Duke was anointed with the No. 1 ranking in virtually every preseason poll and with good reason. The Blue Devils were returning the preseason national player of the year in Grayson Allen. They also had returning veterans like Luke Kennard and Amile Jefferson. Add to that four top-15 freshmen and there was no question Duke was entering the season as the team with the most talent, and of course, the best coach in Mike Krzyzewski.

Unfortunately for Duke, we haven't seen all those guys healthy and ready to play at the same time yet. That could make for an interesting challenge for the selection committee when March rolls around.

It started early and the hits have kept on coming...

Freshman Jayson Tatum missed the first eight games with a foot injury. He made his debut against Maine on Dec. 3 and has been everything that was expected more or less right off the bat. He is the team's second-leading scorer and rebounder at 16.8 points and 6.6 rebounds.

Another freshman big man, Marques Bolden, a McDonald's All-American, also made his debut against Maine, but he has yet to become a significant contributor. He has only played double-digit minutes in three games and scored in four games.

The third highly regarded freshman forward to miss time to start the season was 6-foot-11 Harry Giles. Giles had his knee scoped in October and missed the first 11 games. He made his first appearance against Tennessee State on Dec. 19, but only played a handful of minutes in his first two games. He had pretty good performances against Boston College and Georgia Tech, but is still finding his way.

Allen and freshman guard Frank Jackson missed the Maine game with injuries, and Allen was suspended for the loss at Virginia Tech. (RELATED: Cut Grayson Allen some slack)

Chase Jeter, who is playing about 15 minutes per game, missed the Boston College and Georgia Tech games with an undisclosed injury.

The latest malady belongs to Jefferson, Duke's best defensive big, who injured his foot in the Boston College game and has not played since, missing the losses at Florida State and Louisville. He is out indefinitely.

So, the only games where the entire rotation was healthy and available were Tennessee State and Elon.

And I haven't even mentioned Krzyzewski's back surgery which will have him out a few more weeks. Unlike a suspension, Coach K is in contact with the team and coaching staff. He's just not running practice or coaching the games. The consideration for coaches missing time is even less than it is for players, and that's not even much.

The selection committee's attitude toward injuries, suspensions and other roster issues is that they are something to be considered. However, losses suffered while a team is shorthanded are not ignored and they are never assumed to be wins. There is no circumstance under which the committee will look at a game a team lost and assume a team would have won if the circumstances were different.

Usually, when the committee is dealing with a roster issues, it is about one player for a limited period of time. That makes giving some consideration easier to think about. South Carolina may be an example of that this season. The Gamecocks' best player, Sindarius Thornwell, missed most of December after being suspended. All three of their losses occurred while he was out. In a case like this, if the committee thinks South Carolina is a tournament team, they might be seeded a line higher than their profile might indicate. Note that consideration due to roster issues is never very much -- a line or two in seeding, at most. For the most part, a team's profile is its profile. Oftentimes you won't even notice if any consideration has been given.

It's worth pointing out that there have been cases when the committee has more heavily weighed the current state of a team -- in other words, how a team projects in the tournament -- than its overall résumé. The most memorable of those was when Cincinnati lost national player of the year Kenyon Martin to a broken leg in the 2000 Conference USA tournament. The Bearcats were the No. 1 team in the country at the time, but lost that game. They ended up a No. 2 seed because of the loss of Martin. So the committee looked at what the Bearcats were in that moment, and not entirely what they had been throughout the season.

The same thing happened to Purdue in 2010 when the Boilermakers were considered a favorite to make the Final Four until Robbie Hummel was lost to a knee injury in late February. Purdue won the Big Ten regular-season title anyway, but clearly wasn't the same team without Hummel. The Boilermakers had the profile of a team that was a borderline No. 2 or 3 seed, but the committee seeded the Boilers fourth.

Will the committee look at Duke the same way this March?

If the Blue Devils are a different team come tourney time, will that impact seeding?

In other words, if the Blue Devils are healthy and playing like a No. 1 seed come Selection Sunday, will the committee look back at this rough stretch and say they were without their coach and many of their top players and this is now a different team, or will they say a loss is a loss and if Duke really is that good they'll have to navigate the bracket from the seed their overall profile suggests they deserve?

History would suggest the latter.

Duke's case is complicated because, so far, nobody is lost for the season. That might get them some leeway. When Jefferson returns, assuming nothing else happens, the committee will finally get to see what Duke can do with its full capabilities in the highly competitive ACC. Then, its situation becomes more like South Carolina's.

Assuming the Blue Devils' level of play improves, the committee would be able to give a little less weight to what happened before. However, what happened before won't be ignored. At this point, a No. 1 seed is very, very unlikely, even if Duke is healthy and dominating come tourney time. A No. 2 seed might even be pushing it, though it's not impossible if, say, they get healthy and win the ACC tournament title.

Whatever the case, when it gets down to it, you might see Duke seeded slightly higher than its profile might indicate if it does get healthy and start performing like we all expected. If its résumé says No. 4 seed, maybe it gets the benefit of the doubt and earns a 3. But don't expect anything dramatic.