Duke will continue to compete in the Phil Knight Invitational (PK80) after their 99-81 victory over Portland State Thursday and a close one over Texas on Friday.

This victory creates a 7-0 record for the Blue Devils in non-conference play. This impressive record adds fuel to the discussion of whether or not Grayson Allen, the senior guard for the Devils, will bring his squad, of four starting freshmen (W. Carter Jr, M. Bagley III, T. Duval, G. Trent Jr), to the Final Four in March.

Coming off of a rough season last year, which was full of injuries and then came to an abrupt end with a loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Allen and the Devils need to have a dominating start this year and have it last until the final whistle is blown. Duke’s Head Coach,Mike Krzyzewski, aka “Coach K”, is fully behind the idea that Allen and these four first-year players will have the complete ability to bring an NCAA Championship to the program’s already massive trophy shelf.

To be fair and honest, the same thing was said about Duke last year. After seeing Allen’s suspension for tripping players during games halfway through the year, everyone’s faith, including my own, went to a dark place. Duke, out of fear, brought back Allen after their first loss without him to Virginia Tech. It seemed like a bad move, on the programs part, to bring back a “dirty” player. The move to bring Allen back did help the Devils go to the NCAA tournament. But, it was easy to tell that the team’s morale and chemistry levels were sinking after the decision to bring him back, hence why they lost in the second round of the March Madness Tournament to a lower ranked team in the South Carolina Gamecocks.

So, will the Devils, including Allen, keep it clean this year? Will King Grayson Allen guide his army, of four freshmen, through the harsh winter safely without injury or suspension?

After seeing Allen’s stats so far this year (17.7 PPG, .465 FG%), it is starting to look like he is ready to battle and survive the winter months of ACC conference play. Even his freshmen are already sharping their swords. Marvin Bagley III is one of the warriors that Allen can call upon this year to be his right-hand man. Bagley is already stuffing the stat sheet with his stellar first-year appearance with the Devils (19.0 PPG, 10 RPG). I will not be surprised if Bagley takes charge of the army if Allen goes down during battle this year.

The winter months can be rough for a lot of programs. For the Duke Blue Devils though, it’s already starting to look like they will blow there way through the ACC, and eventually plant their victory flag on the battlefield of the NCAA Tournament.

Let’s just hope that the battles are clean and free of possibilities of suspension for the King of Dukes starting five.