Agree with this. Players who are in a position to be major contributors on the court at Duke are very unlikely to transfer away from Duke. The only cases I can remember are EWil (who had family reasons play at least some role) and Billy McCaffrey. All the rest seem like great guys and solid players, but would not have been able to accomplish what they wanted to at Duke (Murphy, Olek, King, Gbinije). I can't really say that any of those guys transferring worked out to be the wrong move for the player or a significant blow to Duke. We have also had 2 terrific inbound transfers recently.
Just because something isn't the craziest thing that's ever happened doesn't mean it's not a reach.
I'll concede it's not outside the realm of possibility that Jabari returns (however unlikely it may be), but attempting to link Alex's departure to possible good news from Jabari by saying, "maybe Jabari said he was coming back, making the potential playing time shrink dramatically," as the OP did, is in my opinion quite a reach.
You're certainly welcome to disagree.
What makes this a tad more surprising than the other transfers was how vocal Murph was about staying at Duke.
However, he didn't get a ton of chances to show what he could do in games and likely didn't show all that much in practices, either.
I think he'll find success at his next school, but I don't think he'll end up much better than Olek did.
If all is same in his head, I'm guessing Florida is the lucky winner of his services. (but who knows?)
http://jeffgoodman.yardbarker.com/bl...r_duke/4115398
Two questions:
How likely is it that he can avoid losing a year of eligibility? Is there precedent?
Can he drop down to Division II and play sooner? Is that what Ryan Harrow did?
Honestly, this is sad. I was hoping for a lot from Alex. He seems like a gym rat, good guy and talented player on the verge of good stuff. I wish we got to see more of him.
I hope everything comes up roses for him.
Alex, by all reports, is a good, solid guy. This decision was certainly discussed with the coaches and his NBA/pro basketball family. I am confident that K did not initiate the discussion, but I believe he was truthful about Alex's playing prospects this year and next.
Good luck, Alex, if rumors are true.
sage
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Sorry to see this. By all reports he's a good kid, but bad timing in terms of developing slowly and having quality competition at his position. Best of luck to him -- he has the talent to make an impact somewhere.
The article speculates about joining his brother at FLA, but I was thinking that his dad went to BC, and they were one of his finalists, in addition to being near to his home. Would K ever allow that transfer within the ACC?
He needs to improve a great deal if he's going to play at this level. I could see him starring at a mid-major, but I can't really see him playing significant minutes for a team like Florida. Obviously his confidence should improve with more playing time, but from what we've seen his all around game is pretty limited.
My point isn't that the guy who transfers is amazing. It's that they never get off the bench to begin with. If they did become major competitors at a highly ranked program like Syracuse, then that would be an indictment of K's short bench from Duke's perspective. To your point, we don't see that by and large from those transfers, so the short bench is an indictment from the transfer's perspective.
Not much room for him next year, but is he that much worse than Josh this year? How much PT would have been enough to keep him on the team?
there seems to be an undercurrent on this board when transfers or bench playing time are discussed. the gist of it is a fear that a very good player* is going to slip away from Duke because he gets tired of being buried on Coach K's bench. the fact that this has never happened in the 30+ years that Coach K has been at Duke does not seem to deter this fear for some reason.
* and by this i mean a player with the ability to be a major contributor at Duke on the court
Murphy always reminded me of Pocius. Very athletic, solid/good on offense (though not a strong 3 point shooter), yet doesn't fit in with whatever Coach is looking for on defense, so he gets very little playing time. That's not a knock on Coach K. Of course, Pocius is doing very well now. Hopefully, Murphy will do the same elsewhere.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Yeah but McCaffrey wasn't buried on the bench--he was the third-leading player by minutes the year before he left. What freshmanjs was talking about, I believe, is the persistent fear that K loses good players because of a relatively short bench, but, as he alludes to, very few of our transfers who weren't playing here showed the ability to be large contributors on major conference teams, let alone championship contenders.