Duke Basketball In Great Shape For March But Still Has Chemistry Issues

It’s hard to get a grasp on where the Duke Blue Devils are sometimes. Following a loss to the Clemson Tigers, there’s a mix of emotions in Durham; and depending on who you talk to, there’s argument as to whether or not what we’ve seen this season is evidence of a problem or if there’s no reason to be worried. The answer is everything’s okay. Everybody calm down.

College basketball is not like college football. Regular-season losses don’t necessarily wreck your season. One similarity they do have, though, is early-season mishaps are more forgivable than the ones later in the season. If you’re a team on the bubble, you want big wins late. The losses that shouldn’t happen and the ones you can’t explain could be more of an issue if they occur close to tournament time.  Then again, if some people had their way, there would be 100 teams in the tournament as people are constantly discussing ways to add more teams to the bracket.

There’s one thing you can be certain of, though. When March arrives, the Blue Devils will be in the discussion. As we’ve seen, there won’t be very many easy wins in in the ACC schedule this year. At times, it appears that this is a team that’s coming together pretty well. At other times, it seems the chemistry may start to show up towards the end of the year.

Duke can probably be penciled in for at least one loss to their rivals from Chapel Hill which would end the current winning streak; but they can also be expected to put on a good show in the process. The North Carolina Tar Heels arguably have the most talented roster in the country. This year, they may serve as the barometer for the Blue Devils and how things are going.