Who Would You Rather be in 2015-16, Duke or North Carolina?

Big things are expected in ACC Basketball as well as nationally out of the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels heading into the 2015-16 season. Heck, it is like that every year!

Duke will be defending their National Championship with a new core of players featuring Brandon Ingram and Chase Jeter this season, while North Carolina hopes to finally get over the hump and win the crown with their established core group of Marcus Paige, Brice Johnson, and Kennedy Meeks.

Each team is going to be coming into this season with their own pressures and questions surrounding their respective teams, but in the end, which team would you rather be coming into the 2015-16 season, the defending champion Duke Blue Devils, or the championship hunting North Carolina Tar Heels?

As stated before, the Blue Devils are coming into the 2015-16 season as the defending champions, however the core of last season’s team has moved on to the NBA.

No more Tyus Jones, Quinn Cook, Jahlil Okafor, or Justise Winslow running the floor for Mike Krzyzewski.

Last year’s Duke squad seemed to be a nice blend of veteran leadership and outstanding one-and-done freshman recruits.

Quinn Cook was an important piece to the championship puzzle for Duke given his experience running the point for Coach K before sacrificing and moving to the two-guard spot so Tyus Jones could run the show.

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Cook was a calming influence on the floor, and that calming influence is a huge part of why the Blue Devils were able to win it all. Well that and the fact that Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow were “men amongst boys” on most nights.

This year’s Duke team has some solid one-and-done talent to replace the voids left by Okafor and Winslow.

Brandon Ingram is a Top Five freshman talent that is projected to be a top NBA draft pick as soon as he declares for the pros.

Ingram is going to be a different kind of swingman as compared to Winslow in that Winslow was physical at the position where Ingram is going to kill people with his length and finesse.

Chase Jeter should be a solid replacement for Jahlil Okafor down on the block. Okafor’s strength, footwork, and moves in the pivot were advanced for a freshman and made up for his lack of leaping ability.

Jeter is just as comfortable as Okafor in the block though he may not have as much in his arsenal on the block.

Chase Jeter is better facing the basket and might even be able to knock down a shot from 15 to 17 feet.

But what is going to make this year’s Duke team different from last season is that this year’s team is not going to be as physical as last season.

Jahlil Okafor was 6-foot-11, 275 pounds with skills! Justise Winslow was 6-foot-7 225 pounds and a bull on the perimeter. There were very few players in the country who could fend them off.

Feb 18, 2015; Durham, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels forward Brice Johnson (11) drives to the basket over Duke Blue Devils forward Justise Winslow (12) in their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

This Duke team is not as physically imposing by any stretch of the imagination, and that characteristic is what can be the difference between repeating and coming up short in their title defense.

Meanwhile North Carolina has the experience, the size, and the potential “National Player of the Year” in Marcus Paige. What they don’t have, or so it seems, is the ability to play up to potential.

How many seasons have Tar Heels’ fans said “this is the year” only to have their team come up short. Seems like meeting expectations is North Carolina’s biggest hurdle.

But at the same time, there are very few teams that can boast a frontcourt as talented as Brice Johnson and Kennedy Meeks.

There are very few point guards in the nation that are as potent as Marcus Paige. But most importantly, there are very few teams in the country that can go 9 to 10 players deep down their bench like the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Being able to rotate Joel Berry, Nate Britt, Isaiah Hicks, Justin Jackson, Joel James, Theo Pinson, Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks, and Marcus Paige has to count for something. North Carolina should be able to wear people down with that much depth.

Plus North Carolina is coming back as one of the top rebounding teams in the country, and has no problem getting buckets.

It is just a matter of tightening up their interior defense and getting some consistent perimeter shooting from someone other than Marcus Paige.

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If those things happen, maybe they can live up to their championship expectations.

The one thing that both of these teams should have in common is the feeling that they have not won anything.

We already know that Roy Williams club is in pursuit of UNC’s first championship since 2009.

Duke may have won the crown last year, but outside of Grayson Allen, Amile Jefferson, Matt Jones and Marshall Plumlee, this team really has done nothing — in fact those players still have a lot to prove as well.

When it comes down to it, in the end, who would you rather be — Duke or North Carolina?

For some people the answer may be neither because both clubs have to live up to unenviable hype.

But then again you might be the type that says you would like to be either team because you thrive off pressure and are not afraid to fail.

You have to have a lot of respect for the latter.

Next: Oregon Ducks 2015-16 Season Preview

ACC Basketball : Who Would You Rather be in 2015-16, Duke or North Carolina?

By James Fitzgerald | Oct 27, 2015

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