Possibly, but a lot of things would have to go just right.
On Thursday, Duke got a commitment from 6-6 Cameron Sheffield. He’s very likely to be a reserve and very helpful as a practice player too, but he also adds to what was already most likely Duke’s biggest team ever.
Here’s the overall roster for next year by height:
And now by experience:
It looks a little different that way, doesn’t it?
The podcast guys are looking at how the rotation might develop, so we won’t duplicate that. The bigger question is this: is this team capable of winning the national championship?
This article from the Fayetteville Observer says yes.
Quick side track: it’s the second article we’ve seen lately that talks about a national championship drought. The other was about Arkansas. The Razorbacks have one national championship, over Duke in 1994.
Duke of course has five, with the last coming in 2015.
The whole idea of a “drought” is ridiculous. First, you’re lucky to win one, period. John Wooden said, somewhat snarkily, that lots of teams have won one in a row.
Not too many have won multiple titles, but even in that case, saying drought is kind of ridiculous. Winning a national championship is hard.
That said, next year’s team is in good shape for a title run. It has the potential to be superb defensively with Malauch and Flagg patrolling the lane. Brown, Gillis and James add a lot of strength, the perimeter defense, with Proctor, Foster, James and Flagg, could be stifling, and the three point shooting? Harris, Evans, Gillis, Knueppel, Foster and Proctor should all be good to outstanding, and Flagg could exceed expectations there too.
The two most obvious things about this group to us are size and versatility. You can imagine that Jim Boeheim would see this group and dream of his beloved 2-3 zone. And why not? With so many long athletes, it’d be really difficult to shred a zone, not that Duke is likely to play one much.
The versatility is off the charts though. Malauch is almost certain to be the main big guy and Ngongba is likely to be his backup. Both can reportedly shoot and if needed, either Flagg or Brown could move to the post. Three of the four guards can play point and all of them are big enough to play forward. James may be strong enough to play either forward spot. Kneuppel may be strong enough to do more things than people think.
Versatility is a big deal. One of the greatest teams we’ve ever seen was the Final Four team Illinois had in 1989. They were on TV during the tournament and during a foul-line huddle, virtually every player was about 6-6 and just about everyone could do everything.
Roles will have to be sorted out, and that will take some time, but this team should be able to win in a lot of different ways.
There’s a lot that goes into a championship season, not least of all luck. You have to stay healthy, first of all. If you watched the Duke-Indiana game in 2002’s tournament, or the Virginia-Auburn game in 2019, you know how critical one key foul call can be. And no matter how much you prepare, you can never be guaranteed that a foul call will go your way.
In 1966, Duke made the Final Four and had a great shot at the national title - until Bob Verga came down with food poisoning.
The Blue Devils lost to Kentucky 79-83, which worked out okay since all-White Kentucky went on to lose to Texas Western with five Black starters. The Wildcats went on to become the poster child for the dying days of segregated basketball.
Twenty years later, in 1986, Duke lost to Louisville by three points, partly because Duke didn’t shoot very well.
Eight years later, Arkansas got their title when Antonio Lang made a defensive mistake that gave Scotty Thurman a very brief open look at a late three pointer.
In 1989, Duke was in position to beat Seton Hall before Robert Brickey got hurt.
In this year’s tournament, Duke got a major break when Houston’s Jamal Shead hurt his ankle in the first half.
So things really have to break your way. Before you can talk about that, you have to have enough talent and chops to be at a certain level. It’s just May and there’s no way to know how things will look in December, much less April.
That said, Duke’s potential is excellent. It should be a fun year.
