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 Friday.
Quinn Cook
- Year: Sophomore
- Height: 6-1
- Position: Point Guard
- This year's stat line: 12.5 PPG, 5.3 APG, 1.5 SPG
- The Blue Zone's projected stat line: 7.5 PPG, 5.0 APG, 1.5 SPG
Season Breakdown: If you didn't catch Quinn-sanity at some point this season you weren't playing attention to Duke's charismatic floor general. After coming off the bench against Georgia State to open the season when everyone had pegged him for the starting point guard role, Cook elevated his game to new heights. He shined brightest during the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament early this season, when he keyed victories over Minnesota, Virginia Commonwealth, and then-No. 2 Louisville en route to winning the tournament MVP award.
Fans went into this season expecting Cook to be a good facilitator for the Blue Devils' three seniors, finding ways to get them the ball and then let them do their job to score. While Cook's passing was everything that was expected of him, his shooting is what turned him into the irreplaceable piece he is today. After shooting a paltry 25% from beyond the arc as a freshman, Cook has hit 42.5% of his attempts from long-range this year. Another impressive feature of Cook's game this season is his uncanny rebounding ability for a guy his size. Even though he is the shortest player on the team, Cook is third in rebounding for Duke with 3.9 per contest, trailing just Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly.
Role on this team: Cook is the engine that makes the Blue Devils run. He has a sense of how to find his teammates better than any other Blue Devil since perhaps Jay Williams more than a decade ago. Second on the team in minutes played and the most likely to go wire-to-wire in any given game from here on out, Cook is an invaluable asset heading into the tournament. His passing makes everyone on the floor around him better and his shooting ability forces the defense to be honest with him and not double-team one of the seniors.
Results relative to expectations: We did a pretty good job on the assists and steals, but nobody saw this offensive explosion coming. Cook was expected to be a leader and a good passer, but he wasn't expected to make 42.5% of his 3-pointers. The best part about Cook's scoring is the fact that even though he is a capable scorer, he still makes a point of featuring the team's top players before calling his own number. Duke fans hoped Cook would be good enough to command a very talented group of seniors, but he most definitely exceeded all reasonable expectations.
In case you missed it, we’ve already reviewed: Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson, Alex Murphy, Marshall Plumlee, Josh Hairston
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