The bell of the Blue Zone stock exchange has rung again, meaning it's time to take 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
Thomas Sirk: After a season lost to yet another torn Achilles, redshirt senior quarterback Thomas Sirk hasn’t suited up for the Blue Devils for the last time. Sirk missed all of Duke’s games this season but was granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA Monday, making him eligible for a sixth season. The 6-foot-4 signal-caller was the team’s starter in 2015, compiling 2,625 yards through the air, 803 on the ground and a 60.8 adjusted QBR.
Assuming Sirk has a clean bill of health heading into the 2017 campaign, redshirt freshman Daniel Jones will now likely have to fight to keep his job this offseason. Jones has had an up-and-down first season at the helm of Duke’s offense but has shown flashes of his potential, throwing 13 touchdown passes and posting a solid 65.4 adjusted QBR.
Lexie Brown: After a slow start to the season, Duke’s redshirt junior point guard has started to show why she was an All-American with Maryland. Brown topped 20 points twice this week, dropping 27 on Longwood Tuesday and 21 on Vanderbilt Sunday. In those performances, Brown shot 16-of-27 from the field and combined to get 10 steals. Paired with fellow “Splash Sister” Rebecca Greenwell, Brown has injected life into the Blue Devil backcourt, giving Duke a much more up-tempo look than in years past.
Bear Market—Trending Down
Duke football’s bowl chances: After a dismal 56-14 loss to Pittsburgh in which it gave up 35 unanswered points, Duke's hopes of playing in the postseason for the fifth straight year have taken a big hit. If the Blue Devils beat Miami in their regular-season finale Saturday afternoon, they would finish at 5-7, which could get them into the postseason due to their high Academic Progress Rate.
Taking down the Hurricanes will be no small task, as Miami has yielded just 18.7 points per game, good for second in the ACC. With 179 carries for 1,005 rushing and 14 touchdowns, running back Mark Walton will lead a potent Hurricane rushing attack that has averaged 4.6 yards per carry on the season.
Duke women’s basketball: The turnover bug that has plagued Duke women’s basketball in recent seasons returned Sunday against Vanderbilt, giving the Commodores 19 extra possessions. Key turnovers late from Greenwell and sophomore guard Kyra Lambert sunk the Blue Devils down the stretch, and Brown and senior forward Oderah Chidom each coughed the ball up four times en route to a 77-73 loss. Vanderbilt went just 5-11 in SEC play last season and was drubbed 94-61 against Indiana last weekend.
Quinn Cook’s Instagram Game: You win some, and you lose some. When Duke fell to Kansas Tuesday in men's basketball, former Blue Devil guard Quinn Cook lost a bet with former Kansas guard Ben McLemore and had to post a picture of McLemore at Kansas and congratulate the Jayhawks.
Cook was a second-team All-American in his senior season in Durham, captaining the Blue Devils to the 2015 national championship, and now plays professionally with the NBA Development League's Canton Charge after brief summer league and preseason stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.