Sam Kipling || Issue 14 || February 25, 2025
Coach Jon Schueyer is now in his nineteenth season with the Duke Blue Devils. Preseason polls had been ranking Duke in the top 5 before this team ever stepped foot on the court. Expectations were high as they always seem to be for this program. Coach Scheyer hasn’t had this level of talent on his
team in years, as you can imagine the hype is real. Going into November with high hopes the team struggled out of the gate. With Duke losing a couple of games they were expected to win. The
team’s challenges certainly didn’t stem from a lack of talent but rather chemistry issues and inconsistency. As far as conference play goes Duke rose above the rest in the ACC, absolutely dominating inter-conference opponents and rivals. As the season was under way and the team had a month of play under their belt that’s when the team started to gel. Cooper Flag will get all the attention this season, deservingly so. But you have to mention Jalen Johnson. After not living up to the hype he had some sort of turnaround, his incredible defensive abilities have secured Duke countless victories. Veteran players like Kyle Filipowski are owed a tremendous amount of credit in coaching and counseling the young guys. Well, past midseason now the Blue Devils look unstoppable. Cooper Flag is a name you’re going to be hearing a lot of in the basketball world and for good reason. He is averaging 20 points a game at the most competitive level of the NCAA. His ability to change the momentum of games and make it look effortless is a huge reason why I believe Duke is the team that has the best chances going into March. I wouldn’t want to play Duke in March and that feeling is shared by every team in college basketball. Duke hasn’t looked this good in a decade including their 2015 championship team. Anything can happen in March Madness, but it looks like it could finally be Duke’s year.
The Hudsonian 