The morning after playing a full 40 minutes in Duke’s 74-73 victory against North Carolina in Chapel Hill Feb. 17, freshman Brandon Ingram woke up sore. At just 190 pounds, the Kinston, N.C., native had spent much of the previous night attacking the rim against the duo of 230-pound Brice Johnson and 260-pound Kennedy Meeks in the interior.
Despite putting up 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win, Ingram had more work to do, none of which was on the court. The freshman knew he needed to get back in the training room to build himself up for a stretch run that he hopes will include a deep run in the ACC tournament and more than just one weekend in the NCAA tournament.
“I tried to gain weight in high school, but I don’t think I took it as seriously,” Ingram said back in early October. “Now that I’m here and I’m around everything and I’m around the weight room, it’s easier for me to do.”
But since that come-from-behind victory, things have gone wayward for the freshman. After helping lead Duke to consecutive victories against then-No. 13 Louisville, then-No. 7 Virginia and then-No. 5 North Carolina, Ingram averaged just 13.2 points per game on 33.3 percent shooting in the Blue Devils’ last five games of the regular season.
After shouldering the load during a time when Duke was teetering on the edge of missing the NCAA tournament, the freshman’s heavy minutes may have finally caught up to him.
Ingram started the season slow, with a rough four-point performance in just 19 minutes in the Champions Classic against then-No. 2 Kentucky showing that much work was needed. But after finding his touch from the outside and developing the strength needed to take the ball to the basket, the swingman quickly became the star the Blue Devils needed alongside Grayson Allen.
“I thought he would be really good—he’s even better,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said before the team’s regular-season finale against the Tar Heels. “You just have to tell him once. No maintenance. No extra time of explaining. His basketball intellect is super high, and he has a great feel for the game.”
Starting with a breakout performance against Indiana Dec. 2 in which he scored 18 first-half points, Ingram went on a roll and averaged 19.7 points per game in his next 19 games. But lost in the picture may have been the toll that big minutes took on the 18-year-old’s lanky body.
With the team dealing with the absence of captain Amile Jefferson and a short seven-man rotation that often feels more like six, Ingram played more than 37 minutes in a game 12 times in that span—a number that would have been higher if not for occasional struggles with foul trouble.
The freshman has averaged 33.9 minutes per game overall, exceeding the 30.7 minutes and 30.1 minutes that freshmen Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor averaged respectively in their single seasons at Duke. In fact, no Blue Devil freshman has racked up more minutes per game than Ingram since Jay Williams in 1999-2000.
Ingram’s versatility will force Krzyzewski to keep him on the floor—foul trouble or not—as the under-manned Blue Devils enter postseason play. The swingman presents a nightmare matchup for almost every team in the country with his ability to shoot over defenders and beat bigger forwards off the dribble. With Ben Simmons—the odds-on favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft—and Louisiana State likely to miss the NCAA tournament, an even bigger spotlight will shine on the 6-foot-9 forward, who many expect to be the second name off the draft board in June.
Even on his worst nights, Ingram has displayed skills that leave opposing coaches shaking their heads. After scoring just eight points and committing a career-high 10 turnovers against Louisville’s physical full-court press in a 71-64 loss Feb. 20, not all takeaways from the game were as negative as one would imagine.
“Ingram reminds me so much of [Oklahoma City Thunder star] Kevin Durant, and that’s about as high a compliment as you can get because even though he’s physically thin, he’s not weak,” Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said. “Some guys are physically thin, but same thing with Durant—he’s going to get better and better and better. Beautiful-looking stroke, great length, handles it, passes it—he’s going to be a great pro.”
Despite the fanfare he receives on offense, Ingram is as big a piece as any on defense for the Blue Devils. With his 7-foot-3 wingspan, the freshman has allowed Duke to employ 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones, clogging passing lanes and disrupting the other team’s offensive flow. After a slow start to his college career, Ingram has also picked up his production on the boards in Jefferson’s absence and averaged 7.6 rebounds per game during conference play.
“Whenever I’m coming down on [offense] and playing against him in practice, it makes you have second thoughts about making any passes,” freshman Derryck Thornton said. “That takes time off the clock and you have to make sure everything is hard and sharp because if you mess up even a little bit, he’ll get a steal or he’ll get a hand on the ball.”
The three-day break between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the ACC tournament often serves as a nice reset for teams after a grueling conference schedule, and perhaps no one needs it as much as Ingram.
Ingram overcame his early-season struggles to bring home ACC Freshman of the Year honors—the third straight Blue Devil rookie to do so. But after following in the footsteps of Parker and Okafor by capturing the regular-season hardware, Duke’s swingman now has one more mountain to climb—replicating Okafor’s postseason success.
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