Duke’s dream backcourt? Irving and Rivers

Here’s a thought to delight Duke fans: Kyrie Irving and Austin Rivers in the same backcourt.

Irving, an incoming freshman, may be perhaps the most talented Devils guard since Jason Williams. He’s expected to step into Jon Scheyer’s starting spot and play alongside Nolan Smith, Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry next season.

And if he sticks around for his sophomore season, he may be playing with Rivers, provided Luke Winn’s read on the situation is correct. From his article:

Rivers appears to like Duke -- a lot. He was once committed to Florida, but is now viewed as heavily leaning toward the Blue Devils. Strong evidence of that: When he emerged from the U.S. locker room after Wednesday’s win over Brazil, in which he scored 19 points, he was wearing his gold medal over a Duke 2009-10 national champions T-shirt. And he was wearing a pair of official Duke shorts. He said not to read too much into it, but how can you not?

I asked Irving if he had any influence over Rivers’ wardrobe, given how well they played off of each other this week, and the prospect of them comprising the most lethal college backcourt in 2011-12. “Honestly?” Irving said. “Those are [Rivers’] shorts, those are his choice to wear them. That’s all him.”

Rivers, one of the elite players in the class of 2011, has run with Irving as part of the U.S. U18 team playing at the FIBA Americas and thrived. His 35 points against Canada was mostly the result of a nasty three-point shot off the dribble - his dad, Doc, says he didn’t teach him how to shoot - and playing with Irving, who’s excelled as well.

Now think about those two running together at Duke, along with Dawkins and Curry. That would be the best-shooting backcourts we’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t root for Duke, but that’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing.

Mike Miller’s also on Twitter, usually talkin’ hoops. Click here for more.