After reading that title, I am sure many of you took that dare right away. And while you may be confident in doing so, I will try to convince you why you shouldn’t be.

There is no doubt that this Duke Basketball team is struggling. That might actually be an understatement for what they have done recently. A 3-3 record in the month of January is nothing to be proud of, but it’s not like Duke teams haven’t done this in the past.

Over the past 3 seasons, the Blue Devils are a combined 13-10 in January. For a team with national championship aspirations on a yearly basis, this is not the way to reach those goals. Despite poor play in January, the 2015 team took home the national championship due to two factors, talent and timing.

Talent

While trying to find a difference between the 2015 team and the current one, it was a little difficult. Obviously the most recent squad lacks an inside presence like Jahlil Okafor, but Marques Bolden can embody everything that Okafor was to the 2015 team. Bolden, once in game shape, can be a low-post scorer and the big rebounder Duke needs. Amile Jefferson has the ability to pitch in and rebound as he has proven at times throughout his career.

Although this year’s team lacks a true ball-handler, Frank Jackson could be that guy with more game experience. With his quickness and tremendous driving ability, creating shots for himself and others is second nature. The guards on this year’s team might be even better than the 2015 team. Guards Grayson Allen and Matt Jones had important roles on the championship team. Despite those roles, they are even more crucial to this year’s edition. Luke Kennard adds efficiency and pure-scoring ability that previous guards have missed.

The two big x-factors on this team are freshmen Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles. Both guys missed time at the beginning of the season due to injury and still seem to be getting back into the flow of a full game. They were two of the top-rated recruits from last year’s class and have shown a few glimpses of stardom in their brief college careers.

Timing

This is the factor that cannot be stressed enough when talking about championship runs in college basketball. Running through the bracket all comes down to which team is playing the best basketball at the right time. It is something that Coack K and Tom Izzo have been excellent at for years.

Even Kevin Ollie and UConn have had their fair share of good timing. In 2014, the Huskies (26-8) entered the NCAA Tournament as a seven seed in the East Region. Three weeks later, they were the champions of college basketball. How? This little thing called timing.

For a team to be lucky enough to encounter that thing called timing, everyone has to be on the same page. From the head coach all the way down to the training staff and the ball boys, operations just have to click.

This Duke team has been the victim of bad timing all season long. Seemingly everyone has been injured at this point, as only two players have appeared in every game (Matt Jones and Luke Kennard). Even Coach Mike Krzyzewski has been out of commission due to back surgery.

Luckily for Duke, it doesn’t seem that Coach K will be out for much longer, and almost everyone is finally getting back to full strength (Center Chase Jeter just had a procedure to repair a herniated disk in his back and the details are currently unknown).

If Duke can get everyone fully healthy by the beginning of March, it will give this team enough time to rally around each other. Senior captains Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson have been great leaders for this program and surely have one last push left in the tank.

If the Blue Devils can steer this train back on track, there aren’t many teams that would want to see Duke on the other side of the court come March.