Duke Recruiting Misses

[RelativeWays]

This is naive. There's more to this than just winning.

Name Duke's most hated players over the course of the past 20 years. I bet you'll easily find a trend among them.

There's a lot of class warfare / racial undertones mixed in with the Duke hatred. It's unfair, but we have an image of being elitist which needs to be combated.

You know, most of the most hated Cowboy players are black. I'n sure people hated Aikman, but not like they hated Irvin or clowned on Leon Lett. Sometimes its not just the players on the team, its the culture the team exudes perceived by outsiders, if that makes any sense.

Also LOL at Joey Beard. His sole distinction was going to Grant Hill's high School. I don't know who was a bigger bust between him and Newton. Newton might be my least favorite devil ever

[MulletMan]

I think we're done here.

[Scorp4me]

I don't start threads often, so be kind. Just for fun.

With all this talk of Duke's demise, which anyone who reads me knows I don't buy into and I saw someone mentioning how one recruiting class could make such a difference I thought let's swap a very limited # of recruits/recruiting misses.

So let's go back and consider if we had retained Shaun Livingston playing point and we had gotten one of our inside players, say Patrick Patterson for lack of a better choice. Do we look any better last year?

Now to reverse roles let's take away UNC's point, they missed on Lawson and so they are starting Bobby Frasor this year. And we won't take away Tyler Hansbrough cause that'd just be ridiculous, but let's remove Deon Thompson. Do they win it all this year?

Now I realize we didn't get them and they did and we didn't win and they did. Not trying to question that. Not trying to take anything away from Carolina. But I am curious how different the last two seasons are. The last two tournaments. The last four rivalry games. Can two simple recruiting changes (and I've tried to make them simple. Not claiming we get a Kobe Bryant recruit here, these are kids we almost got.) make that big of a difference?

And if it can then I suggest Duke's demise is way overblown. Could the same be said of other teams? Yes, I think it could, but not alot. And that's the point, we're still in the top 10, not the bottom 300.

[rotogod00]

"So let's go back and consider if we had retained Shaun Livingston playing point and we had gotten one of our inside players, say Patrick Patterson for lack of a better choice. Do we look any better last year?"

please don't take this the wrong way, but is this a serious question? of course, we're better...probably final four better.

"Now to reverse roles let's take away UNC's point, they missed on Lawson and so they are starting Bobby Frasor this year. And we won't take away Tyler Hansbrough cause that'd just be ridiculous, but let's remove Deon Thompson. Do they win it all this year?"

imo, lawson was the most important player to any team in the country this year (maybe blake griffin). and for that reason, if he weren't on this team, carolina becomes well...duke.

[jv001]

it does just come down to recruiting. And we have not been doing as well as they have in the last few years. But I think that's about to change. GoDuke!

[DevilCastDownfromDurham]

I don't start threads often, so be kind. Just for fun.

With all this talk of Duke's demise, which anyone who reads me knows I don't buy into and I saw someone mentioning how one recruiting class could make such a difference I thought let's swap a very limited # of recruits/recruiting misses.

So let's go back and consider if we had retained Shaun Livingston playing point and we had gotten one of our inside players, say Patrick Patterson for lack of a better choice. Do we look any better last year?

Now to reverse roles let's take away UNC's point, they missed on Lawson and so they are starting Bobby Frasor this year. And we won't take away Tyler Hansbrough cause that'd just be ridiculous, but let's remove Deon Thompson. Do they win it all this year?

Now I realize we didn't get them and they did and we didn't win and they did. Not trying to question that. Not trying to take anything away from Carolina. But I am curious how different the last two seasons are. The last two tournaments. The last four rivalry games. Can two simple recruiting changes (and I've tried to make them simple. Not claiming we get a Kobe Bryant recruit here, these are kids we almost got.) make that big of a difference?

And if it can then I suggest Duke's demise is way overblown. Could the same be said of other teams? Yes, I think it could, but not alot. And that's the point, we're still in the top 10, not the bottom 300.

I get the point of the exercise but you can't just add/subtract players in a vacuum. If UNC had missed on Lawson, they wouldn't have stood pat, they'd have gone out and grabbed another PG. That year they were also looking at Mike Conley, Javaris Crittenton, and DJ Augustin. They got the best PG, but they would have been fine with any of those guys. If they miss on everybody, in 2007 maybe they grab Nick Calathes or (dear god) Derrick Rose. Or Kemba Walker in 2008.

By the same token, even if Livingstone had come to Duke, there's just no way he would have been here for 3-4 season. I agree that specific players (B. Wright, for example) can be a bit of a crap shoot. But over several seasons elite programs always have great PG's, dynamic wings, and legit post guys. Elite programs are bigger than 1 player because they have backup plans in a given class and more talent at all three areas in the pipeline as well. UNC has had some good breaks and we've had some bad ones. But it wasn't a fluke that we were sending Paulus and a group of SG's against Lawson and Drew or watching Z and Lance try to battle Hans and Co this season. It was UNC keeping their team stocked and us failing to do so over many seasons.

[ItalianDevil]

it does just come down to recruiting. And we have not been doing as well as they have in the last few years. But I think that's about to change. GoDuke!

I wouldn't bet my skinny I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. on it