It's going to be an ugly year in Durham. As it stands right now, Duke has only 2 scholarship guards in Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer. That's it...2. Losing Williams really hurts as he was expected to play 25 minutes and be the defensive whiz against the best opposing guard. Smith and Scheyer better spend the summer in Denver running 10 miles per day because they'll be expected to play 35+ minutes per game. Scheyer is one of the best conditioned players in college basketball (his oxygen intake was as high as Lance Armstrong's peak level during his prime, for whatever that's worth) but if it's somehow possible, he needs to be better conditioned.
Duke now has only 9 scholarship players (2 guards, 7 players 6'7" or taller). Missing out on Kenny Boyton and John Wall hurts, though the latter was dropped from the wishlist after his run-in with the law. Singler now will see some time at the 2, which is fine on the offensive end but he can't guard a 2 on D so expect a zone defense for long spurts. Ryan Kelly can handle the ball but is like Singler...smooth but not even close to being quick enough at guarding someone 5 inches smaller than him. Duke will try to slow the game down to a crawl and every single opponent will have the same gameplan: run, run, run, and drive, drive, drive.
As for Zoubek...he'll ride the bench. Duke will need their bigs to get back on D to clog the lane against the fast-breaking opposing guards. Zoubek can't do that. Lance Thomas, Olek Czyz, and Miles Plumlee are much more apt at it.
For what it's worth...Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee will both be stud freshman. They're very skilled for their size and can shoot and handle the ball, similar to Singler. However, that won't matter on defense where Duke will be completely exploited.
Expect a starting lineup of Smith, Scheyer, Kelly, Singler, and Thomas with the Plumlee bros the first 2 off the bench. That's actually a nice looking starting lineup but we all know that a team needs backups at both guard positions and Duke has neither.
If in fact Duke finishes in the top 3 of the ACC with this roster, it will be his best coaching job. College basketball is a guard's game and Duke has only 2. However, he has no one to blame but himself as he's the one managing the roster. He gets an 'F' for this offseason for failing to bring in at least 1 guard.
Things will get better in '10 when Duke brings in 2 top 50 guards in Andre Dawkins and Tyler Thornton plus Seth Curry transfers (lose Scheyer though) in but that won't help next season.
