For the first seven weeks of the college basketball season, the conversation about the Duke Blue Devils felt repetitive: If the offense just gets a little better, look out.
The Blue Devils have held each of their first 13 opponents under 78 points. In fact, only the Kentucky Wildcats, Kansas Jayhawks, and Auburn Tigers scored more than 65 points against Duke thus far, and Virginia Tech became the third team this season to shoot better than 40% from the floor against the Blue Devils on Tuesday.
Freshman superstar [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] averages three combined steals and blocks per game, Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown seems to break up an offensive play every five minutes, and no one can get around 7-foot-2 center Khaman Maluach. With Duke’s height and athleticism, opponents must execute perfectly in the paint or on the perimeter for an open look.
Yet, despite entering the 2024-25 season with loads of shooting talent, the Duke offense remained a little frustrating through the first six weeks. After averaging 98.0 points per game against Maine and Army in the openers, the Blue Devils only produced 80 points twice in their next nine games. One of those standout games came against the Auburn Tigers, an important distinction, but Duke also failed to crack 30 points in the first half against Incarnate Word or George Mason.
The biggest culprit? A baffling cold spell from the team’s 3-point talent. Five-star freshman [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] missed all eight of his threes against Kansas and went 4/18 (22.2%) from December 4-17. Purdue transfer Mason Gillis, who made 46.8% of his triples last year, went 4/24 (16.7%) over a 10-game span, and veteran guard Tyrese Proctor even finished 2/11 (18.2%) against Louisville and Incarnate Word.
It all added up to Duke averaging 73.0 points per game from November 22 through December 17, equivalent to the nation’s No. 251 scoring offense. Over the final five games of that run, the Blue Devils made 31.4% of their 3-pointers despite routinely finding open space.
But the last four halves of basketball have given the Cameron Crazies something they lacked since the first weeks of November: offensive hope.
The Blue Devils went to Atlanta on December 21 and proceeded to score 41 points before halftime, a loud reversal of recent form. Knueppel finally converted on the team’s spacing and drained four of his eight 3-pointers, ending the game with 18 points, and Duke ended the afternoon with a season-high 56.4% field goal percentage.
After a 10-day break, it would have been reasonable for home fans to expect rust against Virginia Tech. After a quiet start, however, Duke erupted yet again for 80 points over the final 33 minutes. Flagg, who started the year 8/36 (22.2%) from beyond the arc, knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, and freshman [autotag]Isaiah Evans[/autotag] made four of his seven looks to continue his impressive form.
The Blue Devils ended Tuesday’s game with 88 points, the first time they’ve surpassed 80 points in consecutive games since the Maine-Army run to open the year. They’ve made 21 of their 54 3-pointers (38.9%) over the last 80 minutes, their best two-game shooting stretch since the road trip against Arizona and Kansas, and they made more than 50% of their shots from the floor twice in a row for the first time in 2024-25.
Several good factors appear to be converging for Duke on the offensive end. Flagg’s high usage made a dent in his shooting efficiency early on, but the freshman put together his most accurate night of the year against Virginia Tech (64.3%) and he’s 5/12 (41.7%) from distance in his last three games. Evans, a 52% 3-point shooter, has averaged 16.2 minutes over the last six games after only appearing in four of Duke’s first seven. Knueppel, Proctor, and Gillis haven’t all fully emerged from their cold spells, but Gillis went two-for-four against the Hokies in a promising step forward.
There are still growing pains left for this young Blue Devils team, but there’s a lot of time to grow between now and March. If even one or two of the aforementioned trends continue and this Duke offense gets marginally better, folks in Durham can let their minds wander to San Antonio and the Final Four.