Duke Blue Devils Could Certainly Be Headed to the Final Four This March

The Duke Blue Devils finished the regular season with a 27-4 record and are likely going to be one of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are announced this weekend. There are a lot of people who don’t like Duke and I understand that completely, but this may be the season where the Blue Devils actually go back to the Final Four. This is a different Duke team with Ryan Kelly back in the lineup and if Kelly can stay healthy, I truly think that Duke will have a chance to cut down the nets on the second Monday in April.

It is going to be hard for any team to stop five players who are averaging in double figures including two that are scoring over 17 points a game. Mason Plumlee and Seth Curry kept Duke afloat for most of the time when Kelly was out, but Kelly is a special talent as he proved in his first game back from injury. The one thing that could stop Duke from making the Final Four is the fact that this is going to be the most wide open tournament ever.

There are at least 15 teams that could end up winning the whole thing because of how much parity is presently going on in the game. Kelly was the missing link when he missed 13 games in the middle of the season and with him back now, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Duke wins the ACC tournament this week and is the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. There is just something different about this Duke team with Kelly this season and it may be enough to boost the team past their normal underachieving ways.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.