2015-16

Season Overview

The 2015-16 Duke Blue Devils were the youngest and least experienced team Mike Krzyzewski had ever coached. They lost four starters from the national championship team: Jahlil Okafor (#3 pick), Justise Winslow (#10), Tyus Jones (#24), and senior captain Quinn Cook. Only 23.2% of the previous season’s scoring and 30.5% of its minutes returned. The cupboard wasn’t bare — it was nearly empty.

What remained was a core of three: sophomore Grayson Allen, the kid who had saved the championship game off the bench; senior Amile Jefferson, the emotional leader and best interior defender who had waited four years for his moment as the face of the team; and junior Matt Jones, the quiet wing defender from DeSoto, Texas. Behind them stood Marshall Plumlee, the third Plumlee brother, a 7-0 redshirt junior who had logged fewer than 700 career minutes across four years. And arriving was a freshman class headlined by Brandon Ingram — a 6-9, 190-pound stick figure from Kinston, North Carolina whose NBA ceiling was obvious but whose college readiness was a genuine question mark — along with point guard Derryck Thornton (a reclassified junior-to-be from LA), shooting guard Luke Kennard from Ohio, and center Chase Jeter from Las Vegas.

The season’s trajectory was defined by a single injury. On December 14, after just nine games, Amile Jefferson suffered a right foot injury that ended his season. In those nine games, Jefferson had averaged 7.6 points and 8.9 rebounds — he was the team’s best rebounder, best interior defender, most experienced player, and defensive voice. His 2,032 career minutes coming into the season were roughly equal to the combined total of every other player on the roster. His loss was devastating.

What followed was one of the most remarkable survival stories in program history.

Marshall Plumlee became a different person. The player K would later say had improved more in one year than any player in his 36 years at Duke stepped into the starting center role and averaged 8.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks in over 30 minutes per game. He led the team vocally and emotionally, dunking 60 times on the season (fourth-best single-season total in program history) and shooting .688 effective field goal percentage (third nationally). “No kid has improved more in one year in my 36 years here at Duke than Marshall,” K said. “He was as important a player as we could have, especially after Amile got hurt.” When Plumlee graduated, it marked the end of an era — Duke would be without a Plumlee on its roster for the first time since Miles’ arrival in 2008.

Grayson Allen’s transformation was even more dramatic. The sophomore went from 4.4 points per game as a freshman to 21.6 as a sophomore — the largest scoring jump in ACC history. He led the team in points, assists, and steals, becoming only the ninth Duke player to lead in all three categories. His 789 points were the seventh-highest single-season total in program history. He was named first-team All-ACC, ACC Co-Most Improved Player, and earned All-America recognition from multiple outlets. But the season was also marked by two tripping incidents that made Allen a national lightning rod — ESPN had already run an article calling him “the next hated Duke player” before the first trip.

Brandon Ingram’s freshman arc was slower but equally transformative. He started tentatively — early in the season, the scouting reports questioned whether he’d been overrated. But by February, the 6-9 wing was averaging 17.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, shooting with a smooth stroke that projected beautifully to the NBA. He was named ACC Freshman of the Year with 48 of 51 media votes. Allen and Ingram combined to average 38.9 points per game — the highest-scoring duo in the ACC. Luke Kennard added 12.0 points as a freshman and shot .889 from the free throw line.

The team made 328 three-pointers on the season — the program’s second-best total. Allen (90), Ingram (80), and Matt Jones (76) became the first trio in Duke history to each make 70+ threes in a season.

There were stretches of real crisis. In late January, with Jefferson gone and the team floundering, Duke lost four of five games — including home losses to Notre Dame and Syracuse. K later admitted he wasn’t sure the team would make the tournament. In mid-February, Matt Jones sprained his ankle badly and was hobbled for weeks. Then Plumlee broke his nose at the ACC Tournament. At various points, Duke played with as few as five healthy scholarship players.

The UNC rivalry split as expected. At Cameron Indoor, Duke won behind Allen’s fearless scoring. At Chapel Hill, UNC pulled away for a comfortable victory.

As a #4 seed in the West Region, Duke survived UNC Wilmington 93-85 and Yale 71-64 to reach the Sweet Sixteen. There, top-seeded Oregon — older, deeper, more physical — controlled the game from start to finish and won 82-68. K was gracious afterward: “They were the better team. That was pretty obvious tonight. They were an old, extremely well-coached team. Great athletes playing together and they knocked us back.”

The season ended at 25-11 — Duke’s second-worst record in the previous 19 seasons. But context matters. This was a team that lost its most important player nine games in, operated with a six-man rotation for months, was led by a sophomore who’d never been a primary option, and featured a starting lineup whose combined previous experience was barely one season’s worth. They won 25 games and reached the Sweet 16. K called it one of the seasons he was most proud of.

Ingram declared for the NBA Draft and was selected #2 overall by the Los Angeles Lakers. Plumlee graduated and was briefly signed by the New York Knicks before joining the U.S. Army. Thornton transferred to USC. The Superteam Era was dawning — but this first chapter belonged to a team that had almost nothing and gave almost everything.

The Sweet 16 matchup against Oregon was never really in doubt. The Ducks were older, deeper, and more physical. Duke was playing with seven healthy scholarship players — a six-man core rotation plus Chase Jeter — and had been operating on fumes since December. Oregon won 82-68. Marshall Plumlee, playing his final game, embodied the team's spirit to the end. K was gracious in defeat, acknowledging Oregon's superiority while expressing immense pride in what his depleted roster had accomplished. 'I think I appreciate it more than anybody,' K said, 'because I've said it since Amile went out that we might not make the tournament. We're very proud of winning our 25th game and being a Sweet 16 team. That's a heck of a thing for this group.' With Plumlee's graduation, Duke was without a Plumlee on its roster for the first time since Miles arrived in 2008 — an eight-year dynasty of brotherly toughness that defined an era.