Are you suggesting that Roy Williams is the new challenge? Or recruiting? Or having the same players? Or players leaving?In the John Walll thread Kewlswim wrote"
"I firmly believe that Duke will one day be more successful than Carolina--in hoops--again. We past each other like elevators, up and down, up and down. There were many years there where we were beating UNC left and right and I don't mean just when D'oh was there. In the '80s under Dean Smith I think there was a stretch where Duke beat Carolina four straight times.
We have a great coach. The game has not passed him by. I think he was stretched a little too thin with the USA Basketball commitment. That, I believe, is over. Duke basketball is in great hands."
This made me think about Coach K's career and the different challenges he has successfully faced.
I was at Duke when Coach K started and he did not want Duke basketball to be good just "locally" or just against UNC. He wanted Duke basketball to be good nationally and he was very successful at doing this. In fact I believe in 1990 under Coach K's leadership Duke had been to more final fours (4) than they had won ACC championships (2).
After Coach K's unfortunate exhaustion episode he became reinvigorated and won another national championship but also he wanted to win "locally". That resulted in 8 ACC championships in the past 11 years (boy does that sound good).
With Roy Williams now at UNC a new challenge is presenting itself. Coach Williams is an excellent recruiter and will have UNC in the hunt for ACC championships, NCAA final fours etc. I can now see Coach K accepting this new challenge and trying to ride the elevator back up past UNC. In the ACC and at Duke one of the legacy's is how you do against UNC.
This new challenge may result in Coach K recruiting players that only stay 1 year. I do not view this as an act of desperation or a compromising of ideals it is just an adjustment to the times. As an example about 5 or so years ago everyone at UNC bragged that UNC never recruited over other players. Well there are quite a few players at UNC that all seem to play the same position. This statement is not meant to start a flaming war but to point out that Coach Williams is recognizing the reality of the current state of college basketball. The players will leave whenever they want so you better be ready.
I fully expect Coach K to adapt and meet the current challenge and in the near future I predict Duke and UNC will play against each other 4 times in a year with the last game being in April when all other teams are at the beach.
Or maybe the challenge is your prediction. Yeah - that's it.
Come on man!