When the NCAA first announced last year that the 3-point line would be moving back by a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches, plenty of eager speculation ensued about the new line's effects on the college game.
But while the extra foot may require a short adjustment period, the Blue Devils are taking it all in stride.
"The first couple of times I worked out [with the new line], I noticed I was shooting with a toe on the line," said senior Greg Paulus, Duke's best outside shooter last year at 42.3 percent. "It didn't take long to get used to it. I don't think it makes a difference."
The NCAA approved the change in the 3-point line-the first since the line was instituted in 1986-with the goal of increasing spacing on the court, especially in the paint. The move is also aimed at minimizing the importance of the 3-pointer in a game that has become increasingly dependent on the trifecta.
If this story sounds familiar, that's because it is. Last season, the Blue Devils made 9.1 3-pointers per game, ranking them 18th nationally.
No. 1 on the list? Belmont, the team that fell just one Gerald Henderson coast-to-coast layup short of upsetting Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
While head coach Mike Krzyzewski conceded that the longer distance on the 3-point shot might have an impact nationally, he dismissed speculation that it would change Duke's game plan of pushing the tempo, spreading the floor and shooting the three.
And the players agree with Krzyzewski.
"Most guys who can shoot the three can really shoot it," junior guard Jon Scheyer said, maintaining that a little more distance won't deter the shooters.
Paulus is one of those players, someone who has taken to regularly shooting long threes in the last two seasons.
While Paulus is quick to wave away the effect of the extra distance, the impact on the other Blue Devils is less certain.
Junior Gerald Henderson and sophomore Kyle Singler both take the majority of their threes from relatively close to the line, and Singler attempted the second-most treys on the team last season, behind only Paulus.
"I'm as close to that [line] as possible," Henderson said. "You just gotta shoot it a little bit harder, I guess."
In the preseason, Duke's shooters have not had trouble doing just that. Through the Blue-White Scrimmage and the exhibition game against Virginia Union, the Blue Devils have shot 39.3 percent from behind the arc, trumping the 37.7 percent they hit last year.
And though the line is being pushed back only a foot, it increases the area inside the arc by 11 percent.
"If you look at it that way, we can use it for spacing," Paulus said. "With that whole extra foot on each side, we can keep the spacing that we'd like. It creates an extra foot or two in the lane. It gives our big guys an extra foot or two to post up."
That's a foot or two that center Brian Zoubek will gladly take.
"If it can give me a little more space to work inside, that would be great," Zoubek said.
Then, Zoubek echoed the thoughts of seemingly every other Duke player, saying, "But I haven't seen too much difference in terms of one foot on the 3-point line."
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