Duke falls back to pack without Williams
When Eliot Williams decided on Tuesday to leave Duke and return home to Memphis for personal reasons, he took Duke’s status as the nominal ACC front-runner with him.
Of all the guard duos Duke tried last season, none worked better than Jon Scheyer and Williams, with Nolan Smith coming off the bench. That late-season combination offered the best mix of offense and defense, experience and enthusiasm, expectations and accomplishment.
Now, with only two scholarship guards (Scheyer and Smith) on the roster, Duke’s backcourt is as thin as it gets and the Blue Devils’ presumed position as ACC favorites is right out the window.
With Williams, a tournament-toughened and veteran Duke team — Kyle Singler, Scheyer, Williams, Smith, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek — looked like the best team in a league that suffered serious losses to graduation and the NBA across the board.
It’s anyone’s game now. Duke’s right in that mix, but the Devils no longer stand out as a clear favorite in an ACC that’s now totally up for grabs.
Luke DeCock
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at 829-8947 or luke.decock@newsobserver.com.
Comments
Duke/Carolina
Fri, 06/26/2009 - 14:30 — melibeoCarolina loses their top four scorers. Duke loses their leading scorer and returns #2-5, but they are woefully thin at guard.
I would say that the team that does better will be the one whose freshmen make a faster and more effective contribution. Carolina has a numerical advantage (5 recruits vs. 2), but it's hard to predict these things. After all, Duke's freshman class four years ago was supposed to be better than Carolina's (with McRoberts ranked higher than Hansbrough!) and look how that worked out.
While I don't expect either team to be outstanding, they should be competitive and fun to watch.
Don't think they were ahead of the pack before
Wed, 06/24/2009 - 20:09 — twhittentonI thought Carolina already had better talent than Duke before Williams left (so does Georgia Tech, actually, but what will Hewitt do with it?).
Duke basically got offense from three players last year, and the best of them is gone. Williams is a talent, but he disappeared after about six good games, so expecting him to replace Henderson's production was a stretch anyway.
Duke will still be pretty good, but to contend for the ACC title, they really need at least one freshman to be better than expected and obviously can't afford any injuries to Scheyer, Smith or Singler.
From your mouth
Wed, 06/24/2009 - 19:17 — UNC1998to God's ears.