Alex Murphy Enrolls Early!

[Duvall]

Great news... Anyone know how many scholarships we have left? Have to imagine we are close to max capacity.

Duke has one scholarship remaining for 2011-2012 that has been offered to DeAndre Daniels. If he commits to Duke, none.

[Utley]

DeAndre's decision wasn't impacted by his knowledge of Alex coming in early.

Versatility is the word for 2012...

Holy cryptic response.

My sleuthing skills lead me to interpret his answer as no. The first sentence appears to be
justification that his "no" response was driven by a different reason - but it could be taken
differently.
The second sentence seems like a yes - as in Andre is another versatile player being added
to the mix - but could be taken differently as well.

[anon]

Duke has one scholarship remaining for 2011-2012 that has been offered to DeAndre Daniels. If he commits to Duke, none.

Meaning that we would be unable to give Todd Zafirovski or David Mayer a scholarship for at least two years, unless someone leaves early.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

I don't have Airowe's inside information, although I was standing next to Coach K for an extended period of time on Sunday as previously mentioned . I'm sure that the "Alex Murphy" situation was fully discussed with DeAndre Daniel when he was here over this past weekend. How they would play together, compete with and against each other and the other players currently on the roster, how no one is guaranteed playing time but that each player has the same opportunity to shine and to define his role on the team and earn playing time, etc.

In other words, today's Alex Murphy announcement didn't come as a surprise to DD, and it doesn't or won't (or shouldn't) impact his decision. Well, if he decides that Duke isn't for him, then it might have, and that's within his prerogative, but that's not my uninformed expectation.

[NSDukeFan]

Interesting. For those in the know: what, if any, impact do you think this has on the recruitment of Daniels, and on the rotation for next year?

In other words, where does Murphy rate in terms of readiness to play the SF position in college right now compared to, say, Daniels, Gbinije, or Dawkins?

It was my uneducated guess that Dawkins would be the frontrunner and that any of the freshmen would be chasing him for the starting spot. But we now have two freshmen who are bigger than him challenging for a spot, and possibly even a third (depending on Daniels).

I would think that your uneducated guess would still likely hold for the start of the season. I doubt Murphy, Gbinijie or Daniels (we hope) will start over Dawkins to start the year. As they learn defensive responsibilities though, those are a lot of potentially versatile players at the wing positions and/or second big spot.

I know i'm getting way ahead of myself and I don't want to derail this thread; but this team has the potential IMO of being as versatile as the Duke teams of the early 90's when you had interchangeable players that could guard and play multiple positions in Grant and Thomas Hill, Brian Davis and Antonio Lang. Even Christian could play 2 positions as either the 4 or the 5. I'm not saying the 2011-2012 team will be as talented but on paper this upcoming team will potentially have just as many interchangeable and versatile/multi-positional players.

I have been thinking of this as well. There is a nice potential to have many versatile players that could guard multiple positions on next year's team.

I am very excited to see Murphy join the squad a year earlier than first expected. I expect he will be able to make an impact over his career.
When looking at this news, I saw an interesting take from Dave Telep at ESPN who stated:

In order to come up with a landing place for Alex Murphy -- who was No. 15 in 2012 -- in our current 2011 list, we used Maurice Harkless (Queens, N.Y./South Kent) as the measuring stick in the SF group. Our thinking was that Harkless deserved to be ranked in front of Murphy, therefore Harkless is No. 38 and Murphy checks in two behind him at No. 40.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recru...ory?id=6389471
I was surprised to see Murphy drop down this far when getting re-ranked in the new class. This would seem to indicate that we shouldn't expect too much from Murphy this coming year, but I certainly like his talent and what I have seen and heard about him.

[DukeGirl4ever]

Twitter world is hot yet again on how this decision affects DeAndre's recruitment. If you follow UnclePen1, there is a lot of chatter from him about DeAndre and Duke.

As for Alex, I'm excited to see what he will bring to Duke. We will be young, but have great talent. This Duke team will be fun to watch over the next few years in terms of growth and chemistry.

[callmecrazy]

I am sorry if I am not quite as excited as everyone. Yes, it is great to have Alex coming in next year but... I personally would rather see us get DeAndre. We need that athleticism! We are really lacking that explosive player. Look at what Williams did to us when we played Arizona. We need a player that is a hard match-up defensively. We certainly have great talent but we need a force that can be a game changer. IMO the best case is a red shirt for Alex and DeAndre as a starter next year.

[NashvilleDevil]

Twitter world is hot yet again on how this decision affects DeAndre's recruitment. If you follow UnclePen1, there is a lot of chatter from him about DeAndre and Duke.

As for Alex, I'm excited to see what he will bring to Duke. We will be young, but have great talent. This Duke team will be fun to watch over the next few years in terms of growth and chemistry.

And his credentials are? He said Andy Boorman is K's son in law also.

[airowe]

I am sorry if I am not quite as excited as everyone. Yes, it is great to have Alex coming in next year but... I personally would rather see us get DeAndre. We need that athleticism! We are really lacking that explosive player. Look at what Williams did to us when we played Arizona. We need a player that is a hard match-up defensively. We certainly have great talent but we need a force that can be a game changer. IMO the best case is a red shirt for Alex and DeAndre as a starter next year.

1) The two are not mutually exclusive.

2) Neither Alex Murphy or DeAndre Daniels are Derrick Williams.

3) Alex Murphy is just as, if not more, of a matchup problem as DeAndre. He's 6'9", has a deft handle, and shoots the three ball with great accuracy. And yes, he's athletic as hell (even though he's white.)

[Kedsy]

IMO the best case is a red shirt for Alex and DeAndre as a starter next year.

And you base that opinion based on watching the two of them play how many games, exactly?

[NashvilleDevil]

I am sorry if I am not quite as excited as everyone. Yes, it is great to have Alex coming in next year but... I personally would rather see us get DeAndre. We need that athleticism! We are really lacking that explosive player. Look at what Williams did to us when we played Arizona. We need a player that is a hard match-up defensively. We certainly have great talent but we need a force that can be a game changer. IMO the best case is a red shirt for Alex and DeAndre as a starter next year.

You mean the 25 he scored in the 1st half and they were still down? He was shut down in the 2nd half but his teammates played the half of their lives.

[DukieinSoCal]

By my count, Alex would be our 12th scholarship player next year. Isn't 12 the max? If you redshirt a player, does it not count against your max?

And wouldn't it make more sense to redshirt Marshall than Alex? It seems like Marshall has a lot more work to do before he's ready to contribute than Alex. Alex is super-skilled and could probably compete for minutes right away.

[DukeGirl4ever]

And his credentials are? He said Andy Boorman is K's son in law also.

I don't follow him, but when you search DeAndre's name via twitter, UnclePen1 has posted a lot about him. When you click on his twitter profile, it says the following: "ACC Recruiting and sports, News and current events. Morsels of solid gold information periodically released here."

People who follow ACC recruiting closely may know if this guy is legit or not...or maybe he's just like the rest of the universe and claims to know more than he does. I personally have never heard of him.

Anyway, I'm back on topic. I am looking forward to see what Alex brings, but I would really like to see us land Daniels as well.

[anon]

By my count, Alex would be our 12th scholarship player next year. Isn't 12 the max? If you redshirt a player, does it not count against your max?

And wouldn't it make more sense to redshirt Marshall than Alex? It seems like Marshall has a lot more work to do before he's ready to contribute than Alex. Alex is super-skilled and could probably compete for minutes right away.

AFAIK, 13 is the max. And redshirts still count if they are receiving scholarship money.

[DukeGirl4ever]

Alex is young, but he's not as young as Dre was coming in freshman year. Alex has been in HS for 4 years, so that makes him the normal age for a freshman. Daniels, on the other hand, has been in HS/IMG for 5 years, so he's a year ahead physically.

I guess when I said "young", I meant that we lost a lot in terms of senior leadership with Kyle, Nolan, and even Casey. So, we are young in terms of college experience.

I do think DeAndre being a 5th year senior will help him greatly next year.

[MartyClark]

It has been speculated and seems likely to me that Alex may redshirt. Not sure what the posters have heard

I just don't see him redshirting next season. It is very unusual for a basketball player to take a redshirt year absent injury or academic problems. This is a highly recruited young man who, I guess, is willing to compete for playing time now.

Out of curiousity, has there ever been a scholarship player at Duke who redshirted their first year without an injury? I can't think of one but it is certainly possible.

[SMO]

http://jeffgoodman.yardbarker.com/bl...season/4586438

Big news!

The streets of Detroit just got a lot more dangerous.

[THE FUTURE]

MR.AIROWE has deandre made a decision?

[-bdbd]

DeAndre's decision wasn't impacted by his knowledge of Alex coming in early.

Versatility is the word for 2012...

1) The two are not mutually exclusive.

2) Neither Alex Murphy or DeAndre Daniels are Derrick Williams.

3) Alex Murphy is just as, if not more, of a matchup problem as DeAndre. He's 6'9", has a deft handle, and shoots the three ball with great accuracy. And yes, he's athletic as hell (even though he's white.)

MR.AIROWE has deandre made a decision?

Folks, Airowe has already shared a lot of (good) information. Many here know that his sources are impeccable within the Duke BB program. He may be bound by confidentiality restrictions regarding directly sharing more. But if you read his posts regarding DD's (past tense) decision - the precise wording is telling.


Thank you Airowe!

[_TheFakeJWill_]

Question: Why would we not redshirt Marshal Plumlee before we redshirt Alex Murphy? were stacked at the C/PF position with MP1, MP2, Hairston, Kelly. and we have one true SF in a freshman MG? Alex seems to bring more to the table than Plum3 would IMO. Alex is a true 6'9'' SF with a great skill set. He's listed at 215 now and im sure between now and November he could get up to a 225 which would do him a lot of good