With the regular season in the books and tournament season right around the corner, The Blue Zone will review the seasons of all of the Blue Devils, beginning with the freshmen Tuesday and ending with the seniors Friday.
Rasheed Sulaimon
- Year: Freshman
- Height: 6-foot-4
- Position: Shooting guard
- This year's stat line: 11.4 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 0.8 SPG, 29 games started
- The Blue Zone's projected stat line: 9.0 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 SPG, 10-15 games started
Season breakdown: 'Sheed has certainly had his ups and downs this season. When he's been on top of his game, he's been extremely hard to contain, whether penetrating off the dribble or raining threes from the perimeter. It was Sulaimon who led Duke to a comeback victory against Ohio State, pouring in 17 second-half points. His other shining games this season were against Maryland on Jan. 26, when he hit his first six 3-pointers en route to 25 points, and Boston College on Feb. 24, when he netted 27 on 10-of-15 shooting. He quickly asserted himself in the starting lineup, and has shown great passing ability, with a knack for finding fellow freshman Amile Jefferson open down low for point-blank opportunities.
But things haven't always been rosy for 'Sheed over the entirety of his first college season. A few dreadful mini shooting slumps have plagued him (he went 0-for-1o from the floor against N.C. State), and seem to have affected his confidence. Currently, he's in another down stretch, with only 17 points in his last four contests. He didn't start against North Carolina and has played a total of 32 minutes in Duke's last two games, well below his season average of 29.1 Duke will need to get Sulaimon confident and back on track again if it hopes to make a deep run in March.
Role for the rest of the season: Much expanded from what was expected. Sulaimon surprised many by earning a starting job from the get-go, and held a stranglehold on that shooting guard spot until Saturday night's game against North Carolina, when he was replaced by Tyler Thornton—'Sheed's second time on the bench in the ACC season. Originally thought to be the sixth man, Sulaimon has proven every part of his game, which has kept him a starter despite some poor nights. He can shoot the lights out when he's confident, though he has made just 1-of-11 3-pointers in his last four games. And his strong shooting can help open up the rest of his offense, allowing him to either finish at the rim or dish off to an open teammate.
His defense at times has been excellent, when he's playing with confidence (usually coinciding with when his shots are falling) but has also been largely inconsistent. Sulaimon will need to mature to further enhance the stinginess of the Blue Devil defense—at 6-foot-4, he is Duke's biggest perimeter player, especially given that 6-foot-8 Alex Murphy has almost exclusively played the four.
Results relative to expectations: Sulaimon performed right around expectations, though he scored at a higher clip than what we projected. His scoring has been impressive, as has his ability to find the open man with crisp passes. He shot 38.5 percent from beyond the arc, an impressive mark for a freshman. But while we projected his stat line right around what it turned out to be, we did so assuming Sulaimon would fill a sixth-man role. In reality, 'Sheed averaged 30 minutes per game, well beyond the run-time of a typical sixth-man, so we might have expected Sulaimon to produce at an even greater rate. With a bevy of star power and outside shooting, Duke has been able to survive Sulaimon's prolonged cold spells this season, but will need greater production from him to capture a title, and will rely on him in an even greater role next season when 62 percent of the team's scoring—Curry, Kelly and Plumlee—depart for the NBA.
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