Duke Basketball: 3 reasons why 2019-20 team will be better than last year
By Cody Larson
A Dynamic Frontcourt Duo
Despite how fantastic Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett were individually last season, together they were not the most coherent duo for Duke. The most effective one-two punches need to be able to work off of each other, that is what the Blue Devils now have under incoming freshmen Vernon Carey and Matthew Hurt.
Vernon Carey is a wildebeest of a center on the low block. Stacking up at ferocious 6-foot-11 and 275 pounds, there will not be many bigs who can measure up with him at the college level. He excels at plowing his way to the basket, attacking and capitalizing on putbacks, and barreling through defenders in the post. He should wreak havoc inside similar to the way Zion did last season (though, obviously, to a much lesser degree).
Matter of fact, Carey could actually find himself having a much easier time inside than Zion did. On countless occasions last season Zion was forced to finish through multiple defenders, oftentimes coming from another opposing big; that is where Matthew Hurt enters the fold.
Hurt is a much less physically imposing player than his future frontcourt partner; he stands at 6-foot-9, weighing in at a slim 200 pounds. That being said, his dynamic scoring ability should not only allow himself to get by, but he should also bounce off Carey perfectly. That is because Hurt does a majority of his damage when facing the basket, and can swiftly bring his game out beyond the 3-point line.
He should have a significant gravitational pull at the college level; defenders will be forced to respect his shooting ability when he fades out to the three. This should allow Carey to be put in much more inner-iso situations than Zion was ever blessed with.
Both players certainly do have quirks to their game that need to be worked out. Specifically, they will likely struggle on the defensive end, as Hurt is very thin for his size and Carey seems to lack engagement at times.
But on offense, they project to be the perfect one-two punch. Matthew Hurt and Vernon Carey have very perpendicular skillsets, but when paired alongside each other they become parallel. Together their talent doesn’t match up to Duke’s former duo of Zion and RJ Barrett, but as a whole, they project to work together more coherently; Blue Devil fans should be very excited about that.