Last April, Gordon Hayward’s half-court heave rimmed out as time expired and Duke held off Butler to win its fourth national championship.
This fall the Blue Devils begin where they finished as the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
While coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team lost three starters from last year’s title-winning squad, the two returning give Duke a shot to repeat. Preseason All-American Kyle Singler and senior guard Nolan Smith both return after averaging more than 17 points per game last season.
Singler, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, said he is excited to start this season as the top dog.
“Teams are going to come after us because we are Duke, we are the national champions of 2010,” Singler said at ACC Media Day. “But since I’ve been here that’s kind of the feeling that I’ve always got, so I don’t think it’s going to be any different.”
The Blue Devils have some key new additions to go along with their returning stars.
Sophomore guard Seth Curry, the younger brother of NBA star Stephen Curry, is ready to join the Blue Devils after sitting out last season following him transferring from Liberty. The sharpshooter led all freshmen with 20.2 points per game in his one season at Liberty.
“He’s going to be really good,” Singler said. “He complements our team really well because we have a lot of guys that are going to have to have focus on them and Seth’s going to be able to shoot the ball and he’s also going to be a threat for other teams.”
Joining Curry in the backcourt will be McDonald’s All-American and the top-ranked freshman point guard Kyrie Irving. Irving will be expected to come in and be a big contributor to the team right away.
The other key piece in the deep Duke backcourt is sophomore Andre Dawkins, who Krzyzewski thinks has improved a lot since last season.
