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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    San Francisco

    Sumner and Featherston on Keeping Perspective

    About a year and a half ago, Jim had a great post in regards to our 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes. He linked an article written by Al Featherston chronicling some of the recruiting misses and successes K had over the years. Just before Jim's post, we had missed on Greg Monroe, and one of our early 2009 targets, either Echineque or Erik Murphy (sp?), had just committed elsewhere, leading to another round of panic from this community (including me).

    I apologize, but I don't have a link to his post. I tried looking under Jim's name to find all his entries, but I couldn't find it, nor Al's great article.

    In any case, Jim's general feeling was that we would land at least 2 to 4 solid recruits in the class of 2009, and that if we whiffed on all of our primary targets, some concerns might be raised.

    Jim's post was great, because it gave me a lot of confidence about the future, and seemed to calm my nerves quite a bit. Currently, with the unbelievable number of posts from the John Wall Thread, I thought it might be nice to hear from Jim and Al on the subject of recruiting, since they've seen it all.

    Please pardon me if I am calling anyone to the mat, and I won't mind if my thread gets deleted. I just thought, with as nervous as everyone is, it might be nice to hear a sound voice of reason.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Lynchburg, VA
    Jim's article.

    Al's article.

    Both are great articles and reminders that there's never been a time when we just picked every high school player we wanted.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    About 150 feet in front of the Duke Chapel doors.
    Thanks, folks, for finding these articles and reminding some of the others around here about keeping perspective.
    JBDuke

    Andre Dawkins: “People ask me if I can still shoot, and I ask them if they can still breathe. That’s kind of the same thing.”

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    I guess "rational thought" doesn't sell on this board. Too bad. I thought I might do some good. 3 posts, and a few hundred views. Oh well. I tried.

    Thanks, MPH, for linking the articles. I read them again, and man, are they good. Funny how it's all played out like Jim said it would...or close to it anyway.

    I was kind of hoping to hear from Jim and Al on the subject of our current recruiting situation, but obviously they've tried to calm everyone down in the past, and see that it does little good.

    If you haven't read the articles, they are "must-read" essays.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Faison1 View Post
    I guess "rational thought" doesn't sell on this board. Too bad. I thought I might do some good. 3 posts, and a few hundred views. Oh well. I tried.

    Thanks, MPH, for linking the articles. I read them again, and man, are they good. Funny how it's all played out like Jim said it would...or close to it anyway.

    I was kind of hoping to hear from Jim and Al on the subject of our current recruiting situation, but obviously they've tried to calm everyone down in the past, and see that it does little good.

    If you haven't read the articles, they are "must-read" essays.
    I read them, I just don't post much so I didn't respond

    Thanks. They are great and really help put the current recruiting "problems" into perspective.

  6. #6

    Fun to read

    I recall both of these articles from last year. They are an excellent tonic to those who are fearful. The reality is that projecting recruiting results is a challenge and there are no guarantees.

    I have always felt that the top 50 players (as ranked in high school) generally yield 25 very good college players. You just can't project who it will be (except with some obvious studs). As a freshman, I thought Duke was better off with McRoberts than Hansbrough. Seemed to have more upside. Oops! So how hard is it to project a high schooler?

    I seem to recall that Laettner was well thought of as a high schooler (top 20??) but who woud have guessed his college performance?

    Can't wait to see how this recruiting season progresses.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    20 Minutes From The Heaven That Is Cameron Indoor
    Both were very good reads. Thanks for posting them. I said before the tournaments even started, and I will stick with it, that I believe the tide is turning back in the right direction for Duke Basketball. Not that anything has been horribly wrong. During this recent "bad stretch", the worst season was 22 and 11 followed up with 28 and 6, and now 30 and 6 seasons.

    The program is gaining momemtum again and is trending upward from really good to great again. If we add Knight and Barnes to the 2010 class, great things will follow.

    Right now we have 6 really good players already in hand for 2009/2010 in MP2, Kelly, Curry, Dawkins, Hairston, and Thornton. Throw in a couple from, a Sr Hendo, Wall, Knight, or Barnes and you are looking at really good talent on the floor in the foreseeable future.

    Not to mention a freak name Singler, a Sr Scheyer, Jr Smith, and Soph Williams, and Soph MP1.

    All led by the greatest coach on planet earth. I would say the program is in good shape...

  8. #8
    Yea, I remember them and they were excellent. Wasn't going to post and I'm sure a lot read or remembered but didn't post.

  9. #9

    Recruiting in perspective

    The Argentines have a saying that translates as something like, "You have to see the horses on the track." Since we haven't seen any of these recruits on a college track, or court I should say, you never really know who is going to work out and who is going to be a complete bust.

    As an object lesson, I would say that the most successful recruiting class since UCLA's heyday would be Florida's 2004 class of Horford, Brewer, Noah, and Green, who led them to two national titles before they left en masse after their junior year. Yet they were ranked by rivals.com as only the 12th best class in the nation, with Kentucky the clear #1 ("Tubby Smith pulled off one of the most impressive late signing periods ever when he inked three prospects ranked as five-star players by Rivals.com.")

    Three years later Florida had two championship rings while Tubby Smith left Kentucky under pressure without winning anything with this stellar class.

    http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/conten...910&CID=297763

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Cary, NC

    fan attitude

    This quote from the Featherston article really hit me hard, having spent a lot of time on the boards lately. I'm assuming it's okay to quote this here since it's a free article:

    But let me add one more thing. The panic over the recent recruiting news is symptomatic of something I’ve seen growing among the Duke fan base over the last couple of years - an unexplainable (to me) sense of pessimism and negativity about the program. Whether it’s complaints about K’s recruiting, the team’s lack of size, his supposed refusal to develop his bench, his reluctance to play a zone or his fondness for the delay game, there’s the kind of constant carping that would be more fitting for a program that’s floundered for the last quarter century and not one that’s flourished.
    This is as true today as it was when the article was written. Let's try to turn this around! Any fan can support their team when things are going great; we need to continue to back our troops even when things are not (and as many have said, let's have some perspective on what constitutes a "bad" year)! Let's appreciate what we have and not harp on what we don't. Go Duke!

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Winston Salem, NC

    Now that's what I'm talking about

    good post cake., I too sometimes get a bad attitude about recent losses, losses to the ugly blue team and not getting very far in the ncaa tournament. Then I realize the players are playing as hard as they can. The coaches are coaching as hard as they can. We the Duke fans need to root for Duke University as hard as we can. Two good articles to bring us back to a prooper perspective. Looking forward to the tip off. Go Duke!

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    San Francisco
    Quote Originally Posted by jv001 View Post
    good post cake., I too sometimes get a bad attitude about recent losses, losses to the ugly blue team and not getting very far in the ncaa tournament. Then I realize the players are playing as hard as they can. The coaches are coaching as hard as they can. We the Duke fans need to root for Duke University as hard as we can. Two good articles to bring us back to a prooper perspective. Looking forward to the tip off. Go Duke!
    Another great point. All of those kids play as hard as they can. Sometimes, I think we forget that, including myself.

    I'm glad all you guys responded and got something out of the articles and the post. Reading Jim and Al's articles again made me remember that the potential sting or euphoria of the Henderson and Wall situation is just part of being a fan.

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