Duke fans were understandably dazzled by the precocious and highly athletic play of freshman Deron Rippey, as he led Duke to a dominant win over Tennessee. You have to be mindful of the hype this early, but it’s inevitable that he’s going to get a lot of comparisons. We talked about his game having elements of Johnny Dawkins, Jason Williams, and Allen Iverson.
Rippey’s not really built like Dawkins or Williams. Dawkins was, and is, incredibly lean. Williams was explosive and muscular.
He’s somewhat closer to Iverson. Like Iverson, Rippey is deceptively strong. He debuted a much shorter hairstyle against Tennessee, which made his lean, muscular build much more apparent, and you saw an ability to maneuver in very tight spaces like Iverson. AI’s been retired since 2013, so a lot of people have forgotten how great he was in his prime. Here’s a reminder.
We don’t know if Rippey will ever get close to this, much less consistently, but on Tuesday night, we got a pretty good idea of his potential, and it’s considerable.
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