This is kind of what I was getting at but worded way better than the way I explained. Good point JK.
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Could Alex have helped to make Duke better? I think he could have. However maybe he wasn't ready. Was it his decision? It could have been mostly his, but I do not blame Coach K if he also thought it was a good idea. It is 100% impossible and nothing but pure conjecture to try to after the fact debate if Alex had played how much he could have contributed. You can't miss what you've never had. That is kind of how I feel about it. With a year under his belt of not only getting used to life at school he also got a year of practice along with strength training with the team. I think he will be much better this next season starting out than he might have been last. So it could have helped last year. It did not hurt us either. It will be a benefit next season and moving forward.
GO DUKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So no one has any inside scoop on how Murphy progressed this year?
Cutting edge thinking here. I remember the pre-early-leavers K not being one to use all available scholarships on high DI recruits, I suspected he just didn't want the trouble (e.g., transfers, dissension) of sitting guys deep on the bench who would start elsewhere. Once the uncertainty of early leavers appears, he is 'forced' to use the full quota to be competitive for the top.
This trick would fit perfectly for him (obviously, given willing player(s)). Since the actual red-shirt decision/application occurs well into the academic year it would allow full bore recruiting a kid who might red-shirt IF so-and-so goes pro but not otherwise too. It would also serve to disinhibit recruiting "over" someone with a superstar one-and-done. The less talented, say junior, could be offered a red-shirt year off (if purely voluntary red-shirt years are granted after freshman year).
I think for a kid who came to college a year early it is easily a good decision no matter what. Probably would have benefited Andre, but we didn't have that luxury. Could he have made a difference? Played a few minutes a game? What, we might have one or two more games? I say he makes a much bigger difference the next 4 years simply because there was little improvement left to make in this season. I mean it wasn't as if we were going to cut down the nets or anything:)
Neither Withey nor Robinson redshirted. Withey transferred from Arizona and thus had to sit out a year. Robinson never sat out a year. He just played very limited minutes his first two years.
Releford did redshirt though, as did Teahen, Wesley, and Young from this year's team. Mario Little is a player from previous seasons who redshirted.
I'm sure it also makes practice more interesting (we talkin' about practice?!). I seem to recall K saying in 2001 that Dahntay Jones was a huge boon for the team because he could terrorize the starters in practice since he didn't have to save anything for the actual games.
Yeah, it's fairly unusual, and Kansas is a clear outlier in this regard. It's uncommon to see guys who redshirt wind up as starters. The interesting thing is how often they redshirt guys after their freshman year. None of the guys above redshirted as freshmen. All were likely to see minimal roles in the years that they redshirted.
so now that we missed out on Bazz and have an apparent hole at the 3 for next years team... how does murphy stack up to bazz and anderson, poythress and other top freshman SFs, after redshirting and practicing with a college team for a season. Working with a full time str/cond coach certainly helps, looks like he's gained 35 pounds (from 180 to 215?!) since arriving... basically the 3 guys above are going to be starting for their teams (though anderson probably at the 1 or 2) -- can we expect the same for murphy?
Gonzaga has been redshirting their big guys for over a decade. Actually I don't know if they still do it, but that used to be their standard practice for the bigs. Their players were not headed to the NBA and they have an extra year to get bigger and stronger. Let your 23 year old bang with an 18 year old freshman and it will even the playing field. Bigs tend to be slower to make the transition to the college games than guards so I always thought it made sense.
Most if not all of our players have professional aspirations (ie. europe) so maybe it makes less sense for our players.
The weight looks good on him:
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