Duke Basketball: Biggest Lessons From Blue Devils' 2015 Offseason So Far

It's been a pretty good offseason for Duke's basketball program, which not only has basked in the glow of a national championship but also saw three stars from that team go in the first round of the NBA draft.

There isn't likely to be any backslide from those losses, either, as the Blue Devils bring in the No. 2 recruiting class, and work is already underway to put together a top-tier class for 2016.

Duke is riding as high of a wave as the program ever has under Mike Krzyzewski, and there appears no end in sight to this crest. But perpetual success isn't just a certainty, but rather something that's been earned, one of the lessons we've learned about the Blue Devils this offseason.

Check out what else we've found out about Duke since it cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

Top college basketball prospects are judged by their skills, their recruiting rankings and the schools they are being pursued by. And apparently the telltale sign of blue-chip status is getting a scholarship offer from Duke.

The Blue Devils have extended offers to nine players for 2016, most recently on Monday to 4-star power forward Wenyen Gabriel. The fast-rising prospect also picked up offers last weekend from Kansas and Kentucky, but with the Duke offer in tow, that's the school that is heavily trending in 247Sports' Crystal Ball Predictor.

Duke has a commitment from forward Jayson Tatum, the No. 3 player in the 2016 class, but it is still looking to add more pieces. And 5-star combo guard Markelle Fultz wants to be considered for such a future, going so far as to tell Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal that a Duke offer is something he's motivated to play for.

This desire for Duke offers extends to the 2017 class, where 5-star power forward Mohamed Bamba just landed an offer not long after publicly requesting one.

It's fair to say most incoming freshmen tend to look good when judged only by their highlight reels, but in the case of Duke's six-man 2016 class this is really true.

Scour YouTube or Twitter and you'll find countless mixtapes of guards Derryck Thornton and Luke Kennard and forwards Brandon Ingram, Chase Jeter, Justin Robinson and Antonio Vrankovic driving, dishing, dunking and defending against some of the best prep competition in the country.

The video above of point guard Derryck Thornton is especially promising, since it shows a player Duke helped convince to reclassify from 2016 in order to replace Tyus Jones. And his moves indicate this won't be hard for him to do.

Duke lost four-fifths of its starting lineup from the title team, only bringing back guard Matt Jones and forward Amile Jefferson among key rotation players. A talented recruiting class will help solve the talent issue, but that group (as well as Jones and Jefferson) don't have the look of go-to leaders like the departed Blue Devils had.

The man who could be that guy is Grayson Allen, the forgotten piece of last season's freshman class who toiled in relative anonymity for nearly the entire year before erupting during the Final Four. And now he's suddenly the face of the program, at least when it comes to getting recognized on campus and elsewhere.

"As far as outside people go, they remember the last thing they saw and that was our national championship game where I played really well," Allen told Luke DeCock of the News & Observer. "For me, I look at the whole season. I don't just look at that game. I look at the first time we played Wisconsin and I didn't get off the bench."

If Allen is remaining grounded despite the sudden fame, that's a great sign for what Duke can expect from him in 2015-16.

Work never stops for Mike Krzyzewski and his staff, who have spent most of the offseason getting future teams in place. But there's still time to reflect on the recent achievements, and the school has done its part to commemorate with plenty of championship tributes.

The best of the lot is this Duke-produced 55-minute video, "Champions Forever," which chronicles the ups and downs of the 2014-15 season. It's a montage that will likely make Blue Devil fans weep with joy, while on the other side cause fans of Wisconsin, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Utah, San Diego State and Robert Morris as well as all of Duke's rivals to cringe and scowl.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.