Terrific News
Originally Posted by
Boozer
...
Wow. Last fall after watching a few episodes of the new show "Flash Forward", I put a silly post in one of the threads about "in my flash forward" it was April 29th, I was watching ESPN and Kyle Singler was announcing that he was coming back for his Senior Year for a chance to win back to back National Titles...
Little did I know huh?
What were the chances last fall that Duke would win the National Title AND Singler would come back???
Way to go Kyle! I cannot wait to see you get even better next year!!!!!
Sorry, that scenario could never happen in real life.
Originally Posted by
mgtr
This is fabulous news for us. Every other coach in the country is groaning - Duke gets all the breaks. Should be a good offseason!
I think it was Hayward that meant to come back, but the refs blew it and called it in Duke's favor.
Originally Posted by
jipops
I have to wonder if the apparent offensive prowess of incoming freshman Kyrie Irving had something to do with it. Kyle has never played with a true drive and kick pg nor a pg that initiates an up-tempo offense. This could give Kyle some nice spot up looks which has been one of his strongest suits.
This may also benefit guys like Hairston and Felix in the long run as well as they won't have to be thrown into the fire right away. Get your "why don't Carrick and Josh get more pt?" responses ready. This is of course an enormous benefit to the rest of the guys on the team b/c while being such a great player on both sides of the court, Kyle is also an excellent glue guy. Kyrie and Seth are going to love distributing to this guy on both the wing and the post.
What probably has me most excited is the return of Kyle's defense. In the latter part of the season he showed an excellent ability to guard front court players and big wings. The job he did on De'Shaun Butler and Gordon Hayward was unbelievable. Those are two pro-caliber talents he shut down.
I do have to wonder how this is going to affect Andre and Mason. Does Kyle continue to play the big wing and push Andre further down the rotation? Or does Kyle return to a pf spot and push Mason out of the starting lineup?
This is great news but K does have some chemistry to build here. We are not at all the same team with Scheyer, Z, and Thomas gone. In the months of March and April those were three great defenders. Even with Kyle back I have serious doubts we'll reach the high level of defense that was on display for almost all of this past season. And we have a lot of guys who really want to play.
I don't know if having Kyrie factored much into his decision as he played with a pretty darn good point guard (second team all-american) this year.
I do agree very much with two of your other points regarding defense and chemistry. I think as talented as the team would have been without Kyle, having him back helps the team's defense a ton. He and Nolan have both proven to be very good perimeter defenders, so this is less of a concern for next year. As K often has said, each team is different and you never know how the chemistry will work out. Having two senior leaders back should also help in this regard, I would expect as well. This team certainly is very different than last year's championship squad, but with this great news, the team will still have some senior leadership to go with the young talent.
Originally Posted by
miramar
I think he's going to have a senior year that he will remember the rest of his life, so I am very glad for him and for Duke basketball.
I just hope that we don't have any potential recruits expecting to wear #12...
I agree that Kyle will likely never regret this decision (he wouldn't have regretted it either way, IMO) and will end his Duke career as a legend with his jersey retired. The bad news is for those recruits looking for #12, this should be the last year it is worn at Duke.
Originally Posted by
RockLobster
Anyway, great news. If Singler had left, I think we would have been awfully thin at the 3 spot...the only guys we'd have available for that spot would be Felix and Hairston, both rookies.
I know that people were pretty high on us even with the possibility of Singler leaving, but in reality, we would not have had a proven wing player without him.
But, with him back, our depth chart looks like this:
1. Irving......Thornton
2. Smith......Dawkins/Curry
3. Singler.......Felix
4. Mason/Miles....Hairston
5. Mason/Miles....Kelly
We're going to be loaded at guard. The key, I think, will be Miles' progression...he needs to improve his inside game in a hurry if we're going to be the top-level rebounding team we were last season. Miles hit some impressive shots this year, but really wasn't a great defender.
If Miles continues to develop, and one of Felix, Hairston, or Kelly can make significant contributions, we should be fine.
Having Singler back helps a ton, but in no way, after a season where we had 4 players for the 1-3 positions, did I feel we would have been that thin at the 3. I would have expected (and still expect) to see quite a few 3 guard line-ups. I also have a tough time believing that Curry is going to see the minutes of someone who is only 3rd string at one position. I expect he may be the sixth man this year. With Kyle back, if nobody develops, this team will be fine. If players improve over the summer, the 2010-11 team certainly has the potential to be something special, even though there is an excellent chance they won't have the success of this year's squad.
All in all, makes for a very enjoyable off-season as the team just got the best possible player returning to the team. This is better than any potential recruit. I am very excited to see how coach K shapes this team and as always, am looking forward to seeing how the guys improve over the off-season.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”