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| Kyrie Irving has dominated the competition in his first collegiate season |
Even with loads of talent returning, Duke came into the 2010-2011 with one question: Who will replace Jon Scheyer? As Duke trotted onto Coach K court on November 11th to face Princeton for their first game of the season, the college basketball world was about to see the immediate answer to that question.
Duke was going to be good regardless if anyone stepped up to fill Scheyer’s shoes or not, however with the immediate emergence of freshman sensation Kyrie Irving Duke’s frontcourt seemed to have potentially gotten better than last year. Jon Scheyer is an outstanding basketball player - don’t get me wrong. I am not sure if Duke would have won the National Championship without the leadership and on-court abilities of Scheyer. That all being said, with only eight games under his belt, Kyrie Irving was showing talents and skills that not many true freshman possess, especially against the level of competition Irving faced in the first weeks of the season. Through eight games (against teams like Michigan State, Kansas State, Marquette and Butler) Irving averaged 17.4 points per game, 5.1 assists per game and shot 53% from the floor. The do-it-all point guard even made 14 three-pointers on only 31 attempts in those eight games.
Unfortunately for Irving, a great start took a turn for the worse when Duke took on Butler this past Saturday. Irving helped Duke take down Butler with 21 points, however a toe injury took Irving down and sidelined him for the final minutes of the game. Initially nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the injury, but as the week went on reports began coming out about the severity of the situation. After official word that the injury was ligament damage in his right toe, his month long injury turned into a potential season ending one. It is also evident how much this hurts Kyrie Irving, as he has tweeted about how devastating the injury is.
Despite no clear immediate outcome, many do believe in fact that Irving will miss the rest of the 2010-2011 college basketball season. Whether Irving remains at Duke next season or not is yet to be seen. As a projected top-5 overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, Irving will have to weigh his options. With Irving down and most likely out, Duke must turn to former starting point guard Nolan Smith for the time being.
Smith started at point guard two seasons ago for the Blue Devils and averaged 8.4 points per game, 1.4 assists and was on the floor for just about 20 minutes a night that season. After making a switch in 2009 off of the point guard position, Nolan Smith’s game began to become deadly. In the 2009-2010 season he averaged 16 points per game, and his stats went up in every category with the exception of free throw shooting. Smith’s move to shooting guard was one of the vital pieces in Duke’s eventual National Championship last season. In Smith’s first game back at the point guard position, he shot 0 for 8 from the floor and only scored 2 points in 30 minutes of action. To the credit of Smith, he did dish out 10 assists in the Blue Devils win over Bradley on Wednesday, however his lack of scoring comes as a concern.
What makes Kyrie Irving so dangerous is that he is a threat in every aspect of the game. He can shoot lights out. He can dish the ball with the best of them. He is an all-around stud. With Irving, Duke has a distinct advantage over every college basketball team in the country. Without him, they are still at the top of the game however; they are vulnerable and lack that extra edge on the rest of their competition. Look, Nolan Smith will not shoot 0% from the floor every night, and I would be willing to bet he doesn’t come close to that number for the rest of the season. The point is that Nolan Smith was a huge asset for Duke shooting the ball. With his recent struggles, and struggles in the past at point guard Duke may have a tough time adjusting to the change right away.
Fortunately for Duke, this is a problem that they might be able to solve. Their upcoming schedule is not a daunting one and will allow enough time for Smith to become comfortable with the position again. With the experience and leadership Smith has, along with three easy games against St. Louis, Elon and UNC-Greensboro, he should be able to re-adjust without and real glaring issues. Two players, Seth Curry and Andre Dawkins, will have to fill in as the complimentary scorer to Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. As a playmaker, Nolan Smith makes the game so much easier for those around him, and his talents will be missed at his current position. Both Curry and Dawkins are more pure shooters than they are playmakers, and they both still have a lot of maturing to do as basketball players. Under Mike Krzyzewski however, that most likely won’t be a long lasting issue. All three players, Smith, Curry and Dawkins are more than capable of stepping up and contributing in different ways than originally expected. The Blue Devils team as a whole is also more than capable of winning despite the loss of Irving. With all that said, the aftermath of the injury to Kyrie Irving has knocked Duke down a notch or two in the college basketball food chain. As conference play nears, the Blue Devils will have to overcome their setbacks and once again prove to the world why they are so often the best team in college basketball.
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