2017 Basketball Recruiting Thread

[DavidBenAkiva]

It seemed of late that Deng Gak had cooled on Duke or vice versa. Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog wrote up a profile on Gak today with a brief mention of a teammate from his AAU Team, PSA Cardinals. Zagoria had a couple of quotes from the long and lanky recruit on Duke, including his relationship with former Duke standout and fellow Sudanese (or is it South Sudanese now?) native Luol Deng. Gak plans on visiting Duke as well as his other "final five" schools, Indiana, Florida, Kansas, and Miami. There were also notes about how Miami impressed him last season as well as how Kansas is close to family. For a player outside on the borderline of most Top 100 recruit lists, Gak has really caught the attention of some major schools.

You can read the full article here: Blair Academy's Deng Gak, Matt Turner Cut Lists, Plan Visits

[heyman25]

There was a former Duke Cheerleader that I believe married Dave O'Connell. She was from the class of 1975 and a fellow Durham High grad named Laura Barbour. Is she the mother of Alex O'Connell? Just curious.

[DeBlueDevil]

And Duke is not on it

Not a huge surprise but it looks like he wants to land in the Pac 12 judging by Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona, & Oregon on his list. Villanova would be a great place for him IMO.

See his twitter link below

https://twitter.com/DatGuy_Trey/stat...83762307817473

[budwom]

And Duke is not on it

Not a huge surprise but it looks like he wants to land in the Pac 12 judging by Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona, & Oregon on his list. Villanova would be a great place for him IMO.

See his twitter link below

https://twitter.com/DatGuy_Trey/stat...83762307817473

I do not believe K is interested, and hasn't been for awhile...Quade Green is the PG target....there are other issues, just Google him...

[sagegrouse]

I do not believe K is interested, and hasn't been for awhile...Quade Green is the PG target...there are other issues, just Google him...

Can't find much... except his links to UnderArmour, which could affect his choice of school, and some talk about past academic issues.

[Billy Dat]

Tangentially related to recruiting, there is a new ESPN Insider ($) article up about how elite recruits who choose to play for schools other than Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and UCLA typically under-perform their peers who do attend those schools.

http://insider.espn.com/mens-college...ege-basketball

[MarkD83]

Tangentially related to recruiting, there is a new ESPN Insider ($) article up about how elite recruits who choose to play for schools other than Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and UCLA typically under-perform their peers who do attend those schools.

http://insider.espn.com/mens-college...ege-basketball

I have not read this article but it does bring up something that has always bothered me. We judge players based on the expectations of experts. The players either under or over perform. However, we never criticize the experts and suggest that maybe they are not quite as expert as we think.

Along these lines there is an interesting statistic that is listed on the Crystal Ball site for each expert. That is, the % they are correct with their pick of what school a recruit will attend. It also looks like the statistic is weighted based on when an expert expresses their opinion.

[bob blue devil]

Tangentially related to recruiting, there is a new ESPN Insider ($) article up about how elite recruits who choose to play for schools other than Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and UCLA typically under-perform their peers who do attend those schools.

http://insider.espn.com/mens-college...ege-basketball

Ummm... what happens when you take UNC out of the sample?

[Billy Dat]

Ummm... what happens when you take UNC out of the sample?

Ha - I don't know. Shoot @JohnGasaway a tweet and maybe he'll respond.

The cohort was based on his "Category 5 Rosters" piece that we debated a bit on this board last year, and can be seen for free here:
https://johngasaway.com/2015/10/19/t...gory-5-roster/

[BD80]

Ummm... what happens when you take UNC out of the sample?

... Gasaway ...

res ipsa loquitur

[Ichabod Drain]

I have not read this article but it does bring up something that has always bothered me. We judge players based on the expectations of experts. The players either under or over perform. However, we never criticize the experts and suggest that maybe they are not quite as expert as we think.

Along these lines there is an interesting statistic that is listed on the Crystal Ball site for each expert. That is, the % they are correct with their pick of what school a recruit will attend. It also looks like the statistic is weighted based on when an expert expresses their opinion.

Not sure if we just look at different media or what but I see lots or criticism of experts and discussion on whether or not they're really "experts."

If you follow enough recruiting analysts and pay attention over time you can whittle it down to a few that have a good feel for it. Even among the good ones they still have differing opinions on some of the top guys. I imagine its fairly difficult to evaluate and rate guys based on the few times they get to see them play and the variance of competition levels.

[Indoor66]

Ummm... what happens when you take UNC out of the sample?

Probably nothing.

[NashvilleDevil]

Ummm... what happens when you take UNC out of the sample?

Author was probably ordered by UNC alum John Skipper to include them.

[DeBlueDevil]

I do not believe K is interested, and hasn't been for awhile...Quade Green is the PG target...there are other issues, just Google him...

Still trying to understand what these "other issues" are...do you mind filling me in? The Google search didn't reveal anything.

[bob blue devil]

some tiny, but incrementally bad, recruiting outlook news: 247's #2 ranked basketball recruiting expert just predicted gary trent jr. to ucla and quade green to syracuse. trent had had 100% (i think) of experts predicting duke; perhaps the new vote is related to his HS transfer to CA. green now has 2 predictions this week for syracuse after over 2 months of all duke.

[Ichabod Drain]

some tiny, but incrementally bad, recruiting outlook news: 247's #2 ranked basketball recruiting expert just predicted gary trent jr. to ucla and quade green to syracuse. trent had had 100% (i think) of experts predicting duke; perhaps the new vote is related to his HS transfer to CA. green now has 2 predictions this week for syracuse after over 2 months of all duke.

Green just visited Syracuse this past weekend on an unofficial. Most likely just some buzz after him being on campus. I don't believe Green has announced his official visits yet but I would expect Duke to get one and I would expect some palpable buzz going our way after that.

[richardjackson199]

Green just visited Syracuse this past weekend on an unofficial. Most likely just some buzz after him being on campus. I don't believe Green has announced his official visits yet but I would expect Duke to get one and I would expect some palpable buzz going our way after that.

Thank goodness. I was afraid that after Pop took over Team USA that K had lost his recruiting advantage.

[Steven43]

Thank goodness. I was afraid that after Pop took over Team USA that K had lost his recruiting advantage.

Haha, nice one. But seriously, just by the law of averages Duke has to lose out on some of these guys. The team has been on a recruiting roll that has seemed unstoppable the last few years. Almost every time a top recruit has been said to be going to Duke it ends up happening.

One of the only true exceptions that comes to mind is the young man who somewhat surprisingly chose UCLA a couple of years ago. What was his name? Kevon Looney, maybe? Fingers crossed about Gary Trent. I think the team really needs him.

[richardjackson199]

Fingers crossed about Gary Trent. I think the team really needs him.

I have no clue, but if Trent sticks to his package with Wendell Carter I still like our chances.

[flyingdutchdevil]

Green just visited Syracuse this past weekend on an unofficial. Most likely just some buzz after him being on campus. I don't believe Green has announced his official visits yet but I would expect Duke to get one and I would expect some palpable buzz going our way after that.

Maybe. But I won't be surprised if Duke has a "down year" in recruiting this year compared to the last few. Yes, Duke is so hot right now. But with arguably the best recruiting class in Duke history coupled with question marks about who will stay and who will go, recruits are probably going to be cautious.

That's why players like Kevin Knox - who announced they are only deciding in the fall - works in Duke's favor.

I still think we get Carter and Trent and Knox, but I'm not so sure on Green anymore. And with Green, you can't blame USA Basketball; Boeheim was in Rio as well.