Gregory Paulus relegated to the bench

And…

Brian Zoubek still must have his fist stuck in his ear or something, or else he would have beaten out raw freshman Miles Plumlee for that starting center spot by now.

Seth Davis from SI Hoop Thoughts

For someone who is as young and tall as he is, Plumlee has plenty of meat on his bones, and he is very agile to boot. (Krzyzewski told me he jumped 6 feet, 9 inches for his high school track team.) He seemed a little lost at times basketball-wise, but that’s nothing unusual considering it was only his fourth practice. Plumlee is Duke’s best shot-blocker, and he fits the Blue Devils’ wide-open style much better than 7-1 sophomore center Brian Zoubek. If the season started today, Plumlee would be Duke’s starting center.

About this leapfrogging of sophomore Nolan Smith over senior Greg Paulus:

I don’t necessarily like this move. It will probably mean better second unit proficiency considering Paulus will likely play a bit more with talented freshman Elliott Williams. This takes some pressure off of Williams. And it means Paulus will be the first or second scoring option for certain stretches of the first half.

Coach K, you might have just made a “genius” move.

Zach from Northwestern Wins

Surely a bold move by Coach K and we’ll see how long it lasts. I wouldn’t doubt the motives of Coach K, though; for all of Paulus’ talent, he knows his players more than anyone. And having Paulus’ shots off the bench could be genius. Expect a small crunch time team of Smith-Paulus-Scheyer-Henderson-Singler.

Ok. No more cheap shots about Duke for at least another week…

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.