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Does Brandon Ingram Make the Duke Blue Devils a Threat to Repeat?

By Chris Godfrey

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It wasn’t long ago that all hoped seemed lost for the 2015-2016 Duke Blue Devils basketball season. Before the locals could clean all of the confetti off of Tobacco Road, Duke had already lost the three best players from their national title team. As expected, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow almost immediately declared for the NBA Draft. Surprisingly, projected late first round pick Tyus Jones followed his lottery-bound teammates out the door. Quinn Cook, who first attended Duke with Grant Hill, finally saw his eligibility expire.

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Despite having a pair of All-Americans already committed to filling the voids of Okafor and Cook, the likelihood Duke being a nationally competitive team seemed unlikely at the time of Jones’ departure.

However, the magic of the great sorcerer known as Coach K was vastly underestimated. Over the last few weeks, the Blue Devils have managed to draw water from the stone that is the spring recruiting period.

First, the team announced the addition of 6’9 center Antonio Vrankovic. The son of a former journeyman NBA player, Vrankovic is a still-developing prospect with high growth potential. Whenever, an under the radar prospect lands at Duke, the consensus is that the recruiting experts were wrong — not Coach K.

The unexpected loss of Jones was expected to be a crippling blow. The Blue Devils had been caught with their pants down, failing to sign a capable replacement in the event of the Jones departure that ultimately took place. The Blue Devils looked ready to head into the season without a starter-quality point guard, a fate that surely would have shuttered their hopes to repeat. Instead, one in-home visit with highly-touted Class of 2016 point guard target Derryck Thornton convinced Thornton to not only reclassify, but commit to the Blue Devils on the following day.

At this point, it was still clear that the group lacked the type of transcendent player that turns good teams into great teams. While Coach K had Chase Jeter to fill Okafor’s position, he didn’t have a player to fill Okafor’s role as offensive go-to guy and potential player of the year candidate. There’s normally three to five players of this caliber that come out of each class. Last year Duke had two of these players capable of single handedly transforming expectations (Okafor and Winslow).

This year they had none…and then came Brandon Ingram.

Yesterday evening, Ingram, who has rocketed to the top five spots of recruiting rankings across the country in the last month, committed to Duke over local rivals North Carolina and North Carolina State.

With Ingram in the fold, Coach K adds high school basketball’s most versatile scorer to next year’s roster, a 6’9 talent that can handle the ball from both wing positions and create devastating mismatches with his quickness and bounciness on the inside. He’s already drawn tons of comparisons, but the best way to describe him may fall somewhere in between “rich man’s Tayshaun Prince” and “working class man’s” Kevin Durant” (he’s a little better than “poor man’s Kevin Durant” in my opinion).

Despite heavy losses this off-season, the addition of Ingram does indeed make the Duke Blue Devils a contender. Not only does Ingram give Coach K a prolific scorer on the wing, he also creates a multitude of lineup possibilities.

This is Duke’s projected starting five with Ingram:

  • PG – Derryck Thornton
  • SG – Grayson Allen
  • SF – Brandon Ingram
  • PF – Amile Jefferson
  • C – Chase Jeter

But Coach K could go small (i.e. athletic) with this lineup:

  • PG – Derryck Thornton
  • SG – Grayson Allen
  • SF – Luke Kennard
  • PF – Brandon Ingram
  • C – Amile Jefferson

He could also go big with this lineup:

  • PG – Luke Kennard
  • SG – Brandon Ingram
  • SF – Amile Jefferson
  • PF – Chase Jeter
  • C – Marshall Plumlee

He could even try to shoot the lights out or turn up the tempo with this lineup:

  • PG – Derryck Thornton
  • SG – Grayson Allen
  • SF – Luke Kennard
  • PF – Matt Jones
  • C – Brandon Ingram

(newly eligible power forward Sean Obi is also expected to be in the Duke rotation next year)

All of these combinations become possible due to the addition of Ingram. Though he is a single player, he adds multiple layers to what Duke will be able to accomplish in terms of depth, spacing, tempo, and philosophy. Adding Thornton to this group was essential, but Ingram’s fit can be described as quintessential.

Less than a month removed from winning a national title that not many expected them to win, the Duke Blue Devils have managed to snatch relevance from a dealt hand that should have destined them to mediocrity for at least a season. Instead, the Blue Devils look fully reloaded and a poised contender to repeat in what looks to be a wide open 2015-2016 college basketball season.

Next: Austin Hatch Takes Medical Scholarship

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