College Basketball: Mike Krzyzewski May Have His Best Duke Team Yet

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski always seems to find a way to make his teams rise to the top, but this 2014-15 Blue Devils may be his most talented group yet.

Most people around college basketball who don’t reside in Durham, N.C. (and even some who do) get tired of hearing about how great the Duke Blue Devils are every year, and how their coach, Mike Krzyzewski, may have another title contender.

Guess what, folks…Duke is really good this year and Mike Krzyzewski may have another title contender.

I say that not to be nettlesome, but because this particular Duke team looks incredibly lethal, and absolutely mature beyond their years. There are only four upper-classmen on the entire roster, and four freshman and sophomores each.

It’s only a month into the regular season, but the No. 4 Blue Devils look like they are in mid-March form already. They have depth, scorers, defensive studs, and…freshman Jahlil Okafor.

This young Blue Devils team has ripped their way through the first seven games of the season, rolling over everyone in their path, including a 10-point win over No. 19 Michigan State.

But the symbiont work of this team was never more apparent than when the Blue Devils met another top-ranked team, No. 2 Wisconsin. Watching Coach K and his Blue Devils in that game made you think back to some of the dominant championship Duke teams of the early 1990s.

Duke basically played like a reptile, easily replacing limbs and extremities as they were removed. Their depth seemed unlimited, as even when Okafor or sensational freshman Tyus Jones had to sit down, the Blue Devils didn’t miss a beat. They shot 65 percent from the field against one of the best defensive teams in the nation, and pulled away with an 80-70 win.

All of this on Wisconsin’s home court…a venue almost as difficult to come away with a win as Duke’s own Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“When those freshmen see that the upperclassmen are setting the table for them, it helps a lot,” Mike Krzyzewski said after the win over the Badgers. “They didn’t look like freshmen tonight.”

News flash coach…the haven’t looked like freshmen all year.

Already in this young season Duke’s stats are beginning to look ridiculous. Third in the nation in points per game (89.1), sixth in the nation in both assists per game and field goal percentage (19.0 and .539), and all of this with three freshmen in the starting lineup. Three.

Duke has had some impressive starts and young teams before, but you can usually see the inexperience and the work in progress. Obviously there are still some liabilities with this team as well, but you have to look much harder to find them. Freshmen Okafor, Jones and forward Justise Winslow already look like seasoned players.

Senior Quinn Cook spoke about that maturity after the Blue Devils took down Michigan State on Nov. 18.

"“Guys have confidence. Especially for the younger guys, for this to be their first big-time game here at Duke, against a Tom Izzo Michigan State team, it says a lot about those guys’ maturity. We play together. We don’t splinter.”"

But then again, playing for Mike Krzyzewski has a way of bringing that out.

It’s easy to toss barbs at Duke because…well, because they’re Duke. They play the part of the necessary villain both in the ACC and on the national stage. The team that everyone guns for, and few find the target. Even Coach K finds himself lampooned by rivals, and the Cameron Crazies have become the hated offspring of this program.

But if you’re a fan of college basketball — or basketball at all for that matter — try and remove the hate-goggles, and just watch this year’s Duke Blue Devils team work. It’s already becoming poetic, with some of the big cager clashes looming down the schedule.

Speaking of that schedule, there are some serious games to keep an eye on if you want to watch what may be the best Mike Krzyzewski Blue Devils team yet.

On Dec. 18, they’ll play the defending champion Connecticut Huskies at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Then once conference play begins in January, there are the usual rivalry games against Wake Forest (Jan. 7), N.C. State (Jan. 11) and North Carolina (Feb. 18 home, Mar. 7 away).

But beyond those typical big games, there are two other ACC games that could prove to be huge in both the conference and the national rankings.

Jan. 17th, circle the date. That’s when Duke travels to play the now No. 5 Louisville Cardinals, another team coached by a legend, Rick Pitino. And then on Jan. 31, the Blue Devils will be on the road against the now No. 7 Virginia Cavaliers, last year’s regular season ACC champs, and a team picked by many to repeat this year.

This team full of Baby Devils already showed they can win on the road in tough venues and in neutral sites, but those two games will absolutely test the mettle of Coach K’s diaper dandies.

Is this the best team that Krzyzewski has ever had at Duke? There are still a few months of the season left to make that determination, but if you’ve watched them at all this season you know that past Duke legends are probably sitting back and saying, “Wow!”

Next: Where does Duke fall on the all-time home court advantage rankings?