Last season, the Duke basketball team was good, as they always are, but they didn't quite meet expectations. The Blue Devils finished the regular season last year with a 23-8 (14-6 ACC) record and they won the ACC Tournament. Duke came into the NCAA Tournament hot, and they were a #4 seed. A lot of people picked them to go far, but they lost in the round of 32 against Tennessee. Now, Duke is hungry to get back to the tournament and make a deep run, and they have a lot of valuable tools on this squad.

Tyrese Proctor and Kyle Filipowski were two of the best players on Duke basketball last season, and they could've gone to the NBA when the season concluded. However, both decided to return, and they think that they have a lot to improve in their game.

“I just don’t think I was finished yet,” Tyrese Proctor said at media day, according to an article from The Duke Chronicle. “Obviously reclassifying, that was a big part of it as well, just having that year for improvement, I guess it was. I had chances to go and I got all my feedback and stuff like that, and it just felt like it was the right decision for me to come back.”

Kyle Filipowski battled a hip injury last season with Duke, and a lot of people believed that he came back because of that. However, he says that it didn't affect his decision.

“I loved it here this past year,” Filipowski said. “And I know that there’s just so much more I can improve on. And I wasn’t even thinking about my hips, either. I wanted to make the decision of staying or going without any factors involved, and that’s hips included.”

Duke is ranked #2 in the country to begin the season, and they will get things going on Monday at home against Dartmouth.