Duke Basketball: What is the Blue Devils’ ceiling for ACC and NCAA Tournaments?

Reasons for Duke Basketball’s recent winning streak

As of the writing of this piece on March 7, the ACC Tournament has already started, but Duke earned one of the top four seeds which gives them a double bye to the quarterfinals on March 9. There, they’ll face the winner of No. 5 Pittsburgh vs. No. 13 Georgia Tech.

Duke is the consensus betting favorite to win the ACC Tournament not for their season-long body of work, but because of their recent form. The Blue Devils are riding a six-game win streak that has seen Scheyer working with a healthy roster at the perfect time.

Both Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II missed time early in the season due to injuries. Both were consensus top-three recruits in this year’s class, and both have improved significantly as the season has progressed, which is to be expected from freshmen who were injured to start the season.

Whitehead has dealt with a rough last few games but has shown promising flashes since January, shooting 40% from 3 on the season.

Lively still has room to develop offensively but has proven to be one of the best rim protectors in the country, highlighted by a 14-rebound, eight-block performance against UNC.

Jeremy Roach, Duke’s second-leading scorer (13.1 PPG), starting point guard, and veteran leader, also missed time in early January, which largely coincided with Duke’s mediocre mid-season stretch.

Almost no team stays fully healthy for an entire season, and Duke has dealt with its fair share of injuries. Having said that, they’re mostly healthy now which has resulted in a much more consistent product being churned out on a nightly basis.

When healthy, as they are now, Duke has a level of talent that very few top seeds will want to see in their region of the NCAA Tournament.