College basketball week 4: 5 biggest takeaways
By Chris Stone
2. Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden played; Luke Kennard stole the show
The Duke Blue Devils’ Sunday matinee meeting with the Maine Black Bears at Cameron Indoor wasn’t meant to be a meaningful contest. Maine, after all, is currently ranked 340th out of 351 Division I teams, according to KenPom.
This was meant to be a tune up for the Blue Devils’ upcoming matchup with Florida and an opportunity for star guard Grayson Allen to get some rest. Then, Duke’s official Twitter account sent out a menacing tweet suggesting that freshman Jayson Tatum would make his debut. Midway through the first half came another tweet as fellow freshman Marques Bolden checked into the game wearing a Duke uniform for the first time.
Alongside Harry Giles, Tatum and Bolden are two parts of Duke’s trio of top-flight freshmen projected to be lottery picks in next June’s NBA Draft. Fellow five-star freshman Frank Jackson had already helped the Blue Devils to a 7-1 record, but the addition of the remaining prospects figured to be a boon for head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Tatum and Bolden, though, had rather pedestrian debuts against Maine as sophomore guard Luke Kennard stole the show by scoring 35 points in the win.
This isn’t to suggest that Tatum and Bolden won’t be useful, or even stellar, players for Duke, but it does emphasize the difficult choice that Krzyzewski will face once his full roster is healthy. Kennard currently ranks fourth in the KenPom Player of the Year race and has been one of the biggest sophomore revelations in the country.
It will be hard for Krzyzewski to take minutes away from him in order to give them to someone else given how well he has played. Of course, this is a problem that any coach in the nation would happily take of Krzyzewski’s hands and it’ll be a challenge he’s well-equipped to handle.