As far as impact freshmen go, there may be no one with more on his shoulders than Duke-bound point guard Kyrie Irving. The former St. Pat’s (N.J.) star will be handed the ball from the day he arrives in Durham and try to lead the Blue Devils to back-to-back national titles.

By Kyrie Irving
Special to FOXSports.com

It's not going to be easy to step in and replace Jon Scheyer. He was tough and was a great leader, but I think I'm ready for the challenge. This is the perfect situation for me. I've got a couple of seniors in Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler who will make my life a lot easier. They can help me out, and I can learn a lot from them.

I'm a pretty laid-back guy until I get to know someone, and then I'm pretty outgoing. One thing a lot of people don't know about me is that I have dual citizenship. I was born in Australia while my dad was playing professionally. I was only there for about the first two years of my life and haven't been back since.

Going into the season, I thought Duke had a chance to win it all, but the media was saying they didn’t have this or that — and they just didn't have that "it" factor. But everything just clicked. Brian Zoubek was terrific, and it was a team effort.

My game is getting up and down the floor and running pick-and-rolls. I get my teammates involved and try to be a complete point guard. I've heard Coach K say that the offense is going to change to fit my style of play — they will run a lot more — and that'll certainly make my transition to college basketball that much easier.

I try to mimic my game after Chris Paul and Chauncey Billups. Chris Paul is my favorite player because of his game and his whole persona. He's so humble, and there just aren't a lot of guys like him.

I've heard about some of the preseason polls already, and I know some people will pick us No. 1 and some people won't. I really don't care about all of that, though. It's great to be No. 1, but we're all trying to be No. 1 at the end of the season.

I watched the championship game in my basement — alone. When Gordon Hayward put up that shot, my heart sank for a second. But I was so happy when we won the national championship that I ran upstairs, was screaming and yelling and woke up my father to let him know.

The first thing that crossed my mind when they won it was having a chance to repeat this next year.

I chose Duke mostly because of my relationship with Coach K. Kentucky was definitely an option because my family is very close to assistant coach Rod Strickland, and I was also looking at Texas A&M because my dad played with one of their assistants, Scott Spinelli. But it came down to Coach K. I just trusted him and wanted to play for him.

I'm almost done with school at St. Patrick's (N.J.), and then I leave for Duke on July 1.

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