Duke is good enough to finish season undefeated
We have spent most of this college football season believing that a super team is in our midst. At least we believe that’s the case as long as Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s tender right knee holds up.
Not that the Crimson Tide absolutely, positively can’t repeat as national champs without their potential Heisman Trophy-winning QB. When you shut out nationally ranked LSU and Mississippi State on consecutive Saturdays, as Bama has just done, you could easily win it all with Jalen Hurts under center. Especially since Hurts has started the last two national-title games.
But what if college basketball not only has itself a team to rival Alabama in utter domination but also has a transcendent star every bit as special as Tagovailoa?
We’re speaking, of course, of the Duke Blue Devils and their preposterously talented freshman Zion Williamson.
Think a cross between a somewhat smaller, far more polished and nimble Shaquille O’Neal and a somewhat larger Charles Barkley with both a better handle and jumper and you have the rough equivalent of Williamson, who packs 285 pounds on a 6-foot-7 frame
yet moves like Baryshnikov.
Or, as Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr described him after watching Williamson total 28 points and seven rebounds in the Dookies’ 118-84 dismantling of then-No. 2 Kentucky last week: “I thought LeBron (James), I thought that was a one-shot deal, but apparently the next guy’s coming.”
Former Georgia Tech star Stephon Marbury went further, posting the following assessment of Williamson in relation to King James: “Zion is going to destroy the whole planet. Zion is way better than LeBron, it’s not even close.”
That could be a bit of an overstatement, but to have watched Williamson against both the Wildcats and during Sunday’s win over Army it’s pretty clear that we’re watching greatness on the verge of legend.
Yet the really scary part regarding the Blue Devils is that freshman guard RJ Barrett may be as good as Williamson in everything but highlight-reel dunks, and he’s pretty fair at those. While Williamson is averaging 27.5 points and 11.5 rebounds after two games, Barrett is scoring at a 28-point clip. Then there’s Cam Reddish, the third outrageously skilled Duke freshman. All he’s done so far is hit 10 3-pointers over two games and average 23.5 points.
It’s like watching the two-time defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors on a night when Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson all are hitting on all cylinders at the same time.
And it doesn’t figure to stop any time soon if the Blue Devils emerge as champions of next week’s Maui Invitational. Like so many other top-tier college hoops programs this time of year, Duke won’t face a true road game until it travels to Wake Forest on Jan. 8. Even then, when you’re able to leapfrog a pretty impressive Kansas team for No. 1 after only two games, as Duke did Monday, you’re at least passing the eye test that you’re something special.
That’s not to say no one can challenge the newly top-ranked Dookies, especially in Maui, where other participants Gonzaga (3) and Auburn (9) are also in this week’s top 10 and Arizona, Iowa State and Xavier are receiving votes for the Top 25.
But Kentucky was ranked two spots ahead of then-No. 4 Duke heading into the State Farm Champions Classic last week and lost by 34. Barring injury, illness or an unfathomably bad night from more than one of its big three freshmen, Duke won’t only win the Maui, where Auburn might be its biggest challenge, but could also make a run at becoming the first team since Indiana in 1976 to finish unbeaten after the Final Four.
Does that mean the Devils should run the table? Who knows? Within their own Atlantic Coast Conference they could lose to both Virginia and North Carolina.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski might not even mind a loss to eliminate the distraction of chasing a perfect season. Then again, an undefeated season is just about the only thing the Hall of Fame coach has failed to accomplish in a career that’s delivered him five NCAA titles and 1,102 wins, the most in the history of the sport.
Which brings us back to Alabama football, since for all of Coach K’s accomplishments he’s still one behind Tide coach Nick Saban’s six titles in the national championship race.
Maybe Bama wins its coach his seventh and maybe not. But Krzyzewski certainly sounds like a coach feeling pretty good about his chances for a sixth.
After defeating a very solid Army team on Sunday by 22 points, Coach K said, “The perfect game for us following Kentucky as we grow as a team.”
When you’ve already beaten Kentucky by 34 and you’re still growing as a team, the rest of college basketball may already be playing for second.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.