Duke Basketball: 3 takeaways from Blue Devils big win over Kentucky

Where will the Blue Devils find outside shooting?

Duke was known for its floor-spacing and 3-point shooting long before it became the analytically sound thing to do. Ironically, as soon as the player spacing and shooting epidemic hit college basketball, Duke’s 3-point prowess started to fade. This was most noticeable in the 2018-19 season, which you might remember as the Zion Williamson, RJ Barret, and Cam Reddish year. That team shot 30.8% from deep, bad enough for 327th in the nation and 14th in the ACC.

Last night, Duke shot 1-13 from three. That number concerns me for two reasons. First, and most obviously, that they simply couldn’t convert from deep. Secondly, that they generally lack the confidence to even attempt them. Just 13 attempts from deep on 61 total FGA works out to a 3-point rate of 21.3% which would’ve been dead last in the country by a decent margin last season.

Look, I’m not trying to draw some grand statistical trend off of one game, but considering many people’s concerns over a potential lack of outside shooting coming into the season, going 1-13 in the opener doesn’t exactly exude hope.

The most logical candidates to improve Duke’s outside shooting are Banchero and Keels as well as senior F Joey Baker. Banchero and Keels should warm up from three as the season progresses, but Baker’s situation is different. Last summer we heard about the progress that Baker had made – how he was going to be a deadly threat on the wing. He shot 31.4% from three last season. Baker played 12 minutes last night, going 0-2 from the field and 0-1 from deep.

Duke fans should hope that Banchero and Keels get going sooner rather than later (and that AJ Griffin gets fully healthy) because counting on Baker to finally develop into a consistent deep threat likely won’t end well. The good news is that we have every reason to believe that the freshman duo will significantly improve from their combined 1-7 performance from deep last night. By all accounts, both are excellent and proven deep threats.