Notable Jersey Numbers in Freshman Class

The freshmen jersey numbers have been leaked and a few of them might surprise people.

According to @TheDevilsDen, the Twitter account for the Duke page on Scout.com, incoming recruits Austin Rivers, Quinn Cook and Alex Murphy will be donning the jersey numbers 0, 2 and 12 in the upcoming season.

Cook, a guard and the No. 37 recruit in the country according to ESPN, takes the number of the now graduated guard Nolan Smith who wore No. 2 all four years at Duke. Similarly, the No. 40 recruit in the country, Alex Murphy has big shoes to fill taking No. 12 which used to belong to fellow forward Kyle Singler.

What does this mean?

While nothing is set in stone, it certainly has the implication that Duke does not plan to retire the numbers of Smith and Singler. Although it does not preclude them from doing so, the school's willingness to give out those jersey number can be an indication that Smith's No. 2 and Singler's No. 12 will not hang in the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium. When J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams had their No. 4 and No. 23 jerseys retired in 2007 after their graduation in 2006, those numbers were not given out to freshmen that year.

Also notable, Rivers wearing the No. 0 is unprecedented in the Coach Krzyzewski era. There had been speculation all season about whether Coach K would allow the No. 2 recruit in the nation to become the first under him to wear the number.

The other two freshmen, forward Michael Gbinije and center Marshall Plumlee will wear the numbers 13 and 40 respectively.