Filed under: NBA Prospects
By the time he finished his junior year at Duke, Kyle Singler already had more hardware to his name than your local Home Depot.
National champion. Final Four Most Outstanding Player. ACC tournament MVP. Three-time All-ACC selection. So, when Singler finished celebrating Duke's fourth national championship, the relative graybeard of college basketball had an all-expenses-paid trip to the first round of the NBA draft.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a flush bank account and an NBA entourage. Singler opted to return to Duke.
"I had two great options in front of me," he said, when announcing in April that he wouldn't pursue the NBA draft , "but I did not want to miss out on all of the great things to come in a senior season."
So, instead of living an NBA lottery pick life and buying a home with more bathrooms than he has teammates, Singler spent the offseason collecting frequent flier miles, traveling from camp to camp and practicing against Team USA. All along Singler said he looked forward to a promising senior season and a team that seems more than just a year removed from the 2010 version, a squad that began the year facing questions of whether Duke was still truly relevant in college basketball.
"This team has a glow about it," Singler said at the ACC's preseason media day last week.
Duke is unquestionably back on top, as the latest national championship banner in Cameron Indoor Stadium and its newest crop of stars -- headed by point guard Kyrie Irving and transfer Seth Curry -- more than hint at.
So too is Duke's star junior.
Singler is FanHouse's preseason player of the year, by an overwhelming vote of our staff of college basketball writers and editors.
The Medford, Ore., native averaged 17.7 points per game last year and will likely see that number go up as Duke increases its tempo for the 2011 season. A rugged and unshakable forward, Singler, along with fellow captain Nolan Smith, provide the backbone for what is Mike Krzyzewski's most talented team since at least 2002, and perhaps since 1999.
All of which means Singler's senior year should be every bit the magical season he expects, and every reason to look into more storage space for all that hardware.
-- Ray Holloman
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