CHARLOTTE – Doubt entered Kyle Filipowski’s mind before he underwent double hip surgery in the spring.

“Before the surgery, just laying out the timeline and stuff, I was a little nervous,” Filipowski said Wednesday morning at ACC Tipoff. “I was like, ‘Man, what if things don’t go as planned? And I’ll be back right at the first game?’

“Initially, I didn’t really think I’d be playing at Countdown, or maybe even the first game.”

The timing of the surgery was strategic. It was a procedure Filipowski knew he needed throughout last season, and it was delayed to the end of his freshman season to give him the most time to rehab.

No matter how many times it’s explained by medical professionals, doubt and concern becomes inevitable.

It didn’t help that the first two months were the worst of the recovery process.

“I eventually got rid of that,” Filipowski said of the doubt. “As I was progressing … I was like, ‘Man, I can come back even sooner than we thought and get to work on things.’”

As we saw at Duke's Countdown to Craziness last week, Filipowski’s movement is back in full force. He showed as much on a vicious dunk in the final minutes, elevating over freshman Sean Stewart.

If his stat line — five points, three rebounds, three assists — looked pedestrian, that had more to do with him missing a couple of weeks with a concussion and returning last week.

“He’s still getting back in the flow of things,” coach Jon Scheyer said last week. “But I just love seeing him out there finding himself.”

He’s more mobile now than last year, when he was ACC freshman of the year and led Duke in scoring (15.1 points per game) and rebounding (8.9).

The 7-footer is the first ACC freshman of the year in a decade to return for a sophomore season. Filipowski was named to the preseason AP All-America team earlier this week and should be considered a top candidate to be the ACC's preseason player of the year.

“My lower body, adapting to my new hips — the most-challenging part has already passed,” Filipowski said after Countdown to Craziness. “Now it’s just managing it every day and keeping on stretching, because I’m making up 15 years of tightness on my body.

“But it’s great not having to worry about my hips every day.”

New hips and the expansion of what Filipowski can physically do on the court haven’t been lost on Duke’s two-time captain.

“His athleticism, the lateral movement … now he’s going to have to guard ball screens a lot more than he typically was last year,” senior Jeremy Roach said. “Just seeing his improvements on that, it’s been a big thing.”

That’s where you dive into how different Filipowski’s role will be this season. There isn’t an obvious candidate to step into the role of Dereck Lively II as a rim-protecting center. Filipowski will still play some 4-position when Ryan Young, Christian Reeves and Sean Stewart take the interior spot — but it’ll be Filipowski at the 5 more often than the limited time he spent there last season.

Now Filipowski is Two Hip Flip, a nickname bestowed by associate head coach Jai Lucas over the summer.

“I might need to get that trademarked,” Filipowski said.

The nickname had immediate approval from the sophomore 7-footer. So much so that Filipowski wore a shirt that said “Two Hip Flip” during his Countdown introduction.

“I was like, ‘You know, it’s got a good rhyme to it,’” he said. “It’s something that I can finally look back on and, you know, I went through the worst part of it after my surgery.

“So I’m able to just smile about it now.”

There's no doubt about how good that is for Duke.