Duke’s highly touted freshmen Harry Giles, Marques Bolden and Jayson Tatum still have not played a game this season. The Blue Devils are somehow 6-1 without them. The play of their veterans has been huge, especially the play of Amile Jefferson.
Every good college basketball team needs a “glue guy.” It may sound like a cliche that college basketball analysts like to wax poetic about, but damned if it isn’t true. Every team needs a player that settles into their role and executes that role to perfection.
A player that doesn’t care about individual stats or accolades. Someone that is versatile enough to step up into a larger role when the situation calls for it, but humble enough to accept any role that is given to them.
Amile Jefferson is that player for Duke.
Jefferson wasn’t even supposed to be at Duke this season. After winning a national championship as an important role player in 2014-15, he decided to return to Durham for one more season instead of turning pro.
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Why wouldn’t he? That Duke squad looked to be a team than could compete for another national championship, with Jefferson playing an even larger part in that success. He started the 2015-16 season on fire.
Through nine games he averaged career highs in nearly every major statistic. Jefferson averaged 11.4 points and 10.3 rebounds per game on 68.3 percent shooting while helping Duke jump out to an 8-1 start. Then things took a turn for the worse.
A foot injury suffered during practice would cause him to miss the rest of the season.
Last January Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski spoke about how the absence of Jefferson didn’t just hurt because of the loss of production.
"“He’s been in huge games,” Krzyzewski pointed out on the ACC coaches teleconference this week. “And just leadership wise and how he plays, his poise, his toughness, his voice. All those things, you can’t ask one person to make up for that. You just try to develop everybody to help in that regard.”"
The loss of Jefferson killed Duke’s depth. They even started limiting contact in practice to avoid further injury. Despite the efforts of Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram, they ran out of gas in the Sweet 16. Their season ended with a loss to Oregon. No back to back National Championships.
In April Jefferson was granted a medical hardship waiver giving him a fifth year of eligibility. He has picked up right where he left off last season. You could make the argument that he’s been even better.
After seven games played, Jefferson is averaging 18.8 points and 13.1 rebounds per 40 minutes. He’s shooting 65.5 percent from the floor and has a rebounding rate of 17.9 percent. He’s also Duke’s best interior defender.
In the past, Jefferson wasn’t regarded as rim protector in the traditional sense, but this season he is averaging a career-high 2.1 blocks per game. He has always been a rock solid positional defender and a tremendous rebounder.
If he’s blocking shots, he’s become the complete package on the defensive end.
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Night in and night out Jefferson remains consistent. He’s scored in double figures in six of Duke’s seven games, he’s recorded at least five rebounds in six of seven games, and he’s shot better than 50 percent from the field in six of seven games.
With Amile Jefferson you know what you’re going to get.
Despite being the fourth leading scorer on the team I’d argue that Jefferson is Duke’s second most important player at the moment. The three missing freshmen are all post players.
Right now Jefferson is nearly a one man post rotation. Chase Jeter and Antonio Vrankovic have eaten up minutes here and there, but Duke has mostly elected to play smaller lineups with Jefferson as the only big man. Without him the Blue Devils would be in serious trouble.
Duke faces yet another daunting test this week. Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Coach K has said that Giles, Bolden, and Tatum will once again not play.
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That means another test for Jefferson and Duke’s cast of veterans. So far they’ve been up to the challenge.