I'm more clueless this year than I've ever been, which probably means I'll be more accurate than I've ever been.
Moore - 30
Johnson - 28
Hurt - 27
Steward - 24
Roach - 22
Goldwire - 20
Coleman - 16
Baker - 15
Tape - 9
Brakefield - 5
Williams - 4
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I'm more clueless this year than I've ever been, which probably means I'll be more accurate than I've ever been.
Moore - 30
Johnson - 28
Hurt - 27
Steward - 24
Roach - 22
Goldwire - 20
Coleman - 16
Baker - 15
Tape - 9
Brakefield - 5
Williams - 4
Moore - 30
Johnson - 28
Hurt - 27
Steward - 27
Roach - 20
Goldwire - 26
Williams - 12
Baker - 15
Tape - 6
Brakefield - 5
Coleman - 4
Also, I predict Duke finishes 3rd in ACC this year.
This has to be one of the more difficult seasons to predict minutes. Coach K almost always has a couple guys who rarely leave the court in close games.* This year it is difficult to predict who this might be. After all, there are no returning player who averaged more than 24.1 mpg last year and Duke has no incoming top 10 RSCI player. Add in the fact that we have 7 newcomers who may (or may not) play a significant role this year and the lack of preseason games to gauge the players, and it seems like this year's contest in pretty much a crapshoot for anyone without inside knowledge of how the guys are performing in practice.
That being said, here is my guess
MPG Johnson 32 Moore 28 Goldwire 25 Hurt 23 Roach 20 Coleman 18 Steward 17 Williams 12 Baker 12 Tape 10 Brakefield 3
*In the 821 Duke games decided by 15 points or less since Coach K arrived, the Duke player with the most minutes has averaged 38.3 minutes and the player with the second most minutes played has averaged 36.0 minutes. In my opinion, it is hard to look at this year's roster and pick out 2 guys who are going to average 36+ mpg in close games. While their are no obvious choices, I see 7 potential candidates for "guy-Coach K-wants-to-have-on-the-court-as-much-as-possible":
- Jalen Johnson (top incoming recruit)
- Wendell Moore or Matthew Hurt (if either takes a Luke Kennard-like sophomore leap)
- Jordan Goldwire or Jeremy Roach (Coach K likes to have his best point guard on the floor as much as possible)
- DJ Steward or Joey Baker (Coach K loves elite shooters if they can hold their own defensively).
Who had Tapé, Williams, Coleman, and Brakefield combining for 9 minutes in the opener against Pomeroy's #332 team?
I do have Williams, Tapé, & Brakefield for a combined 12 min average/game for the season,...
BUT, I also have Coleman for 16 min a game. Oops!! I think I saw Coleman out there for maybe 40-50 seconds today. What in the world??! We kept hearing glowing reviews on Coleman preseason.
I thought we could have gone big on a few sequences today... but alas... the short bench will forever define our beloved Blue Devils.
*Next* season’s minutes thread sent me searching for this one. Did we ever get results from last year or are we just putting this one out of mind?