Quote Originally Posted by superdave View Post
You voice a lot of the ifs/ands/buts that go into the jersey retirement arguments.

The major thing that sets Nolan and Kyle ahead of Alarie and Langdon is last year's title and their huge role in winning it. Alarie and Langdon fell short on the title (while Scheyer finished 2nd team AA and out of the top 5 in career scoring). Also, there's a lot of basketball left to be played this year. The more wins and titles and awards they rack up, the easier a case they will have. Another Final Four appearance and these guys leap-frog Redick-Williams in my estimation. Nolan and Kyle do seem tied to one another in their chances in most people's minds though.
I totally agree that both should be retired (probably should have made that clear). Both are just interesting cases because there are few direct comparables, especially for Nolan. Kyle definitely is slightly better than Alarie in almost every area, but since non of us know for sure just how close Alarie was to retirement, it doesn't really tell us anything about Kyle. Without a "major" NPOY award, Nolan is an interesting case. I probably should replace major with "Duke recognized." All that matters is whether Coach K counts the award. Something tells me that they aren't putting Nolan next to JJ because Jeff Goodman said so. Again don't get me wrong, I hope that they are both retired even if Nolan doesn't get one of the big NPOY awards, but I don't see the team accomplishments from this year affecting where they belong. My original response was to a post that said Nolan needs another championship to get it. I just don't believe that is the case. If they had never been to a Final Four, I might think so, but as Coach K likes to say, they are "champions forever." Therefore, they are champions with or without team accomplishments this year.