Excellent choices.
Congratulations to Cook and Jefferson for being named Team Co-Captains:
http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...DB_OEM_ID=4200
"As a team and as a staff, we could not be happier to have Quinn [Cook] and Amile [Jefferson] as our co-captains,” said Krzyzewski. “They're two veterans, returning starters. They know us, they know what we want to accomplish and their personalities just fit in so perfectly with the development of teamwork on our team. We're very excited about having them as captains."
Bob Green
Excellent choices.
This is a great sign for Quinn and his growth and maturation. Very excited to see this happen. With the new stud freshman PG coming on board, Quinn could have pouted or withdrew. Instead it appears he did the opposite, embracing the freshman, took him under his wing, and took the stance of this being his team to lead. Really great sign and I expect that means we can look for good things from our Sr PG this season.
Happy for him and Amile. Amile seems poised to raise his game up to All-ACC levels. Getting great play and leadership from those two plus Rasheed is critical to the success to this team. They need to lead by example on and off the floor, and get great support from the freshman and underclassmen returnee;s. All that could add up to big things for the season.
Congrats to Amile and Quinn!!
I hope Rasheed also takes a strong leadership role on the roster
In K's comments after coming back from Spain, he praised Quin and Amile, but I did not see him mention Rasheed. I found this potentially concerning, especially on the heels of last year, where there were comments that Rasheed did not put in enough work over the summer and he struggled to produce in the first half of the season. I think Rasheed is potentially the most talented returning player, so it gives me pause we haven't heard more about him from the coaches. Could mean nothing of course--we'll see.
Echo everything said here.
Quinn is vital to this team. If he can correctly channel that emotion, along with his good 3pt shooting, excellent ball-handling skills, and strong distribution skills, he'll be a potential All-ACC.
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced our starting line-up will be Cook-Sulaimon-Winslow-Jefferson-Okafor. That is the perfect combination between offense and defense, size, experience, and talent. I never believed in the Tyus-Cook line up, simply because it looks to be such a liability on D (I'm sure they will play plenty together, but it won't be the most potent line up).
As for Jefferson? If he can provide that communication on D that was so lacking last year, we should be in a great spot. Amile's hustle, mobility, agility, and added strength are going to make him a fun 4 to watch.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
I am with you and don't think its nothing. From the outside, Rasheed has never seemed to be a "coaches dream" in terms of work ethic and "anything for the team" ethos. When he played for Billy Donovan on the USA Teams, it always seemed like Donovan was working hard to come up with a positive spin in his comments. K, obviously, can be much more direct and any praise of Rasheed seems to have been extremely hard earned. However, K has that structure where a guy can earn his way to a captain appointment after the season has started. I think the staff would love to be able to promote Rasheed in that way if he can earn it, and I think we'd all be thrilled to see such a promotion as it would speak to real growth. Fingers crossed, because his talent is obvious.
That being said, I have buried the lede...congrats to Quinn and Amile, but it wouldn't surprise me, depending on Jones current "level" to see Cook as the 6th man spark plug.
Congrats to Quin and Amile. I'm a bit surprised by Sheed's exclusion but not overly so.
congrats to the caps....
i'm getting stoked...
"One POSSIBLE future. From your point of view... I don't know tech stuff.".... Kyle Reese
Yes, I think this is interesting but not necessarily a big deal, and even calling it an "exclusion" might suggest more than is really happening here. Rasheed is, after all, a junior, not a senior. Quinn, as a senior, was the obvious choice, and if he had not been named a captain it would clearly have been significant. But it's not a given that any junior will be a captain. It's more that Amile stood out and earned a captaincy, I think, than that Rasheed was excluded.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Sheed added as Tri-Captain early to mid season (a la Hairston last year).
I would be surprised. Sheed's history up to now has not indicated that this is the direction he's heading in. A mid-season captaincy would point more towards "surprise" than "not a surprise" for me, particularly with Coach K stressing the prestige of the captaincy honor in recent years.
How so?
It would be a drastic (meaning "extreme") turn of events if he were named a captain midseason. I think my reading of his "history" is realistic. He was one of the most talented players on the roster last year, yet began the season in the Coach K doghouse, and struggled to stay in the starting lineup.
I believe there has been a third captain added after the first two the past couple years.
http://www.fayobserver.com/blogs/spo...903b2f647.html
http://www.dukechronicle.com/article...-captain--2014
Not saying Sulaimon will be a captain, just that your "history" argument doesn't support that big yellow bus you're driving over Rasheed.