Luke Kennard was under the radar heading into this season, but he’s become Duke’s best player as the NCAA tournament approaches.
When the superteam hype started to build and the preseason No. 1 ranking became a forgone conclusion, Luke Kennard was something of an afterthought for Duke. Grayson Allen was the consensus Best Player in College Basketball, Amile Jefferson was the senior leader and Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles were the latest one-and-done lottery picks. Kennard was a role player and it was hard to envision him as much more.
Four Blue Devils made our preseason list of the top 100 players in college basketball, but not Kennard. SI projected his scoring average to fall to just 9.7 points per game and slotted him in playing only 55 percent of the available minutes.
Kennard might have been a McDonald’s All-American, but Duke had eight others. He might have broken LeBron James’ high school scoring mark in Ohio, but that had little consequence now. On a team as loaded as Duke was presumed to be, opportunity was less of a promise and more of a fantasy.
It’s important to remember where Kennard was supposed to be when you take stock in where he is now. He’s been Duke’s best player all season while emerging as a frontrunner for ACC Player of the Year and one of the most efficient scorers in the country. While seemingly everything else has gone wrong with the Blue Devils, Kennard’s development tangibly saved the season.
Duke has had to deal with hysteria in the fallout from Allen’s most recent tripping controversy. It had to deal with injuries to its three most touted freshmen at the onset of the season, and the cruel reality that Harry Giles might never regain the form he showed in high school while wearing a Duke uniform. It had to deal with Mike Krzyzewski’s back surgery, too, and the seven-game absence that followed.
Through it all, Kennard has been Duke’s one constant. Now that the Blue Devils have won seven straight and are back into the top-10 of the rankings, it’s fair to wonder how high Kennard can take them.
Kennard wasn’t just a star athlete in Franklin, Ohio, he was a local celebrity. He signed autographs, led parades, and had his name on roadside signs. He was a standout quarterback, too, but the hardwood was where Kennard did his best work. He was Ohio’s Mr. Basketball as a junior and senior and went out averaging 38.1 points per game. LeBron James knew him by name and was happy when Kennard passed him on Ohio’s all-time scoring list.
He arrived at Duke at a strange time. The program was fresh off a national championship, but the promise of the 2016 recruiting class had people more excited than the group of incoming freshmen. There was the sense that last season was a holdover year for Duke even with No. 2 overall NBA draft pick Brandon Ingram and a breakout star in Allen.
Kennard had to pick his spots as a freshman, but at times he flashed his ability to put up points in a hurry. He scored 20 or more points seven times and worked his way into the starting lineup by the end of the season. Duke’s year would end in the Sweet 16 against Oregon as Kennard finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
A freshman season like the one Kennard had would have made him the focal point on about 340 college basketball teams as a sophomore. On Duke, he was thought to be the seventh man. That changed when Jayson Tatum suffered a foot injury in the preseason and Kennard moved into the starting lineup.
It quickly became apparently he wasn’t giving up that spot again. Kennard was Duke’s best player against Kansas at the Champions Classic, scoring 22 in a close loss. He dominated No. 21 Rhode Island five days later with 24 points on 11 shots then had another breakout performance on national TV against Florida when he scored 29 points on 16 shots.
That set the tone for Kennard’s sophomore season: he was one of the best scorers in America and he was deadly efficient in doing it. Wake Forest found this out the hard way when he made all 10 of his second half shots including the game-winner to give Duke a big comeback win. So did Clemson when Kennard scored 13 straight in the second half to lift the Blue Devils to a two-point win.
Kennard has scored 20 or more points 14 times in 27 games, which includes three scoring efforts of at least 30 points. His numbers would be even bigger if his role wasn’t reduced by the fact that Duke essentially has three primary scoring options.
When Duke is struggling, it looks like it might have too much talent. Allen is still more a downhill attacker than he is a true point guard and Tatum is a top-10 pick for a reason. Both are highly capable of being the go-to guy on offense. Kennard’s development gave Duke a third star scorer and at times it’s been a chore for Coach K to get everyone to share the ball.
Maybe Duke has figured it out at this point. The Blue Devils are unbeaten since Coach K returned from back surgery and that head-scratching loss to NC State seems like so long ago.
Are the Blue Devils back to being the superteam we thought they were in the preseason? No, but you have to remember that team wasn’t supposed to have this Luke Kennard, either.
To this point, Kansas’ Frank Mason III, Villanova’s Josh Hart, and Purdue’s Caleb Swanigan have been considered the three frontrunners for the National Player of Year Award. Kennard hasn’t generated much hype, but his numbers are as good or better than any of them.
Swanigan is a superior rebounder, Hart is a better perimeter defender, Mason has a penchant for the big moment. Kennard is right there though especially when you consider that he’s doing more with far fewer possessions than the other three.
Kennard’s numbers stack up favorably to previous National Player of the Year winners, too. Here’s every Wooden Award winner since the start of the decade, from Buddy Hield to Evan Turner. Only Anthony Davis posted a higher offensive rating and he had a significantly lower usage rate than what Kennard is working with.
The NBA is even starting to take notice: DraftExpress has Kennard projected as the No. 27 pick this June. While everyone else was focused on Allen or the freshmen, Kennard has emerged as one of the most productive players in the country.
Coach K has finally settled Duke into the short rotation it will ride in the NCAA tournament. Giles is barely a part of it, and fellow five-star freshman Marques Bolden is nowhere to be found. Instead, Allen has made the transition to point guard, Tatum is sliding up to the four and Kennard has forced his way into being an offensive focal point.
Things change, even for superteams. For Duke, that meant adding another superstar who was hiding in plain sight all along.