Marshall Plumlee
- Year: Graduate Student
- Height: 7-foot-0
- Position: Center
- This year's stat line: 8.3 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 1.1 APG, 1.6 BPG
- The Blue Zone’s Projected stat line: 4.6 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 0.5 APG
Season Breakdown:
Plumlee—a career role player for the Blue Devils—emerged as a crucial piece of Duke’s seven-man rotation over the course of the 2015-16 season and finished as the team’s leading rebounder outside aside from senior co-captain Amile Jefferson, who played in just nine games before he was sidelined for the season with a fractured right foot. Plumlee registered seven double-doubles and pulled down a career-high 17 boards Jan. 18 against Syracuse and again in the penultimate regular season game against Wake Forest. The seven-footer also improved significantly as a scorer, and with his ability to finish thunderous slam dunks around the rim, he finished with the highest field goal percentage of any Blue Devil at 68.8 percent.
Once Jefferson went down with his injury, Plumlee stepped up offensively during the ACC season. The Warsaw, Ind., native set a career high with 18 points January 6 at Wake Forest, and he went on to top this mark twice more, notching 21 points against Virginia Tech three days later and setting his high-water mark with 23 against UNC Wilmington March 17 in the first round of NCAA tournament.
But the final year of the Plumlee era in Durham was about much more than the co-captain’s statistical efforts. As just one of four players on the Duke roster that was a member of the 2014-15 national championship team, the Blue Devils looked to the elder statesman of their lineup to provide leadership and set a tone for a young rotation that utilized up to four freshmen at times. Despite picking up his fourth foul with more than 10 minutes left against then-No. 5 North Carolina February 17, Plumlee returned to the floor and held Brice Johnson to just two points in the last 10 minutes of a game that capped a five-game winning streak for Duke. A few weeks later, Plumlee nailed a pair of free throws even after breaking his nose to seal a first-round ACC tournament victory against N.C. State.
Even though Plumlee never became the consistent offensive juggernaut that his brothers were, he certainly saved the best for his last season in a Blue Devil uniform. He was in the best physical shape of his career from the start of the year—averaging 30.5 minutes per game after never even reaching 10 minutes per game during his first three seasons—and showed over the course of an up-and-down season for the Duke program that he could make an impact on both the offensive and defensive ends.
Results relative to expectations:
After Jahlil Okafor bolted for the NBA following just one season with the Blue Devils, it was clear that Duke was going to have to get a combined effort from Plumlee, Jefferson and freshman Chase Jeter to fill a big hole in the low post. Everything changed when Jefferson was sidelined and it became clear that Jeter was not fully ready to be an impact player at the college level in his first season.
No one could have predicted that the graduate-student center would have to shoulder so much of the load down low, but he performed more than admirably in the role as a starter. Plumlee evolved from just a high-energy spurt guy to a player that Krzyzewski could rely on as his team’s on-court leader and a consistent contributor. Although Plumlee struggled with foul trouble at times, he learned on the job and his growth throughout the season was more than evident as he leaves the program and will join the U.S. Army as an officer this fall.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Twitter: @mpgladstone13
A junior from just outside Philadelphia, Mitchell is probably reminding you how the Eagles won the Super Bowl this year and that the Phillies are definitely on the rebound. Outside of The Chronicle, he majors in Economics, minors in Statistics and is working toward the PJMS certificate, in addition to playing trombone in the Duke University Marching Band. And if you're getting him a sandwich with beef and cheese outside the state of Pennsylvania, you best not call it a "Philly cheesesteak."