With the regular season in the books and tournament season right around the corner, The Blue Zone will review the seasons of all the Blue Devils, beginning with the freshman Monday and ending with the seniors Thursday.
Mason Plumlee
- Year: Senior
- Height: 6-10
- Position: Forward
- This year's stat line: 17.2 PPG, 10.3 RPG
- The Blue Zone's projected stat line: 15.4 PPG, 10.8 RPG
Season breakdown: He may not be anymore, but at the end of non-conference play, Plumlee was a frontrunner for the National Player of the Year award. He has struggled a bit with turnovers (2.8 per game) but overall, he has been a double-double machine, finishing with 17 on the year. He had some huge games—putting up 30 points on 9-of-11 shooting against N.C. State at Cameron—and had just three single-digit point games.
He struggled a bit at points in ACC play, especially with Ryan Kelly out with his foot injury, but that was only natural because it allowed opposing teams to double-team him on the block. Kelly's presence is critical for Plumlee's success because the White Raven can hang out on the perimeter, preventing double-teams and creating space in the paint. Plumlee finished the year on a strong note, going for 23 points and 13 rebounds against North Carolina and should aim to replicate that sort of agression he showed on both ends in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. Importantly in that game he was physical on the defensive end. At points this season he has looked like a timid defender, potentially out of fear of getting in foul trouble. The Blue Devils can't afford to have him being a turnstile in the paint—he needs to man up the way he did against the Tar Heels.
Role on the team: Kelly and Curry are both co-captains along with Plumlee and Quinn Cook is the floor general but you get the sense a lot of the time this is Mason's team. He wants to be out there for 40 minutes, though that isn't completely necessary now that Kelly is back. He calls for the ball on nearly every possession, joking recently that if he calls for it every time he figures that he'll get it at least some of the time. This team may rely a lot on its outside shooting but this team isn't going anywhere if Plumlee isn't attracting attention in the paint and playing tough defense.
Results relative to expectations: It's easy to get frustrated with Plumlee's play sometimes, but that's only because he played so tremendously at the beginning of the year. He still has a great chance of being a first or second-team All-American—that's not something we expected going into the year. He has exceeded our expectations, played in every game, and despite a few hiccups has been a reliable force down low. It's also important to note he upped his scoring this season while also upping his field goal percentage. He's making 58.9% of his field goals, up from 57.2% last year when he scored just 11.1 points per game.
In case you missed it, we’ve already reviewed: Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson, Alex Murphy, Marshall Plumlee,Tyler Thornton, Josh Hairston, Quinn Cook, Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly
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