Seth Davis has Duke #6. Seems high but I'll take it.
https://theathletic.com/1733488/2020...top-right-now/
I'm inclined to agree. If I were forced to put money on it, I'd definitely bet on Duke being a Top-10 team next year, beating the Torvik projection. I just think it's worth considering what the other side of the distribution might be, and what it would take to push us to that side.
This past season was actually one of Coach K's most impressive jobs in recent years, in my opinion. Getting Tre and Vern to the levels they achieved this year was awesome, and I certainly wouldn't want anyone else there to coach up the likes of Moore/Hurt/Johnson/Roach/Steward, etc.
Seth Davis has Duke #6. Seems high but I'll take it.
https://theathletic.com/1733488/2020...top-right-now/
Also high is the paywall for that article. I know that Gonzaga, Baylor, Villanova, and Creighton are four of the Top 5.
Here are free ones that also came out this week.
NCAA.com/Andy Katz Power 36
1. Gonzaga
2. Baylor
3. Villanova
4. Creighton
5. Iowa
6. Wisconsin
7. Kansas
8. Michigan
9. Kentucky
10. Virginia
11. Duke
14. Florida State
15. North Carolina
24. Louisville
On the bubble: NC State
Sports Illustrated/Jeremy Woo Top 25
1. Villanova
2. Gonzaga
3. Baylor
4. Virginia
5. Creighton
6. Kentucky
7. Duke
8. Iowa
9. Kansas
10. Texas Tech
15. Florida State
21. North Carolina
MSN Sports/theScore/Mark Cooper Top 25
1. Gonzaga
2. Creighton
3. Baylor
4. San Diego State
5. Villanova
6. Virginia
7. Kansas
8. Kentucky
9. Michigan State
10. Houston
12. Duke
17. North Carolina
24. Florida State
April 20 is a ridiculously early time for ESPN/Jeff Borzello's UPDATED ranking, but life in Bristol is boring, and here we are.
1. Villanova
2. Gonzaga
3. Baylor
4. Virginia
5. Iowa
6. Kansas
7. Duke
8. Michigan State
9. Wisconsin
10. Arizona State
16. North Carolina
22. Florida State
Next in Line: Louisville
Bobby Hurley and Arizona State rise from "next in line" to #10. Creighton and Kentucky each dropped 10 places. Regarding UNC's fall from #11 to #16: "I may have been a little aggressive with my ranking of the Tar Heels in March, slotting them just outside the top 10. Now, I do love this team's talent -- but I question how it's all going to come together."
UNC has a CRAPLOAD of frontcourt guys. A TON. absurd really. Bacot, Brooks (really good) and the two 5* guys. No way they foul out... the issue is obviously you can only play two at a time. Brooks and ? (one of Bacot or the two freshman). Supposedly a superstar PG too. But the weakness is they don't have a proven wing or shooter. Better they have the 4 studs inside than 3 studs inside and a super shooter too. Now they may have the shooter .. just not proven yet.
Fortunately for them they don't rely on slashers at all. It's all about the PG and the bigs. Wings at UNC are de-emphasized.
The key will be how well their freshman PG can carry the load, and how well Harris comes back from injury on the wing. If those two guys are fine, UNC should be really good next year. But not all freshmen hit the ground running at UNC.
I usually laugh at Duke's high preseason ranking, because I feel that the voters put talent above experience and experience is undervalued (just my two cents).
This time around, I think 6-7 is too low! Lots of teams are getting gutted, including KU, UNC, UK (especially UK), Creighton, and even Gonzaga. Virginia is awesome defensively but still so many questions about that offense.
I think top 3 is legit for this Duke team. We return the #12 and #25 best players in the 2023 class. The only player ranked ahead of Hurt who is returning is Scottie Lewis. We have one of the best defensive guards in the nation in Goldwire. And even if he doesn't start, Goldwire will play a lot and lead a lot. And then we have Baker, who to me is a massive wildcard due to his shooting ability (I'm not expecting him to have a Kennard-esque jump, but I would easily see him be a high volume 40%+ 3pt shooter).
And then the frosh. We have a surefire stud in Johnson. DJ and Jeremy are starter-level talent and could even be high impact like Johnson. And then we have 4 wildcards (including Tape) who are all big men.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
^ I tend to agree, I think we may be underrated.
I'm fascinated to see how our offense will function with essentially two point guards. Would love to see us routinely have 14+ assists per game. Is that too ambitious?
Seconded. While there are some teams that are returning more than Duke (Virginia, Villanova, Gonzaga, Iowa and Creighton primarily), all of those teams aren't getting off scot-free (Creighton is officially losing Alexander to the draft, Nova may lose Bey, Virginia loses key seniors like Diakite... and even Gonzaga has a few players testing the waters), and many of them were good, but most certainly not great, teams last year. Virginia had a hard ceiling because of their offense, and there doesn't seem to be a clear solution there. Nova and Creighton were both very good Big East teams, but they also were both 7 loss teams that had some very bad stretches. I wouldn't expect Luka Garza to be quite as dominant this year as opposed to last for Iowa now that teams will be gameplaning the heck out of him. Gonzaga will be a number one seed because they're Gonzaga, so no harm no foul there.
Certainly Duke's floor in 2020-21 is lower than those teams. But I think our ceiling is much higher. I'd argue that Hurt and Moore are likely to improve more between their freshman and sophomore years than most other returnees given their recruiting bona-fides and the new roles they'll have as the clear alphas on this year's team. Goldwire is an X-factor any team would love to have. I'm similarly bullish on Joey Buckets, too... and that doesn't even get into the freshmen.
TL;DR: I really hope we see college basketball sooner rather than later, because I love the potential of this year's squad.
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I do believe Nova is the #1 team in the country, and it isn't close. Their returning talent is insane, especially if Antoine confirms it (and I don't think he's going pro).
But Duke? I could easily see us as #2. The Zags are the Zags, and they can have the West Coast. If we play them, we aren't likely to see them until the FF. And I think we'll beat them on a neutral floor.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
To be a 1-seed type team, we'll probably need several players to surprise. (I'll define "surprise" as exceeding your recruiting ranking if you're a freshman and exceeding your projected improvement if you're a vet.)
So, for example, if UNC were going to start the following, I doubt we'd see them as a top-3 team:
PG - A freshman ranked #21 (by 247's composite ranking)
SG - A freshman ranked #24
SF - A sophomore who's a very good defender but posted a 93 offensive rating as a freshman
PF - A freshman ranked #11
C - (A sophomore who can shoot but didn't defend as a freshman) OR (Columbia's starting center) OR (a freshman ranked #29)
Now, I do anticipate we'll see a surprise or two. If I had to guess, I think Steward is underrated. I think either Moore or Hurt will far exceed his freshman performance.
But I think a preseason ranking in the back half of the top 10 is fair (and potentially optimistic if there ends up being no surprises).
This will be a rebuilding year. Just not enough experience. There are good players and they will have their moments but unless someone is Parker good, or Tatum good, or Ingram good- this is going to be a struggle. There are returning experienced players in the league. UVa is prime example of a team that will give this young Duke team fits. UNC will be markedly better. I will wait and see but I think expectations will be very low.
That's too far in the other direction, assuming "rebuilding" means outside the top 20. According to kenpom ($$$), we haven't been outside the top 20 in a quarter century. Also, "just not enough experience" is slightly imprecise to me since we've had really good, really young teams before. It's more that, like last year's freshmen class, they're not quite the high-end freshmen we'd been landing before and on paper don't project to be as immediately impactful. If this roster is largely still around for the 2021-22 season, we could really be something then if we can combine them with a stud or two from the high school class of 2021.
I would point out that this is relying heavily on 247's vague "composite" ranking. Especially since it disagrees with the composite ratings from RSCI's summer site in terms of Johnson. If Johnson is more like the top-5 guy that RSCI had him, that would notably change the dynamic.
Worth noting that Hurt was performing above where Jones was last year based on the advanced metrics. And the biggest thing that was limiting him was something that should inherently improve with age (his strength). I don't think he will have to surprise next year to become a star player.
My suspicion is that Johnson and Hurt are studs, Roach and Steward are "better than you might expect from a Duke top-20/30", and Moore is better but not "surprisingly" better.