I suppose the real question for Duke's sake to ask is, do you think if HS kids could go to the NBA straight, would KI and AR have stopped here at all? Did they help us?
I don't know. Let's ignore KI's injury. That's peripheral.
AR helped us against UNC. And other times, as much as this "addition by subtraction" meme has taken hold. I don't understand how people regard the loss of your best player as a good thing, but I've heard/seen too much of it to pretend it isn't there. The judgment on AR has been shocking.
If you think college BB is enriched by a year of these dudes vs none, then it helps college BB. Also, if a guy decides to go to the draft straight out of HS, there's no chance he stays for his sophomore year. But if he goes to college for one year, there's some nonzero chance he stays for year two. Might be low, but it exists.
I'm comfy with a year of a rental of a guy. Why are we so ready to act like 2 or 3 years is so much better than 1 year, from some 1977-purity-test perspective? Meh. I kind of think given how stacked the draft is this year, AR should come back. For his sake. But I'm all whatev by this point. We have to do what we have to do. And as long as we don't compromise the integrity of the program, I don't care whether a dude is here 1, 2, 3 or 4 years. Heck, Maggette did this thirteen years ago. I guess what I'm saying is, if Mike Krzyzewski is cool with a one-and-done, so am I. And I ain't nobody.
Come back Austin! (After those workouts). But if you don't, let's recruit more Austins. If they exist. It's 2012, not 1965.
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine