Originally Posted by
Cumae Sybl
First, that first paragraph is ludicrous. Is the file clerk at a hospital a Doctor? Is the secretary at Goldman an Investment Banker? Is a secretary at a law firm a Lawyer? No. Of course not. None of those institutions could function without those secretaries. In my original post I did not denigrate the importance of the secretary in an educational institution. I simply said she is not a educator. She does not stand up in front of students and give lectures, write up lesson plans, make up and grade tests, and write out essay questions and then grade them. Those are the tasks of an educator. Said educator could not function without the support of an able secretarial staff. But the secretary is not an educator. My parents are both teachers, so I am confident in saying this.
You sound like one of those people who consider teachers to be completely unimportant by equating them with the secretarial pool.
As for the second paragraph, I did no such thing. I am not wishing him gone before he gets here. I am simply being realistic. Of last year's freshman class, one of the weakest in several years, 1/2 are already in the pros. Yet, people are talking about Barnes by comparing him to Hill and Battier. Yes, he seems to share many of the same qualities as those legends. But a better comparison might be Luol Deng. A star player whose sojurn at whatever school he chooses will be short. Getting 2 years out of Barnes would be a gift from heavan. He almost certainly is not a 4 year player, but that is how a lot of people seem to be considering him.
Look, recruits today are smart, and fairly media savvy. Durant spent his entire frosh year extolling the virtues of college life. He loved the game, the campus, his classes, his class mates, his team mate, and all the fluttering tweety birds in the sky. Most of UT's fans started talking about his soph year. Then he declared for the pros at his first opportunity, as he intended all the while. He played the game correctly. Until I see that Barnes is different, I will work on the belief that an athletic 2/3 with developed basketball skills will not be on campus very long.
K is already putting a press on Quincy Miller from the 2011 class, in a somewhat obvious (I would think) gesture that he doesn't expect to have Barnes on campus all that long. Right now, they play the same position, SF.
I would love to have Barnes, but so would every other program in the country. We have had success with his alleged type before, but so have other schools. Battier and Hill were special. It does no one any favors to try and ascribe their personalites and traits to any HS senior. Battier and Hill weren't the Saints we remember them to be as HS seniors. It took 4 years at Duke to get there. I really don't think that Barnes will spend anywhere near that amount of time in college, especially given his family's radically different financial situtation compared with Hill and Battier.
I put it to the board at large. If we get Barnes, which is a strong possibility, how long do you really expect him to be at Duke?