ACC Nation was in Greensboro, NC, recently for the ACC’s Operation Basketball. Patrick and Chris got to talk with all 12 men’s basketball coaches, plus select players from each school, and over the next few days we’ll let you know what they found out. ACC Nation will preview each of the 12 men’s basketball programs, going in reverse order of last year’s final regular-season standings, with one preview a day as we approach the start of the season.

Wake Forest – Oct. 31

Georgia Tech – Nov. 1

Virginia Tech – Nov. 2

Clemson – Nov. 3

Miami – Nov. 4

Virginia – Nov. 5

Maryland – Nov. 6

Florida State – Nov. 7

North Carolina State – Nov. 8

Boston College – Nov. 10

North Carolina – Nov. 11

Duke
(2005-06 season: 14-2 ACC, 32-4 overall; lost in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament to LSU 62-54)

It’s been a number of years since Duke entered a season with more questions than answers, but that may be the case this year.

How do the Blue Devils replace J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, who are now in the NBA after extraordinary college careers?

Will Greg Paulus have to become more of a scorer to offset some point production lost by Redick?

Can a young team – one of the youngest in Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure – survive the rigors of the ACC?

Did coaching Team USA negatively affect Mike Krzyzewski?

Duke enters the season without a single scholarship senior on the roster and four freshmen in a highly rated incoming class.

Krzyzewski said he always considers himself a teacher, but this year that role takes on a different look.

“You still have to provide a young team a learning curve where they can make mistakes and look bad,” said Krzyzewski. “It’s a definite that we will have more peaks and valleys than a veteran team should have. And you need to allow that because these kids are changing limits, individually and collectively. There are going to be mistakes and as a teacher you have to be more patient.”

Gerald Henderson is perhaps the most celebrated freshman coming in this season. He averaged 21.5 points a game last season at Episcopal Academy, playing with Wayne Ellington, a freshman at North Carolina. The 6-5 Henderson is one of the most athletic players to come to Durham in a while.

The other freshmen – 6-5 Jon Scheyer, 7-0 Brian Zoubek and 6-9 Lance Thomas – may not get the press that Henderson does, but Krzyzewski doesn’t think them any less important.

“The four freshman will all be major contributors,” Krzyzewski said. “Some of them – or all of them – might start at times. Some will start all the time. They were very well coached in high school.”

So far this season, in fact, Scheyer has started both of Duke’s games, while Zoubek and Thomas both started one game each. Henderson has seen significant time off the bench so far.

Usually the upperclassmen are required to come to semester of summer school, and they usually choose the first semester. But this past summer all of them went to the second session so they could begin bonding with the freshmen.

“You talk about leadership. That was leadership in action,” Krzyzewski said.

That’s the type of leadership that will be needed from the upperclassmen this year. But if this Duke team is to make a run at North Carolina in the ACC, the Devils will also have to see improved play from Josh McRoberts and Paulus, among others.

McRoberts made a lot of Duke fans – as well as his coaches – happy when he passed on the NBA draft. Last year McRoberts scored 8.7 points a game and pulled down 5.3 rebounds per contest, but he will be expected to step up even more this season with the loss of Redick and Williams.

Meanwhile, Paulus led the ACC in assists last year and only turned the ball over 118 times, a respectable number for a freshman point guard. Consider this: Bobby Hurley had 166 turnovers his freshman season, and he went on to be a pretty good point guard (To be fair, Hurley’s assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.73 to 1 while Paulus’ was 1.58 to 1).

Paulus did only hit 37 percent of his field-goal attempts last year, and, without the scoring of Redick, he will be expected to improve his shooting.

Krzyzewski spent the summer – and will spend the next two summers – coaching Team USA. There are concerns from some that the extra workload will take its toll on the coach. He does admit it took something out of him, but he thinks he gained more than he lost.

“I brought back a lot,” Krzyzewski said. “First of all, a tired body, but a very fulfilled heart. You can’t be in that intense of an environment with the guys who were on my staff and not learn.”

For those thinking it may be a down year for Duke, maybe junior DeMarcus Nelson, who is finally healthy this season and should be a big contributor for the Blue Devils, sums it up best.

“We have a roster full of guys who are excited to play and very talented players,” Nelson said. “And we all want to win. That’s one thing you can’t change about Duke teams. Somehow we’re going to find ways to win.”

- Patrick Hite