Duke basketball: Preseason watchlists reveal strength of Blue Devils

Only Duke basketball has a man on all five preseason positional watchlists.

One day at a time his week, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame revealed the preseason national watchlists, containing 20 names apiece, for the five major positional awards. All five include a Duke basketball player:

• Jeremy Roach for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award
• Tyrese Proctor for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award
• Dariq Whitehead for the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award
• Kyle Filipowski for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award
• Dereck Lively II for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award

On that note, the Blue Devils, who begin the season at No. 7 in the AP Top 25, are the only ones in the country with a presence on all five lists. And that nugget alone points to a balanced attack in Durham, despite the possibility that not all of the above names will even wind up in the starting lineup.

Although none of Duke's award candidates look like favorites to be the best in the country at their respective positions, perhaps the premier talent spread across all five spots will equate to the team's primary advantage over most opponents in Jon Scheyer's first season as head coach.

That said, consider that four of the five Blue Devils who landed on the watchlists are mere freshmen: Proctor, Whitehead, Filipowski, and Lively. Furthermore, two of them, Whitehead and Lively, are still recovering from injuries.

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So understandably, it might take time and lessons from several early losses for the Blue Devils to approach their potential as a unit.

On Saturday, the 2022-23 Duke basketball squad plays a closed-door scrimmage on the road against No. 3 Houston. Then the Blue Devils host Fayetteville State on Nov. 2 for their lone exhibition game before tipping off the regular season with a home bout against Jacksonville five days later.

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