NCAA Basketball: 10 teams primed to lose early in 2023 NCAA Tournament
By Joey Loose
Duke
Year one with Jon Scheyer hasn’t exactly gone as planned, but the Blue Devils are still in decent position this season. An impressive recruiting class has mixed with a few veteran talents, and while Duke sits just 11-6 in a weak ACC, they’re still in position to grab a nice seed in the NCAA Tournament. Life after Coach K is not disaster in Durham.
Among those standout freshmen, it’s been Kyle Filipowski who’s been the big contributor this season. Fellow freshmen like Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell are also having great campaigns, while Jeremy Roach is the only player (besides Filipowski) averaging more than 10 points a game this season. This is a deeply talented roster, with blue-chip prospects like Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II casually making their impact felt this season.
The problem is that Duke’s best wins are Miami and Xavier and they’ve dropped a number of rough ones in conference play. That same Miami squad blew them out in Coral Gables just a few weeks ago and they’ve also lost double-digit games to NC State and Wake Forest. Their impressive frontcourt was bullied by Zach Edey back in November. They lack consistent shooting; can they really make up for it in the Tournament against a potentially hot-shooting mid-major squad?