Its wild that Duke has 6 games left, and KenPom has tonightās game as the 3rd toughest one left on their schedule.
Ok, in response to DtW, Iām tempted to just throw our '20 squad at them and say āHave fun with thisā. And the Duke squad would hate it and be frustrated, but theyād still probably win so thatās no good.
Instead, lets think about it. This Duke team doesnāt block a lot of shots but has a ton of length and is tough defensively inside (lowest 2FG% allowed in the country), plus is solid at rebounding at both ends, they donāt turn the ball over, and they commit very few fouls.
On the other hand, theyāre only āgoodā at defending the perimeter and are only ok at turning over the other team. Also, their offense flows through their front-court. When Flagg and Kon are on the court, 52% of their shots come from those 2. So, I want rebounding, front-court D, and blistering outside shooting, plus as much size as I can get since Dukeās entire team is huge.
So Iām going with:
C: Huff '21
PF: Zay '17
SF: Hunter '19
SG: Brogdon '16
PG: Ty '19
I wanted to put Gill at PF and Zay at SF, but he was a 4/5 the entire time he was here so I couldnāt justify it. Plus, Gill was a beast overall, but he wasnāt the disruptive defensive stopper youād want to at least inconvenience Flagg. I thought about JA at SF, and heās a great athlete but heād also be 2" shorter than any Duke starter and was only an ok rebounder. Canāt go wrong with Hunter.
Edit - Reece '24 would be fun at PG, but heād probably match up against James, who is probably the single player you need to guard the least. UVA this year literally doesnāt have a player who attempts as few shots as James per possession, and they have multiple good ball-handlers so completely neutralizing James isnāt disruptive enough to Duke overall to be worth it. If Flagg was like 3" shorter I might pick Reece and tell him to just sit on Flagg the entire game, but heās not.