just going to be able to walk into Cameron his first ACC outing and drop 75 on Virginia, but 16, 17 a night is something I think he could very well be capable of. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, though.

I noticed someone bringing up Jason Williams only averaging 15 a game as a freshman. Well, had it not been for ACC Player of the Year Chris Carrawell and two other marvelously talented rookies in Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer playing beside him, Jason had all the talent necessary to score upwards of 19, 20 points a game that year. We just didn't need him to do so.

We may need Kyle to do so. And he's capable.

For all of you making 16, 17 points per game for a freshman at Duke sound as difficult as space travel to Heaven, calm down. It's far from impossible, especially going into a season that is completely unknown at this point.

[yancem]

Good point about Singler being a freshman and how it's not exactly the easiest task for one to jump right into the ACC averaging 16, 17 points a night. However, if any freshman in the Coach K era has had the most perfect setup to try and do, it's probably Kyle Singler.

Someone in a recent post used Dunleavy as a comparison point for Singler. Based partly on the situation he is stepping into and partly on what I know about his game, I'm thinking that Deng may be a better comparison. Anyone have any thoughts? Deng BTW averaged 15.1 ppg as a freshman.

I noticed someone bringing up Jason Williams only averaging 15 a game as a freshman. Well, had it not been for ACC Player of the Year Chris Carrawell and two other marvelously talented rookies in Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer playing beside him, Jason had all the talent necessary to score upwards of 19, 20 points a game that year. We just didn't need him to do so.

Don't forget about Battier who actually lead the team in scoring that year at 17.4 ppg.

[Cameron]

Don't forget about Battier who actually lead the team in scoring that year at 17.4 ppg.

Wow, I shouldn't even be allowed to be a Duke fan after forgetting Shane, one of my all-time favorite human beings. Thanks for correcting that.

Looking back, Battier was probably one of the most improved four year players in Duke history. He came to Durham as a highly touted offensive machine out of Country Day high school in Detroit (Okay, so I am now trying to make up for my forgetfulness by rambling on and on about Shane's background and history. So what) but after his first full year on campus, he was basically known as nothing more than a defensive presence who could occassionally put some points on the board with his mid-range jumper. And not that we really needed him to be a great scorer as a freshman, what with guys like Langdon, McLeod, Brand, and Avery roaming the court, but it's still amazing to think that Battier, one of the most feared long range shooters in school history, shot only 16 percent (4 of 24) from three-point range that season.

Looking at the modest averages from his first two season's in Duke Blue, you would never have thought that Shane would have went on to become a two-time All-American and a National Player of the Year, as well as Dick Vitale's choice for Human of the Post-Dinosaur Era

[bdh21]

Someone in a recent post used Dunleavy as a comparison point for Singler. Based partly on the situation he is stepping into and partly on what I know about his game, I'm thinking that Deng may be a better comparison. Anyone have any thoughts? Deng BTW averaged 15.1 ppg as a freshman.

I think there may be a tendency to underestimate the impact of Deng. Right now you hear DMarc praising Singler's play, and K says Singler is the most "well-rounded" player on the team who would "start today" if there were a game. Contrast that to what was said about Deng. I believe J.J. and K said in the preseason (I'm paraphrasing) "Deng is already the best player on this team. We need to figure out how to get him the ball early and often."

Deng was the consensus #2 recruit in that class behind a fellow that never showed up to any school. He was a freak of an athlete in addition to being an excellent shooter and hard worker. He also embarrassed many defenders using some of the most ridiculous pivots you've ever seen. The point is... Deng and Singler may have some similarities, but to hold Singler to the standard of the best freshman Duke's had since J.D. is quite ambitious.

[yancem]

I think there may be a tendency to underestimate the impact of Deng. Right now you hear DMarc praising Singler's play, and K says Singler is the most "well-rounded" player on the team who would "start today" if there were a game. Contrast that to what was said about Deng. I believe J.J. and K said in the preseason (I'm paraphrasing) "Deng is already the best player on this team. We need to figure out how to get him the ball early and often."

Deng was the consensus #2 recruit in that class behind a fellow that never showed up to any school. He was a freak of an athlete in addition to being an excellent shooter and hard worker. He also embarrassed many defenders using some of the most ridiculous pivots you've ever seen. The point is... Deng and Singler may have some similarities, but to hold Singler to the standard of the best freshman Duke's had since J.D. is quite ambitious.

I wasn't trying to say that Singler will be as good as Deng (although we can certainly hope). My point is that he will play a similar role as Deng did. While that '04 team technically had more size, it wasn't much more proven. Sheldon looked as lost as Zoubec at times his freshman year and Shav was coming back from major surgery. Deng was asked to be not only a perimeter scorer but post scorer, rebounder and guard the post. I think a similar load is going to be asked of Singler. Also from what I've read, they share a fairly similar skill set. The question is how does Singler adjust to the college game?

Also, to your point about coach and teammate comments, Singler is getting more praise as an incoming freshman than anyone other than Deng that I can remember.

[OldPhiKap]

You mean the assassin from Thunderball?

I made two mistakes.

1. Typing too quickly for my memory to spell it right.

2. Forgetting that freshmen didn't play (although Verga did score 21.4 ppg in his first year).

Getting old is no fun. Although it is better than the alternative.

[OldPhiKap]

I wasn't trying to say that Singler will be as good as Deng (although we can certainly hope). My point is that he will play a similar role as Deng did. While that '04 team technically had more size, it wasn't much more proven. Sheldon looked as lost as Zoubec at times his freshman year and Shav was coming back from major surgery. Deng was asked to be not only a perimeter scorer but post scorer, rebounder and guard the post. I think a similar load is going to be asked of Singler. Also from what I've read, they share a fairly similar skill set. The question is how does Singler adjust to the college game?

Also, to your point about coach and teammate comments, Singler is getting more praise as an incoming freshman than anyone other than Deng that I can remember.

From what I saw, Singler is more like Dunleavy than like Deng -- guard skills in a huge body. I don't see him manning the low blocks like Deng.

Also, as far as praise -- McBob was the next Larry Bird and Shav was, well, the next Larry Bird too. But having said that, the times I have seen Singler play, he was a lot of fun to watch,

[Cameron]

^^Yeah, but nothing beats Paul Davis praise. He was the next Laettner.







LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOL

[Ignatius07]

I don't see [Singler] manning the low blocks like Deng.

He will absolutely be manning the low blocks! If you accept that Singler will start, he is either going to be playing the 4 next to Zoubek/Thomas or the 5 next to Henderson/Nelson/Thomas. If he plays alongside Zoubek, then he will probably guard the second-biggest player, who many times will still be a post player. If he starts with any of those other guys, there is near 100% certainty he will be guarding the other team's first big.

Luckily this won't be too big a problem, based on various reports. Singler is apparently able to capably guard on both the perimeter and in the post. In that sense - based on what he will be asked to do and what he can do - I think Deng is a much better comparison, even though superficially, geographically, and in terms of general skills Dunleavy might be a tempting analogy. Singler the freshman will play a vastly different role than Dunleavy the freshman.