MBB Recruiting: 2015 5* F Luke Kennard to Duke
COach K will figure that out when he sees all the airballs he shoots in practice!
March 24th, 2014 at 10:02 PM ^
He's going to the ACC, the bestest conference, just ask Coach K.
Jalen Coleman (combo G), Eric Davis (combo G), Kyle Ahrens, and Matthew McQuaid.
So much for the fact that he supposedly loved Kentucky so much. I guess he did have a surprise.
As long as its not OSU or MSU I am happy.
Either that or he's seen the last handful of Duke-Michigan games. Or both.
Meh, we'll be fine.
but we need to remember
- Duke did win it all in 2010
- They also sport the man generally regarded as one of absolute best coaches in the sport
- They have one of the best atmospheres and student sections in college sports
- It's an elite academic school
Duke is easy to hate, but it's not hard to see why kids want to go there
for quite some time, not since he started taking all those trips to Kentucky. Still, it's disappointing not to get a guy there were in on so early.
Was recruiting this kid when he was an 8th grader. Coach K swoops in at the tail end of his recruitment and voila. Duke is a great school and K is obviously one of the best coaches ever, but I dont want to hear about relationships because thats not a priority for some of these recruits.
Same with Booker.
Basketball recruiting sucks. You have to start so early and have so few targets when one doesnt follow through it really can mess you up. In football you have so many positions and so many targets, and the difference between plan A and plan B is usually not huge. In basketball you can have a 100+ rank difference between plan A and plan B player. This is 3+ yrs down the drain for Beilein and it happens all over the country of course.
Then to top it off, if you do an excellent job developing, the kid is gone in 1-2 years. Football at least you get the benefit of 3+ years with most kids.
I like to keep an eye on guys that Michigan recruited, but filled up before they could choose (i.e. Pangos, Monte Morris) or picked another school in a tight decision over Michigan (i.e. Prather, Lubick).
There have been very few players who have picked Michigan, that I could say might be "unhappy" with their decision. Smotrycz obviously, Brundidge just didn't pan out. On the other hand; Morris, Burke, THJ, Stauskas, GRIII, LeVert (plus McGary+Walton+Irvin as incompletes) must be thrilled with their decisions. Development, big stage, winning.
There's a class of players that have done very well at their school: Pangos (Zags), Larry Nance (Wyoming), Prather (Florida), Older two Plumlees (Duke), Devin Oliver (Dayton), Gary Harris. All having success, so good for them. Ray McCallum did well for Dad. It worked out for both parties.
There's also a class of players that I think might have done it differently. Obviously speculating here, but hear me out. Nate Lubick and youngest Plumlee had/are having 'fine careers,' Yogi is probably OK where he's at, but it seems like Indiana is volitile and you can't argue he's had near as much success as our Sophomore class. Trey Ziegler, Dom Pointer, Della Valle...I think they all might wish they had taken a mulligan.
I don't know what my point is. I'd bet that Booker, Kennard, and Bates-Diop each have reasonable-heavy success at their schools. But deep down we all know that Michigan does it better, and they would have reached greater heights under Beilein, Jordan, Bacari, and Meyer.
Along similar lines, I was thinking that Beilein would have been able to do so much more with a Sam Dekker or Aaron White than what both Bo Ryan and Fran McCaf are getting out of them.
His loss
Continuation of a mini-trend ..... look for recruits in the top 13 of this 2014 list (all 5-stars) who are in the Big Ten footprint:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/rankings/rank-2993
Duke, Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA
I get the whole idea of tradition (blah, blah, blah) but it's not like all the Big Ten schools are devoid of that quality, or even close.
As much hate as Duke gets for home court advantage and media bias, there is no coach who does it as clean as Coach K does. Does anyone disagree that he's a great coach and a quality human? Easily the best in the game when you consider coaching and off the court stuff.
Our guy isn't too far behind.
Do we actually know anything about him? How do we know he runs a clean program or is a quality human?
Talking to people after events isn't great evidence that he's a quality person. He very well may be, but after Paterno and Tressel, I'm hesitant to call any coach a great human running a clean program unless I know first hand.
So nobody is a quality person unless you know them first hand? You're quite the skeptic. I won't try to pursuade you. Watch out for everybody, man.
"he very well may be..."
-me, in the post right above yours.
Yeah, right before you assert your claim of universal skepticism. That's like "No disrespect but, (insert insult here)"
We can agree to disagree. Enjoy your evening, Lord Grantham. Go Blue.
Yeah, right before you assert your claim of universal skepticism. That's like "No disrespect but, (insert insult here)"
We can agree to disagree. Enjoy your evening, Lord Grantham. Go Blue.
There is plenty of smoke about issues of "cleanliness" in the Duke program. There is plenty to defend Duke on, but that's maybe not one of them.
there is no coach who does it as clean as Coach K doesI'm not sure why you assume this.
I'm a little bit shocked at this response. Usually with big time college athletics, there are rumors circulating, smoke, or ultimately straight up fire surrounding the bad eggs.
Coach K graduated from West Point, and has coached Duke for decades without a major violation or any of his players committing an offense that's worth reporting. Sure, maybe there's some cover up somewhere. But the biggest knock on Duke is that he recruits "Uncle Toms." He isn't the lacrosse coach.
I really didn't expect there to be so much backlash about saying Coack K is a good dude who runs a clean program. There hasn't been an ounce of evidence to suggest otherwise, and this is America. Innocent until proven guilty. Plus the man graduated from West Point, doesn't that earn him some benefit of the doubt?
What does graduating from West Point have to do with anything?
You don't think graduating from West Point says something about a man's character? Are you familiar with West Point?
I'm done engaging in this debate. I don't think I have a chance of persuading you.
Read this article and tell me everything sounds on the up and up. Is it normal for a college student to get $97,000 worth of jewelry (and make a $30,000 deposit - in cash - on it)?
Coach K's program has never gone on probation, true. But there have been a few of these fishy stories over the years. I don't think K is as sleazy as Calipari, but I don't think his program is particularly clean, either. College basketball is pretty shady in general. As this article notes, you can get away with almost anything as long as everyone agrees to keep quiet, since the NCAA has no subpoena power. (Our problem in the Ed Martin case was that the FBI got involved.)
March 24th, 2014 at 11:38 PM ^
+10 if I could. There have definitely been many stories over the years. e.g. look up Chris Duhon and his mom having a nice job with Duke.
You mean Mike Pressler, who had players who were falsely accused of a heinous crime? To which the NCAA responded by granting all of the players free transfers because Duke themselves decided to cancel the season? I'm not sure what you're implying by bringing the lacrosse case into this.
You haven't heard of John Beilein? Head of the Ethics committee?
They've been past the sweet 16 twice in the past ten years. With their talent, that's kinda pathetic.
Eh if I'm a Duke fan, I'm not sure I'm okay with one final four trip in ten years, even if it does result in a title.