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Duke Basketball: Blue Devils 2019-20 season preview

By Matthew Travis

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 31: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs against the Michigan State Spartans during the second half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 31, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 31: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs against the Michigan State Spartans during the second half in the East Regional game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 31, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Duke Blue Devils bench celebrates their teams lead against the North Dakota State Bison in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA – MARCH 22: The Duke Blue Devils bench celebrates their teams lead against the North Dakota State Bison in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

Reserves/Back-Ups

Shooting Guard- Alex O’Connell, Junior

Alex O’Connell stepped into a bigger role in his sophomore season for Duke after he saw his minutes per game increase from 10.4 minutes his freshman year, to 14 in his sophomore year. Not only did his minutes increase, but so did his production.

O’Connell improved upon his points per game, assists per game and rebounds per game in his sophomore season. The bad news is, his three-point and field goal percentages both went down. The question is, can he recover for his junior year?

On a team that isn’t very good at shooting threes, if O’Connell could improve this part of his game he could be the Blue Devils’ go-to guy off the bench.

Center – Javin DeLaurier, Senior

Javin DeLaurier is going to be very important for Duke next season as he will be one of only two centers on the roster, the other being Vernon Carey jr. What this means is that DeLaurier will undoubtedly get a plethora of minutes during his senior year.

Last season DeLaurier was a big part of the Blue Devils’ game plan as he started 16 of Duke’s 38 games. This season with Carey stepping on campus and likely being the starting center, DeLaurier will be pushed to the bench.

Even off the bench, DeLaurier is going to be very important for Duke and he will likely get around 15-20 minutes for the Blue Devils.

Small Forward – Jack White, Senior

Jack White is coming off a season which he started off really hot, but as the season went on he cooled down quite a bit. At one point White missed 28 consecutive threes which just goes to show you how cool the Aussie got.

Nonetheless, White was a big part of the Blue Devils’ game plan last season as he averaged 20.5 minutes per game while coming off the bench. 20.5 is significantly more than he had gotten in his freshman and sophomore seasons as he averaged 6.1 minutes in his freshman year and 5.7 in his sophomore season.

In his senior year I wouldn’t expect to see White get 20.5 minutes per game, but I would still expect him to get significant time for the Blue Devils.

Small Forward – Joey Baker, Sophomore

Joey Baker is the single biggest question mark heading into the 2019-20 season. Following a season which he played a total of 18 minutes after Coach K burned his redshirt against Syracuse in February, it is unclear how much if at all, Baker will be playing in his sophomore season.

Baker was the 41st ranked player in the Class of 2018 after reclassifying and if he is used correctly, he could be very important off the bench for Duke. Baker is a very talented player with the ability to shoot from just about anywhere on the court.

On a team that will be horrible at shooting threes, Baker could provide something to Duke that they don’t quite have in the immediate rotation.

Point Guard – Jordan Goldwire, Junior

Last season we saw Jordan Goldwire step into a bigger role for the Blue Devils and we learned that he is a heck of a defender. While only averaging 8.6 minutes per game, Goldwire still managed to provide something off the bench that the Blue Devils needed.

If he is the immediate back-up point guard option for Duke you can expect him to improve significantly in his junior year. If this were his role you could expect him to make even more noise thanks to his lock-down defense.

During the 2019-20 season, you should expect Goldwire to surprise a lot of people and make some noise in Durham.

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