2017: Duke Blue Devils and App State Football
The Duke Blue Devils should have a bright future in basketball this year, and how bout those Mountaineers?
For the Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels, the old year ended with losses in their respective conference openers in basketball. They were joined in this feat by NC State and Wake Forest, but neither of those two schools were top ten at the time. As 2017 plays out it will be a story of how these two different basketball titans adjust and develop to the conference around them.
- Duke Men’s Basketball
Armed with talented freshmen, Duke possesses the most talent of any school in the ACC. The Blue Devils will bring a motivated Grayson Allen back into the fold at some point during the conference season. That boost will allow the Blue Devils to return to the one seed line by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around.
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Duke will lose to Virginia in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament, but it won’t affect their standing. The team will take the lessons of its loss and proceed to dominate the NCAA Tournament, making it to the final game. In that game they will beat Villanova, the same team that humbled the Tar Heels the year before. That will gain Coach K his sixth National Championship.
Allen, Giles, Bolden, and Tatum will turn pro while Frank Marshall sticks around to marshal the next group of Duke freshmen toward their own national title.
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- Duke Football
The return of Thomas Sirk will cause some issues at quarterback for the Blue Devils. The team will undergo a second year of rebuilding with more running backs having graduated. The more air friendly Blue Devils will score a 6-6 record and return to the bowls.
- Appalachian State Mountaineers Football
Taylor Lamb will be the point man for his senior campaign as App tries to keep the momentum going. In this they will succeed behind the running of Jalen Moore. The year will include a victory against Wake Forest as the Deacs come to Kidd-Brewer Stadium. The Mountaineers will win the Sun Belt outright with a key victory over Troy (depending on if Troy is on the schedule).
Next: 2017: Part 1: Panthers and Hornets
So there are the predictions for Duke and App State. The next phase will be the North Carolina Tar Heels.