This is the most confident that I feel about the upcoming season since 2011.

[proelitedota]

wawaweewa! High five!!

very nice!

[left_hook_lacey]

Yes. Very Excite.

Hope for GREAT SUCCESS!

We will be bad this year-not!

I love u-s- and a!!

[mgtr]

I, too, am optimistic for this year, but not quite ready to get my 40-0 tattoo!

[proelitedota]

First scrimmage footage in a while.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/907317526044053504

[uh_no]

First scrimmage footage in a while.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/907317526044053504

love the floor slap at the end. hope our guys embody that attitude every time down the floor.

[Troublemaker]

First scrimmage footage in a while.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/907317526044053504

Nice mini-showcase for Duval in that video. He began the video by splitting a ball screen for a soft floater, and he made a nice entry pass for a dunk by Marques later on, but this play right here was also Trevon:




It happens quickly, so it could be missed, but Trevon while driving fits a nice bounce pass in traffic to the rolling Bagley for the dunk. (Big version)

One of the underrated negatives of not having a true PG last season is that the defense doesn't get a chance to practice against a guy who can make plays like these. This season, my hope is that Duke's defense will rarely face point guards that are better than the one it goes up against in practice. Which should make a difference.

[atoomer0881]

...

One of the underrated negatives of not having a true PG last season is that the defense doesn't get a chance to practice against a guy who can make plays like these. This season, my hope is that Duke's defense will rarely face point guards that are better than the one it goes up against in practice. Which should make a difference.

Somehow, this is something I've admittedly never really thought about. But it's definitely something that's important. Having a true PG not only helps our offense in a myriad of ways, but also like you said, since we'll have to face Duval every day in practice, it should also help us improve immensely at guarding those kind of players from opposing teams. This is why I still think to this day that getting Duval was one of the most important pieces to this year's recruiting class.

[proelitedota]

New preview footage of next year's team just screams 40-0 to me.
*Runs*

Spoiler!

38-1

[MrPoon]

One of the underrated negatives of not having a true PG last season is that the defense doesn't get a chance to practice against a guy who can make plays like these. This season, my hope is that Duke's defense will rarely face point guards that are better than the one it goes up against in practice. Which should make a difference.[/QUOTE]

Really great point. Not sure it explains all the defensive liabilities but it could help a lot!
I couldn't be more excited about this year's team to get playing. After last year's expectations, mine for this year is a little more tempered... but not by much.

Listening to the Coach JS's Duke podcast with Bolden, got me really hoping for this kid to have a great year. The rotation of him, Carter and Bags has the chance to be insane. I still have high hopes for him and I really want this great young man's aspirations to work out. Shot blocking, rebounding, rim running, staying healthy, etc.

Last year's team to me at this point in the year was watching injury reports about Giles and watching Tatum videos. This year's team has so many interesting pieces. Bagley alone is really interesting. Duval is nuts. Carter alone would be a great addition. Etc. Trent I think is quietly waiting for a big year. Etc. Please please get the season started. The crap lousy day of NFL yesterday didn't help at all!

[budwom]

tell me how healthy they'll be and i'll tell you how good they'll be.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I think if most on this board were being honest, they would say that this season is the most confident they have felt coming into a season since 2016.

[Troublemaker]

Really great point. Not sure it explains all the defensive liabilities but it could help a lot!

Thanks. I don't consider it a major reason for the poor defense but an overlooked, minor reason. The biggest thing is the availability of healthy size, length, and athleticism.

[Troublemaker]

I think if most on this board were being honest, they would say that this season is the most confident they have felt coming into a season since 2016.

I can honestly say I like this team slightly better than last season's team. While I agreed that last season's team should've been preseason #1, I'm sure that I wrote on here that I was nervous about (a) the lack of a point guard and (b) the fact that the projected starting center Giles was coming off ACL surgery and had only played 1 season of basketball in the 3 years preceding enrollment at Duke.

This upcoming season, I would agree that Duke again should be preseason #1, but I have no similar major concerns with the team. (Others will differ with me, citing the extreme lack of experience as a major concern, for example. But I can only speak to my own concerns, which are fewer / minor in comparison this season).

[Kedsy]

Thanks. I don't consider it a major reason for the poor defense but an overlooked, minor reason. The biggest thing is the availability of healthy size, length, and athleticism.

Yeah, I agree that it's interesting but minor. The reason I say that is, assuming the starters need reps together and are thus kept on the same team in most 5 on 5 drills, the only time our starters will have to defend Trevon would be in one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three drills. And while those are important for individual defense, I think the "poorness" of our defense in recent years is mostly in the team defense area. So unless Coach K decides that reps together aren't so important and puts Trevon on the "blue" team for 5 on 5 scrimmages, he's not going to help our starters' defense all that much.

[jimsumner]

One of the underrated negatives of not having a true PG last season is that the defense doesn't get a chance to practice against a guy who can make plays like these. This season, my hope is that Duke's defense will rarely face point guards that are better than the one it goes up against in practice. Which should make a difference.

Good point (no pun intended). Along those same lines, that's a major reason Duke brought in Goldwire, so Duval could have a point guard against whom to practice.

[UrinalCake]

For the majority of last season we didn't even have ten healthy bodies to be able to run a full scrimmage in practice. So Troublemaker's point about not having a PG to practice against is true, but our problems went much much deeper than that.

[proelitedota]

Even newer footage.

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/907690039152451585

[Turk]

Let's see...

Talent - yep.
Experience - nope.
Coaching - yep.
Health - tbd.
Luck - tbd.

I plan to enjoy pulling for this team. We should win a lot of games, but I will always take the field over any single team in the NCAA tournament.

This. I have also learned to curb my enthusiasm about incoming freshmen, especially after last year. I also remember the NCAA loss to Mercer, where the game was on the line at the end and Jabari was getting subbed out for Amile on defense, and saying to myself, "Self, how is it that the #1 freshman in the country can't guard anybody even after a whole season?"

I like to reserve judgment until the first couple of conference games, where we can see how things are coming together against serious competition. Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? Who's doing the dirty work? Who's the glue guy? What weaknesses still need more work?

[jipops]

Depends on what the confidence is about.

Am I confident we'll be pretty darn good? Certainly.
Am I confident we'll finally capture another ACC regular season crown? meh...pretty fair shot there
Am I confident our NCAA tournament run will be more feast than famine this season? Somewhat...but riding the fence on that one.
Am I confident this will be a fun team to watch at times? Oh heck yes.
Am I confident this will be a frustrating team to watch at times? Oh heck yes.

I think we can make the assumption based on the perceived talent of guys like Bagley, Carter, and Duvall that we're going get a nice number of wins this season. But aside from that I think it is mostly a crap shoot. We had a lot of scorers last season and despite now having a pg I just don't see 2017-18 being as efficient on that end. Defensively I think there is a decent chance we'll be better with so much length but we also lost a lot on that end now losing Amile, Matt and Tatum. I think defense is an open question. As of right now, though this will be a very different team than last season, I just don't see it being any better than last season (this accounts for all the injuries).

I also don't buy this team being title favorites. There are just way too many question marks and unknowns going in...yes, I realize we're not the only team with question marks. However, I think any "frontrunner" talk about this team is based on program reputation and the fact that the freshman dominated 2015 team won it all. But that team was also likely very different than what we'll see this season. At the same time I don't want to take this season for granted. I think we have the chance to be a very powerful team due to a load of young talent. I'll take a team with this sort of lineup any year.

[Indoor66]

This. I have also learned to curb my enthusiasm about incoming freshmen, especially after last year. I also remember the NCAA loss to Mercer, where the game was on the line at the end and Jabari was getting subbed out for Amile on defense, and saying to myself, "Self, how is it that the #1 freshman in the country can't guard anybody even after a whole season?"

I like to reserve judgment until the first couple of conference games, where we can see how things are coming together against serious competition. Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? Who's doing the dirty work? Who's the glue guy? What weaknesses still need more work?

You're just a spoilsport. This DBR, we all know that the shiny new toy is the best ever.