Duke has a new key three.
A trio of seniors led Duke to its last national championship in 2010: Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek.
Hoping that same blueprint works again, this year’s Blue Devil team has its own triumvirate of seasoned veterans in its first five—seniors Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly and Mason Plumlee—whose journey for a national championship, which would be the program’s fifth, begins this weekend.
“It’s always important for a team to get on the page of its seniors, if its seniors want to win,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “If the seniors want the season to be over, you better get on someone else’s page. If the seniors really want to win—and I think our guys do—you better get on their page.”
In a college basketball landscape littered with high roster turnover and inexperienced teams, it is rare for a highly seeded team in the tournament to feature three seniors in its starting lineup. Of the top-eight seeds in the field of 68, just three have three or more seniors in their starting lineup—Duke, Miami and Kansas. Other teams, like second-seeded Georgetown, start no seniors at all.
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Unlike the Hurricanes and Jayhawks, the Blue Devils’ trio leads the team in scoring, with Plumlee, Curry and Kelly netting 17.2, 17.0 and 14.3 points per contest, respectively.
Having been a part of 10 NCAA Tournament games with an 8-2 record during the previous three seasons, this is not the group’s first rodeo.
“It’s a little bit of an advantage, if we make the most of it,” said Curry as the team opens the 2013 NCAA Tournament against 15th-seeded Albany on Friday. “We’ve been there a few times. We know how to prepare for it. And we have that sense of urgency that some guys might not have because they have other college seasons coming up.”
The experience—and knowledge that these next three weeks will be their last times lacing up as Blue Devils—fuels a hunger to survive and advance in the tournament. Curry, Kelly and Plumlee watched as three seniors carried the 2010 team to the national championship.
“From personal experience, I think it means a lot from the standpoint that you have been through so many situations before,” Scheyer said. “For us when you are seniors, you know you can lose that first game. You know you can lose at any point. I think there is something to be said for that. And just even more that last little bit of not wanting your career to end. Of course you feel that every year, but when you really have that feeling that this could be the last time putting on a Duke jersey, I think there’s a little significance to that as well.”
Plumlee—a 6-foot-10 Warsaw, Ind. product—noted how important it is for the veterans to set a tone for the rest of the squad this time of year.
“Our example is more important than anything the coach is going to say,” said Plumlee, who spurned the NBA Draft last season as a junior to return to Durham for a chance to win his second title. “We are the most important thing about this team right now. Our example will be followed. Our sense of urgency has to be felt throughout—the staff included. We have to set a tone in practice and at the very start of the tournament. We have to get momentum going right away.”
The seniors cannot do it alone, though. In 2010, role players played an integral part in propelling the squad to the Final Four. Then-freshman Andre Dawkins buried two critical 3-pointers in the team’s tightly contested Elite Eight game against Baylor to help advance the team to the Final Four.
Similar performances by Quinn Cook, Rasheed Sulaimon and Tyler Thornton will be needed, especially with the opposition’s defensive emphasis being on the three veterans.
“It needs to happen,” Scheyer said. “It’s not all on Rasheed’s shoulders but to have another guy outside of the three seniors—at some point you need a bucket. [During] the Baylor game Andre hit two huge threes. We probably don’t beat them without those threes. There’s a reason you have a full team.”
The seniors’ energy, poise and ability to lead will largely dictate how well the younger players perform and respond when the going gets tough. But, at the end of the day, a trip to Atlanta rides heavily on the shoulders of Curry, Kelly and Plumlee in their final NCAA Tournament.
“It is mainly about the seniors,” Krzyzewski said. “They need to lead us. They need to play well. They need to step up, and they will help set the stage for the younger guys on the team.”
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