If you told Duke basketball fans over the offseason that no one would be talking about freshman [autotag]Kon Knueppel[/autotag] in January, the Cameron Crazies would probably be crestfallen.
The five-star prospect turned every possible head during preseason work, launching himself into lottery range on draft boards and earning praise from every national analyst who attended practice. His teammates said he couldn’t miss, and he took a starting spot on a loaded Blue Devils roster.
When Knueppel started his collegiate career with 22 points against Maine and 15 points against Army, earning the season’s first ACC Rookie of the Week award thanks to his 7/14 (50%) 3-point shot, it all looked warranted.
Then the hardest patch of Duke’s schedule rolled around, and Knueppel (fairly) showed some of his inexperience. The Wisconsin native went one-for-eight from behind the arc in a loss to the Kentucky Wildcats and missed all eight of his 3-point looks in a loss to the Kansas Jayhawks.
In nine games between November 12 and December 17, Knueppel averaged 10.1 points while shooting 13/48 (27.1%) from 3-point range. He finished below 40% from the floor five times and below 30% from distance four times even without including his single miss against the Auburn Tigers.
Knueppel still provided on offense without points. He became a critical part of the pick-and-roll game with forwards [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] and [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], generating eight assists against the Jayhawks and five more against Louisville. He dealt 28 dimes against just nine turnovers over that aforementioned span. But with Flagg stacking 20-point double-doubles and classmate Isaiah Evans knocking down triples at a prodigious clip, the college basketball world seemed ready to move on from Knueppel.
But right as the freshman receded behind the curtain, he found the form that placed him in the starting lineup all over again.
Knueppel made four 3-pointers against Georgia Tech on December 21, leading the team with 18 points for his most prolific outing since the opener. He added 13 more against Virginia Tech and 14 against SMU before Tuesday’s first-half run against Pittsburgh, which saw him make three 3-pointers in two minutes en route to a 17-point evening.
Over the last four games, Knueppel is averaging 15.5 points and making 43.3% of his triples. And in a comedic twist rarely found in sports, he’s done so amid relative silence compared to the November chatter.
Flagg scored at least 19 points in six of Duke’s last eight games, so Knueppel will probably spend the rest of his freshman season in the star forward’s shadow on a national stage. But the Blue Devils needed the Knueppel of old to make a push come March, and the sharpshooter finally looks ready to oblige once again.