The bell of the Blue Zone stock exchange has just rung again, meaning it's time for another taking a look at who is rising and falling with their performances for Blue Devil sports teams. Each week The Blue Zone will look at whose stock is on the rise and whose stock has taken a hit from the week in the world of Duke athletics.
Bull Market—Trending Up
Tyus Jones in big games: Duke's freshman point guard picks his spots on the offensive end when he decides to attack and be a scorer, but once again, under the bright lights, Jones showed he was going to be in attack mode. The Apple Valley, Minn., native poured in 21 points in the No. 2 Blue Devils' 66-56 win against Connecticut Thursday and has established himself as a big-game point guard 10 games into his career. Jones quickly bounced back after making no field goals and committing four turnovers last Tuesday against Elon.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound guard has scored 109 points, 76 of which have come in four games—contests against then-No. 19 Michigan State, Army, then-No. 2 Wisconsin and the reigning national champions. Jones still needs to work on being more consistent, but has lived up to the billing as a winner with his early-season performances.
Kyrie Irving: Irving's strong 2014 was capped Sunday when he was named USA Basketball's Male Athlete of the Year. The Cavaliers point guard was also named the MVP of the NBA All-Star Game in February and MVP after leading Team USA to the gold medal in the FIBA World Cup in September. The fourth-year floor general is averaging 19.7 points and 5.4 assists per game so far this season for Cleveland and will have a chance to bolster his resume in the postseason.
Bear Market—Trending Down
Duke bench: Entering the season, depth was supposed to be a strength of this year's Blue Devil squad, but there are now serious questions about Duke's depth as Christmas approaches. Forward Semi Ojeleye announced his decision to transfer Dec. 14 and the Blue Devils have seen declining production from their second unit, culminating with Thursday's game against the Huskies in which Duke got no points from its bench.
The quartet of Rasheed Sulaimon, Matt Jones, Grayson Allen and Marshall Plumlee is averaging 20.6 points per game, but Jones hasn't made a 3-pointer since Nov. 26 against Furman and is once again struggling with rotation on his jumper and Allen and Plumlee look to be battling confidence issues. Sulaimon was having a great stretch since his effort Dec. 3 against Wisconsin, but committed Duke's first technical foul of the season last Tuesday against Elon, then went 0-of-4 with five turnovers against Connecticut.
The four Blue Devils are solid on the defensive end, but need to show more consistency on the offensive end if Duke wants to maintain its stretch of strong play as conference play approaches.
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