I know that wasn’t your point, I just wanted to throw that out there. That being said, productive big men are rare on the college level on a whole. Mason and Ryan are just freshman (and effectively Miles is too given how little he played last year) – give them time. Their talent is evident, their understanding of fast paced ACC basketball is not quite there yet. They foul, they get frustrated and controlling their emotions will come eventually.

My stance on this tends to be an unpopular one, but give me Brian Zoubek on our team any day. A good kid, works his butt off and does well in school. Yes maybe he hasnt met some of the fans’ lofty expectations when they see a 7 footer, but considering his slew of foot problems (which really can’t be under emphasized – those take a huge toll on big guys), Zoubek has turned into a dependable role player his senior year. He represents our university well and often unfairly turns into the scapegoat for fans when our team doesnt perform in March.

Perhaps some of the fault should lie with coaching? Considering that our big men get the ball so rarely, maybe they just overthink their moves out of fear that one turnover or missed layup will mean they dont see the ball the rest of the game (while Scheyer or Singler can repeatedly turn it over and take ill-advised threes to their heart’s content, yet play 40 minutes day in and day out).

Duke’s offense hasn’t been friendly towards big men the past few years. Even when K has talent in the post and on the wing, he prefers to go with the perimeter players. We see a lot of production from our guards and wings cause they are given a lot of freedom and opportunities to score. Our big men basically get junk layups and rebounds and until that changes, maybe our expectations of them should be tempered. Playing loose and relaxed aint exactly easy when you know you get two to three touches a game to ‘prove your worth’.