Duke Basketball: Why Blue Devils could go undefeated in 2019-20 ACC play

Depth

This is I think the deepest Duke team I have EVER seen, there are currently 10 players who are averaging double-digit minutes per game. Coach K is known for using AT MOST eight players per game, but this year is much different.

Through 14 games so far this season Duke has used eight different starting lineups with nine different players getting an opportunity to start. If you have followed Duke basketball for a couple years, you know that is incredibly bizarre.

Duke using nine different players in the starting lineup throughout a season would be bizarre, but this season it happened before Duke even hosted an ACC opponent.

This makes Duke that much better this year, having the ability to lean on 10 different players makes it that much more likely to win any game. In the past, the Blue Devils relied on about four players a game and if a couple of them were having an off game, Duke was screwed.

That, however, is not the case this season. So far there have been a total of five different players who have scored at least 20 points in a game this season, six who have scored at least 17, seven who have scored at least 14 and a total of four players averaging at least 10 points per game.

That for Duke is absolutely huge because in years past, the reason Duke lost games in many cases, was because of their lack of depth, but in 2019-20, that is obviously not a problem.

Duke is arguably the deepest team in the nation so far this season and unless almost everyone is struggling on one end of the floor, it is very hard for Duke to lose, that was, however, what happened against Stephen F. Austin so it is not impossible.

Although it is possible, it is highly unlikely and it took overtime and a buzzer-beater for Duke to lose that game.

Nonetheless, Duke’s depth is one major reason why Duke has the potential to go undefeated in ACC play this season.