Duke Coach Basketball Mike Krzyzewski
Coach Mike Kryzewski’s 2008-09 Duke squad had an outstanding season last year going 30-7 against the #1 ranked schedule in the RPI, winning the 2009 ACC tournament, and making it to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16. Fans would have liked to see a Duke-UNC repeat in the Final Four, but the Blue Devils just couldn’t quite get over the hump against Villanova to get there.
Heading into the end of May, Duke has two great power forward prospects signed for next season in Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee. The Blue Devils still aren’t quite done recruiting, however, since with losing the John Wall PG lottery to Kentucky, they are heading into the 2009-10 season thing in the backcourt. With Gerald Henderson declaring for the NBA draft and Greg Paulus graduating, Duke has not been able to land one of the top-rated point or shooting guards in the 2009 NCAA recruiting class. Besides losing out on John Wall to Kentucky, Florida signed five-star guard Kenny Boynton and rival UNC signed Leslie McDonald. No doubt, Coach K will come up with a quality prospect or two for the backcout, but he just may have to look to JUCO land to do so.
Duke’s 2009 Men’s Basketball Recruiting Class
#1 Duke Basketball Prospect – PF – Ryan Kelly
Rivals.com – #20
Sout.com – #4
Ht: 6’10″
Wt: 205 lbs
#2 Duke Basketball Prospect – Mason Plumlee
Rivals.com – #55
Sout.com – #6
Ht: 6’11″
Wt: 210 lbs
2009-10 Projected Starting Lineup for the Duke Blue Devils
Projecting the 2009-10 starting line-up is still a bit sketchy at this point with the Blue Devils losing the core of their back-court from last season. Kyle Singer returns as the leading scorer from last season at 16.5 ppg, 7.7 rbg, and hit 3′s at a 38.3 percent clip. John Scheyer returns with a 14.9 ppg scoring average from last season, but will likely have to move to the point for next season if Coach K does not come up with a big-time PG prospect for next season. As of now, Nolan Smith would likely get the nod (at least at the start of the season) at the 2-guard position. Brian Zoubek and Miles Plumlee will be battling the two bigs in the 2009 recruiting class for the Center and Power Forward spots to round out the Blue Devils 2009-10 projected starting line-up. Coack K will likely repeat what he did last season with experimenting with his starter’s chemistry in the first two months of the season until he finds the right mix for ACC play.
Projected 2009-10 Duke Blue DevilsLine-Up:
PG: John Scheyer
SG: Nolan Smith
SF: Kyle Singer
PF: Ryan Kelly
C: Brian Zoubek
Dame!!!!!! Thats a awesome starting lineup moving Singler over to 3 will help out the spread offense and will help with the rebounding problem that they had last year. lookout UNC going down.
Ive said it before and ill say it again. Give DUKE equal or better yet, better talent and they will always and I mean always be at the top. Im an NCSU grad. but I have no problem admitting Coach K is the best at getting the players to rise to a different level than other teams day in and day out. Barnes and irving will be making the right decision to go to DUKE…..no question!