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Duke All-Decade Team (Duke Lifer Edition): Mason Plumlee

Underrated Blue Devil from Duke's first family of the 2010 is fifth member of team

The fifth member of the Duke Lifer team is an underrated Blue Devil from the first family of Duke for the 2010 decade—Mason Plumlee.

The big man was a key reserve on the 2010 National Champions, averaging 3.7 points off the bench and starting one game. Plumlee was third on the team in blocked shots and fourth in offensive rebounds, despite playing just over 14 minutes a game.

The following year, he became a full-time starter, playing alongside brother Miles, who was a junior on the team. Plumlee led the team with 8.5 rebounds and also topped the squad in blocked shots.

As a junior, Plumlee developed an old-fashioned hook shot that turned him into one of the top scorers in the ACC, to go along with his rebounding and shot blocking prowess. He averaged 11.1 points and 9.2 rebounds. As a senior, he took another step forward on offense, scoring 17.1 points to go with 9.9 boards. He also hit 60 percent of his shots and got to play with his younger brother, Marshall, who appeared in 19 games as a freshman.

In his fourth year, Plumlee had developed into a first-team All-ACC, second-team All-American and NBA first-rounder. He’s gone on to be a key contributor to three different teams, as well as a member of Team USA.

There were usually bigger names on Plumlee’s Duke teams, from Singler, Smith and Scheyer to Curry, Rivers and Kelly, but Plumlee was a consistent presence in the middle and finished as Duke’s leading rebounder and shot blocker for the decade, as well as the fourth-leading scorer.