The Book of Luke

12/9/2016 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Jeter: Poised to Propel Jones: Special Toughness Jefferson: Battle Tested Allen: The Iron Devil

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. -- Was Luke Kennard underrated as a freshman?

To some extent, he was overshadowed by freshman classmate Brandon Ingram, who might have been the best first-year player in the country (Ben Simmons included). And it didn't help that Kennard's game was very similar to that of another teammate, sophomore Grayson Allen.

But when you look at the role that Kennard played last season and the numbers that he put up, it's hard not to suggest that he had one of the best freshman seasons for a Duke player this century. No, he was not as effective as Ingram — or such one-and-done prospects as Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow, Jabari Parker or Austin Rivers — but the case could be made that he had just about the best freshman season possible without being one-and-done.

In fact, since Jason Williams and Carlos Boozer in 2000, the only non one-and-done freshmen to better Kennard's 11.8 points per game average were J.J. Redick (15.0), Kyle Singler (13.2) and Jon Scheyer (12.2). Kennard's numbers — not just his scoring, but also his shooting percentages, rebounding and ball-handling stats — were very comparable to Scheyer's freshman numbers and clearly better than the freshman stats of such prominent guards as Nolan Smith, Daniel Ewing, Greg Paulus, Rasheed Sulaimon and Quinn Cook.

Two of those — three, if you count Scheyer — eventually started in the backcourt on national championship teams before their careers at Duke were over.

“We think Luke can be a big-time player,” associate head coach Jeff Capel said. “You saw flashes if it last year. The thing now is to become consistent.”

Kennard is a big guard, listed at 6-foot-5 and 202 pounds, although coach Mike Krzyzewski recently objected when a writer tried to describe him as a “wing.”

“Don't call him a wing — we're talking about basketball players, not birds,” he said.

The Duke coach refused to define Kennard by position.

“Luke can bring the ball up,” he pointed out. “Luke's a good basketball player. He can play the so-called point for us at times. He was a quarterback in high school. He's a good leader and a good ball-handler.

“He's a really good basketball player. I have really good basketball players. I don't want to put them in a box. I'd rather them be basketball players.”

That versatility could be the key to Kennard's role this season. On a team loaded with … oh, let's call them perimeter players, he'll be fighting for minutes with 6-5 senior captain Matt Jones, 6-5 junior All-American Grayson Allen, 6-8 freshman Jayson Tatum and 6-3 freshman Frank Jackson.

Of course, three and sometimes four of those five players will be on the floor at the same time.

“We have a lot of guys,” Kennard said. “All will be able to rotate. We should be at our best. That's what Coach expects out of us. We're going to have a lot of different lineups this year. We can go big, small, medium — if that's a thing.”

Kennard's strong freshman season was flawed in one area — consistency.

“I thought it was inconsistent,” Krzyzewski said. “In certain games it was great, but he's a freshman. In one two-game period he went from 30 (points) to zero. So he's averaging 15 points a game as a freshman and that's pretty good, but couldn't it be 18 and 12?”

Indeed, Kennard did have a two-game stretch where he scored 30 in a close loss to Notre Dame, then went scoreless in a close loss to Syracuse. But he topped 20 points seven times and was in double figures in 21 of 36 games.

Kennard was an effective scorer on the drive (hitting 52.7 percent on 2-point field goal tries) and from the foul line (where he finished second in the ACC with a mark of 88.9 percent). If there was a weakness in his offensive game, it was his 3-point shooting, where Kennard hit just 32.0 percent of his 172 attempts.

That problem was surprising for a player reputed to be one of the best long-range shooters in his class.

“I think last year, I was trying to get used to the speed of the game,” he said when asked about his 3-point shooting. “This year, it's been great so far. We play a lot of games, a lot of open gym games. So just picking up the speed of the games is really the main thing that I've gotten better at.”

History offers hope that Kennard will find his 3-point stroke as a sophomore. Teammate Matt Jones' 3-point average went from 14.3 as a freshman to 37.6 as a sophomore to 41.5 as a junior. Quinn Cook improved from 25.0 as a freshman to 39.3 as a soph. Ryan Kelly improved from 26.3 to 31.9 to 40.8 to 42.2 in his four seasons.

Not every player improves at such a steady rate, but Kennard's case would seem to mirror former All-American Shane Battier, another McDonald's 3-point winner who shot poorly as a freshman. After shooting 16.7 percent from 3-point range in his rookie year of 1998, Battier was over 40 percent from beyond the arc for the rest of his career.

But Kennard is not going into the new season focused so much on his long-range shooting as on his all-around game.

“I've been in the gym a lot over the summer,” he said. “I'm learning each and every day from the upperclassmen and the coaches. I think this year I'm a lot more aggressive, especially on the offensive end. We've all gotten better defensively. Then being a leader, especially to the young guys. That's one of the things the coaches emphasized to be during the summer and going into each and every practice, being a leader and trying to talk more than I did last year.”

Kennard understands that on a team without a true point guard, he'll be one of the players asked to initiate the offense at times.

“We have a lot of playmakers on the floor,” he said. “That definitely spaces out the floor a lot. It's going to be neat to space out the floor. A lot of guys are going to get open shots and a lot of guys can knock them down.

“With the talent we have and the playmaking we have — we have the guys who can make plays. From the first game to the end of the season, we're going to get better each and every game. That's our mentality going into it and I'm really looking forward to it.”

Kennard is in a unique position on the roster.

The 2016-17 Blue Devils are a blend between veterans and talented newcomers. On one hand, Duke returns a trio of players who were key performers on the team's 2015 national championship team (Grayson Allen, Amile Jefferson and Matt Jones). On the other hand, there are six freshmen on the roster – with at least four of them expected to be in the rotation (Jayson Tatum, Frank Jackson, Marques Bolden and Harry Giles).

Linking the three veterans and the four freshmen is Kennard, a sophomore who gained considerable experience last season (just under 1,000 minutes in 36 games).

“We're a team that is getting along very well,” he said. “We had a great group coming in and I'm really looking forward to playing with them. The guys we have returning are some of the most experienced, talented players in the country this year, so I'm just looking forward to it.”

The ability to blend the veteran and youthful players successfully was one of the keys to the 2015 title team. The same seems to be happening with this team.

“Off the court, our chemistry is great,” Kennard said. “We get along very well on and off the court. That's going to play a big part in our success this season. On the court, we're always trying to talk to and teach the young guys. It's all about learning. If they have a question, they'll ask. If we see something as upperclassmen, then we're going to correct them.”

Duke's improved depth — and the increased scoring options — might cut into some of Kennard's numbers this season. But that's no problem. In fact, the young guard expects it to be a strength.

“We've got a lot of guys this year, a lot more than we had last year,” he said. “As long as we can stay healthy, we're going to have a really good defensive team. We're long and athletic. We have guys that can rotate in. So far, it's been really exciting to see what the new guys can bring to the table.”

And it will be exciting to see what Kennard can bring in his second season. Krzyzewski is also looking for improvement from last year's freshman season.

“One of the main things he talked to me about (in the offseason) was being a leader,” Kennard said. “Also, being quick with my shot. He wants me to be a lot more aggressive than I was last year. And I've really worked on that. He thinks I've really gotten better with that. It's really been exciting to get in the gym with Coach and learning from him. It's exciting to learn.”