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Duke Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Blue Devils

By Matthew Travis

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 07: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs during the first half of their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 07, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 07: The Duke Blue Devils mascot performs during the first half of their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 07, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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Duke Basketball
Duke Basketball (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

Duke Basketball enters the 2020-21 season with yet another new team and hopes of winning their sixth National Championship, but can they do it?

Duke Basketball was set to enter the 2020 NCAA Tournament with hopes of making the Final Four for the first time since 2015, but due to COVID-19, that obviously did not happen. Now, with several key players including Tre Jones, Vernon Carey, and Cassius Stanley all leaving Durham, the 2020-21 Blue Devils look much different.

In addition to Jones, Carey, and Stanley all leaving Duke for the NBA, the Blue Devils also lost Jack White, Javin DeLaurier, Justin Robinson, and Alex O’Connell, O’Connell transferred to Creighton while the other three graduated.

The good news for Coach K and the Blue Devils is that they had yet another impressive recruiting class, and they added a transfer in Patrick Tape, the first player to transfer to Duke since Sean Obi for the 2015-16 season.

light. Related Story. Preseason ACC power rankings for 2020-21

As for the recruiting class; Duke grabbed the third-ranked recruiting class, with four five-stars and two four-stars according to 247Sports. Duke’s highest-ranked recruit is Jalen Johnson who is the third-ranked Small Forward, and 13th ranked player nationally.

With key players returning such as Wendell Moore, Matthew Hurt, Jordan Goldwire, Joey Baker, and others, the Blue Devils have a chance to be very, very good in 2020-21.

Duke will likely enter as either the favorites or with the second-best odds to win the ACC, behind maybe Virginia. The Blue Devils are the most recent team to win the ACC Tournament as it was canceled last season and will be looking for their 22nd ACC Tournament title.

All that being said, let’s look at the 2020-21 Duke Blue Devils team and see how they might fare next season.

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