Duke Blue Devils: Allen Most Wanted
The Duke Blue Devils possess three of the most coveted sixteen players in college basketball.
This year’s Duke Blue Devils may well be stocked like some sort of college fantasy team. The best part of it is that other teams seem to know it as well. Garry Parrish of CBS Sports conducted a survey asking college coaches what one player (currently active in college) they would want on their team. They responded by saying junior Grayson Allen at Duke would be their first choice.
Parrish listed the top sixteen players in his survey. Allen won at 19%, but there were two other Duke players in this group. That would be freshmen Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum. Giles got ten percent of the vote while Tatum corralled five percent. That’s three Duke players among the top 16 most coveted players in the country right now.
No North Carolina Tar Heels or Wake Forest Demon Deacons were on the list. NC State Wolfpack point guard Dennis Smith was. He collected three percent of the vote.
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This survey tells us that college coaches around the country really value the power freshmen, the so called ‘one-and-doners.’ Otherwise Smith, Tatum, and Giles would have been displaced for more veteran options. Talent and potential must have heavily influenced these coaches since we have not even seen these others play yet.
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Which is why it should surprise no one that Allen is leading the way with this poll. Allen brings both experience and talent. He has one national title under his belt and no doubt returned to Duke to win a second. He does mark the single biggest returning piece for any ACC team.
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Finally this list just reaffirms the idea that everyone wants to coach this particular Duke team. Three players, possibly three of the starting five, on a list of sixteen players like this. If one needed more evidence of Duke’s favored status this season then this is it.