They might have a long year. But that will only make the hype for the new class coming in greater. I mean they really did not look good tonight.
They didn't look great, but Arizona is good and it is an early season game and almost all of their top guys are freshmen and sophomores (Roach the exception). In the 2010s you could really make that work almost right from the start, but in the portal era a team like this takes longer to come together.
Also, voters over-reacted a bit to their end of season. Duke was not great and fell out of the Top 25 by mid-January. Then they won 9 straight heading into the NCAAs...but the ACC was trash, so the only tournament teams they beat during that run were Miami and Virginia in the ACCT. And then an injured Tennessee pounded them.
This Duke team is going to be very good, and a team ranked from 5-15 all year... maybe higher because of the ACC's weakness. They'll be dangerous in the NCAAs. But being ranked as high as they were overvalued their actual talent and prior performance.