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Duke Tabbed No. 3 in Preseason Coaches Poll
10/17/2014 2:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke men's basketball team is ranked No. 3 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, as announced Thursday evening. The Blue Devils, with seven returning letterwinners off last year's squad that went 26-9, received a pair of first place votes and sit behind only Kentucky and Arizona in the initial poll of the 2014-15 season.
Kentucky received 24 first place votes to land a top spot, followed by Arizona, Duke, Wisconsin and Kansas. ACC foes North Carolina (No. 6), Virginia (No. 8) and Louisville (No. 9) are ranked in the top 10, while Syracuse is ranked No. 24.
Duke will play nine games against teams ranked in the top 25 of the preseason poll including nonconference tilts with No. 4 Wisconsin (Dec. 3), No. 15 Connecticut (Dec. 18) and No. 18 Michigan State (Nov. 18).
The Blue Devils return seven letterwinners from a year ago, including co-captains Quinn Cook and Amile Jefferson. Cook enters the year 27 points shy of 1,000 career points. He averaged 11.6 points and 4.4 assists per game, while making a career-high 65 three-point field goals.
Jefferson is one of the top returning rebounders in the ACC and is coming off a sophomore campaign in which he averaged 6.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
Junior Rasheed Sulaimon also returns for the Blue Devils after averaging 9.9 points per game a year ago, while Marshall Plumlee (1.3 ppg. & 2.2 rpg.), Matt Jones (1.8 ppg.) and Semi Ojeleye (1.6 ppg.) are poised to fill larger roles in the rotation this season.
Duke's incoming class of Grayson Allen, Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow, the top-ranked recruiting class in the nation, are also set to make an immediate impact as a part of the Blue Devil lineup. All four freshmen received McDonald's All-America honors during their high school careers, while Okafor, Jones and Allen enter their first collegiate season with preseason accolades from numerous media outlets.
The Blue Devils begin the 2014-15 season with the sixth annual Countdown to Craziness, scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 25, at 8 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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