Lol... I'll admit, it was a rough paraphrase. Apologies for the confusion, although...
...probably isn't a bad thing to assume anyway.Originally Posted by yancem
Thanks, I did see that... I think I posted that comment shortly before that happened. Harrison seems like a much smarter kid than Mr. Henry, but in any case it seems clear that recruiting threads on message boards are becoming bigger and bigger potential liabilities for coaches. Luckily, folks here tend to be pretty measured and civil with their comments, with the occaisonal bizarre exception...Originally Posted by Devil in the Blue Dress
This is great news.
I'm pretty skeptical about the loyalties of some of the low-post-count, negative posters. I suppose what it may be in a number of cases is:
1) you are a fan of School X, a rival of Duke for the services of recruit Y.
2) You know that recruit Y and maybe his trusted friends/family, read message boards, incl. DBR
3) You join DBR, pose as a Duke fan but generally write critical/negative posts about the program - keeping it nearly constructive enough to fly under the radar
4) Hope recruit Y gets cold feet about Duke
5) ???
6) Profit!
I hope that recruits realize this sort of gamesmanship is probably going on many colleges' message boards - and I hope they don't put too much stock in anonymous chatter. If they really want to know what a program is like, go ask players who have been through the program. Coach K has a long track record and a lot of former players. Go talk to some of them!
On other message boards I frequent, they tend to expose the aliases of former banned posters so you know exactly what their agendas are from their previous posting history (and thus are easier to disregard). In any event, I hope Harrison feels that most Duke fans will appreciate whatever he decides to contribute to the univeristy, should he decide to attend Duke.
If a high school athlete is smart enough to be recruited by Duke University, then I suspect they're smart enough to figure out that message boards are inherently subject to sabotage.
I just seen an interview with him and he sounds alot like Shane Battier
Singler is IRON
I STILL GOT IT! -- Ryan Kelly, March 2, 2013
I agree. While I disagree with Coach K's statement that there are no negatives at all to his coaching of the Olympic team, I do agree that it's a net positive for the Duke program. And I think the biggest area in which it is a positive is in recruiting.
As many of us remember Duke's glory years from the late-80s through 2001, the reality is that most of the kids Coach K is recruiting now were very young the last time Duke won a title. The 16-year olds he's recruiting probably barely remember Duke winning in 2001 (when they were 8). And almost none of the recruits were even born back when we won back to back titles. And thus the image that most recruits have seen during their formative years has been a predominantly less athletic team that hasn't experienced much NCAA tournament success.
The Olympic experience re-establishes Duke's connection to something special in the eyes of recruits. They get to see Coach K winning championships and they see Coach K working well with the NBA elite. Not that it was an absolute necessity, but it certainly helps.
I wish a few college players would be named to the Olympic team. Wasn't Laetner a dream team member? That would make it even more enticing to play for the best coach on the planet year round.
Flawed thinking. Most of them don't remember MJ playing bball either but he's still pretty popular - as is Duke.
Duke has NEVER been known for it's "coolness" so any of you that think that is the case you're truly fooling yourselves. I'm from Durham - trust me I know. Great atmosphere - yes. Cool? Well that just depends...
When we went to party in high school at college campuses - it was UNC's Gray Hall, NCCU, NC A&T, and sometimes even NC State. I even attended many parties at NCSSM with Grant Hill and Rodney Rogers in attendence. Rarely was it Duke. Unless ya know, there was a big bonfire going on or something.
It's not flawed thinking. You're talking about an entirely different thing here.
Yes, young people surely still think of Jordan as a great player. Even those who never saw him play. But kids don't cheer for the Bulls simply because Jordan won championships with the Bulls in a time before they can remember, do they? No, they cheer for the teams/individuals that resonate positively with them in their formative years.
For comparison - I know that Bill Russell was a great basketball player. But I don't cheer for the Celtics just because he won a bunch of titles before I was born. Instead, I'm a Bulls fan, because I watched Jordan in my formative years.
I'm not saying it's a huge problem that can't be overcome. I'm just saying that the image we have of Duke basketball (which can have a different image altogether from Duke University as a whole) is almost certainly not the same as Duke bball's image with 10-18 year old kids. And because of that, Coach K coaching the Olympic team has been (and hopefully will continue to be) a good thing.
Likewise, I strongly disagree. There is a difference between the "coolness" of the institution and the coolness or "hype-ness" or "dope-ness" of a particular sports program. Duke was the IT program of the mid to late 90s, but that is no longer the case. It's how we were able to land classes like Battier-Brand-Burgess-Avery and Williams-Boozer-Dunleavy. There is no question this is directly attributable to the media (mostly ESPN but others as well -- Billy Packer, etc.) and their influence on Duke-hating. You have to wonder how much guys like Patterson, and Wall, and Monroe, and Brandan Wright want to go to a school where there is a good chance they are going to be hated NATIONALLY due to the name on the front of their jersey. If you're a parent, do you want your kid going to a school where they might "become the next Wojo or J.J." and have fans across the country screaming "F*** YOU ____!"
I hope that the very promising 2010 class is demonstrating that the Olympic influence is helping our recruiting and restoring the prestige and desirability of playing for Duke basketball.
By the way, speaking of coolness, who remembers the t-shirts that said DUKE - It even sounds cool? Do they sell those any more?
Singler is IRON
I STILL GOT IT! -- Ryan Kelly, March 2, 2013