With the departures of Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas—three seniors who developed into respected leaders during their ultimately successful tenures at Duke—the 2010-11 Blue Devils now look to a new corps of leaders.
And as forward Kyle Singler and guard Nolan Smith enter their final year as Blue Devils, both look forward to the challenge of guiding their team, albeit with a different style than their predecessors.
“Our leadership will definitely be different from last year’s under Jon and Lance,” said Smith, who finished last year third on the team in scoring with 17.4 points per game. “Kyle and I are probably the more quiet and laid-back type, and though Jon was the laid-back type, Lance was a vocal leader and an emotional leader. We had two great leaders last year, and we’re looking back on what they did for us last year and going by instinct.
“It’s really exciting having the chance to lead this year’s team, and we just have to remember to be vocal.”
Smith and Singler will serve as co-captains of the Blue Devils. Singler, who spurned a possible first-round NBA draft selection to return to Duke, realizes that one of the most important parts of his job will be to guide the stellar freshman class.
“I think we’re just going to have to make sure that everyone’s integrated into the team, and we’ve got some young players that are going to be playing a lot of minutes, so it’s on us to make sure that the transition’s easy,” Singler said. “We feel fine about [leading] because we’ve been in the program for the past few years, and we were with Jon and Lance, and we were friends with them, so we were learning from them throughout the year, so there isn’t any pressure on us to fill their shoes. We just have to be ourselves.”
And after a season that was at times unpredictable and ultimately triumphant—with double-digit losses to North Carolina State and Georgetown midway through the season and a national championship in April—the players know to take nothing for granted.
“One thing that we learned last year was that a lot of people overlook us, and this year, we’ll try to have the same mentality that we always have—to play every game like it’s our last game,” Smith said. “It gets better as the year goes along, but we need to take it step by step. That’s what we did last year, that’s what we’re really looking for this year, and as long as we’re at our best, we’ll be ready.”
This year, however, the leaders will have more difficulty instilling their team with that underdog mentality, as Duke is projected to be No. 1 or No. 2 in most preseason polls. Liberty transfer Seth Curry and incoming freshmen Kyrie Irving, Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton give the Blue Devils one of their most talented rosters ever on paper.
But Singler and Smith try to shift their focus away from the hype. Following in the footsteps of former Dukies Christian Laettner and Brian Davis, who won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992, requires a hunger that only comes from staying grounded.
“A lot of the guys from last year know what it takes to win the championship, and the new guys coming in are going to be hungry, but we have to remind ourselves to be humble coming into the season,” Smith said. “If we play together well, it’ll be a very together group, and we’ll go as hard as we can.”
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