The Duke Blue Devils were not successful in defending their 2015 National Championship this season. Duke lost in the Sweet 16 to Oregon, which wasn't much of a surprise considering the team's lack of depth. Many would argue that Duke overachieved by getting to the Sweet 16, but that typically isn't the case for one of the best programs in college basketball.
Next season Duke will bring in one of the top recruiting classes in the nation and will also have some guys return like Luke Kennard, Chase Jeter and Derryck Thornton. Brandon Ingram already declared for the NBA Draft like everyone expected him to, but Grayson Allen still had a decision to make regarding his future.
Allen announced Wednesday night that he would return to Duke for his junior season, a decision that many people thought he would make. He had a tremendous sophomore season, in which he averaged 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game and showed huge growth from year one to year two on campus.
Allen could have easily chosen to make the jump to the NBA like many others have decided to do, but he will be back for at least one more year. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard was projected to be an early second-round pick in this year's draft had he decided to leave, but he feels he can improve his stock by staying.
With or without Allen, Duke would have come in next season as one of the favorites to win the national championship. Now with Allen, they are basically a lock to be the preseason number one team and should be the team to beat in the ACC and nationally.
Next year's Duke team will have lost some key players in Ingram and Marshall Plumlee but will have a good mix of experience (seniors Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson) and talent (Allen, Kennard, number two recruiting class in the nation). On top of the team's success, next year's Duke team can have, Allen will likely be one of the frontrunners for national player of the year, as he was already a second-team All-American as a sophomore.
The scary thing for Duke is that they may not be done adding to their team for next season. On top of Allen returning and the great incoming recruiting class, they are also one of the final three schools in on five-star center Marques Bolden. Bolden hasn't indicated which way he is leaning, but Duke commit Harry Giles thinks it is towards the Blue Devils.
