MBB: July Recruiting In-Game Thread

[conmanlhughes]

Conman, please forgive me if I missed it, but can you please provide your resume so that we can understand your relationship with the staff?

Thanks,
Chillin

I am Coach K's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.

Lonestar: What's that mean?

Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing. Prepare to lose!

I am a scout premium member, so I know a tad bit of info. Can't tell you anything more or I would have to kill you.

[Billy Dat]

I put this in the 2016 thread but meant to put it here:

Adam Zagoria ‏@AdamZagoria 2h2 hours ago
It's not an exaggeration to say that many of the big-time 2016 and 17 kids are all talking about Duke. They have huge mo on recruiting now.

[BD80]

well, despite the sarcasm, conman happens to be right. Forget Battle...and while you're at it, don't ever expect to see Smith in a Duke uni either.
Now fire away.

Are you declaring a Battle battle?

Smiting o'er Smith?

A Dukie duke-out?

[flyingdutchdevil]

I put this in the 2016 thread but meant to put it here:

Adam Zagoria ‏@AdamZagoria 2h2 hours ago
It's not an exaggeration to say that many of the big-time 2016 and 17 kids are all talking about Duke. They have huge mo on recruiting now.

Wow. I can't say I'm surprised, but wow nonetheless. I guess a) coming off a natty, b) embracing one-and-dones, c) winning with one-and-dones, d) not being a cocky $%&# like Calipari gets players talking.

Furthermore, it's a pretty well known fact that Coach K will retiring sometime in the next decade. You don't have much more time to play for the greatest living coach.

Can we start a endowment for the next coach? I mean, wouldn't Steve Kerr wanna coach at Duke for $10M a year?

[duke79]

Sorry if this is rumor mongering but I have a friend who's son studies with Giles. Apparently his grades aren't very good...

I think this would qualify as "double hearsay". LOL.

But it does raise the somewhat interesting question of what the academic cutoff (in terms of SAT or ACT scores and high school grades) is for an elite basketball recruit (say, a top 5 or 10 player) to be admitted to Duke to play basketball. Obviously, neither the admissions office or the basketball team reveals such info but I sometimes wonder how much leeway the admissions office does give to Coach K in his recruiting. I also wonder if the fact that many of these players will be the OAD's and perhaps never get a Duke degree affects the admissions process for many of these athletes (in terms of more leeway).

[OldPhiKap]

Article on Giles from the Peach Jam:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/...m?v=1436491041

[sagegrouse]

Article on Giles from the Peach Jam:

http://chronicle.augusta.com/sports/...m?v=1436491041

Money quote:

NORTH AUGUSTA — Harry Giles shielded defenders with his body to get space. He ran down the floor to finish off with slams as NBA star Chris Paul cheered from the sideline.

It was the continuation for what could be a special stretch for Giles, the No. 1/No. 2 prospect (ESPN/Rivals) for the 2016 class.

Two years ago, Giles’ knee injury washed away his sophomore year and could have severely damaged his future potential.

[Troublemaker]

TV Alert!

On Sunday, ESPNU will be televising the Peach Jam semifinals live at 9am and 10:30am ET. Then, the championship game will be shown live at 3pm ET.

If your schedule is clear and that sounds like something you'd be interested in watching, please join me in channel-flipping between Wimbledon and high school basketball Sunday morning.

The Duke coaching staff will almost certainly be present, and I'm sure the ESPN cameramen will pan to them often. Jayson Tatum and Wendell Carter both have undefeated teams and could be involved in these playoff games.

Young / Porter's team is struggling and won't make it. Harry Giles' team is at .500 and could still make it but has work to do.

[Clay Feet POF]

TV Alert!

On Sunday, ESPNU will be televising the Peach Jam semifinals live at 9am and 10:30am ET. Then, the championship game will be shown live at 3pm ET.

If your schedule is clear and that sounds like something you'd be interested in watching, please join me in channel-flipping between Wimbledon and high school basketball Sunday morning.

The Duke coaching staff will almost certainly be present, and I'm sure the ESPN cameramen will pan to them often. Jayson Tatum and Wendell Carter both have undefeated teams and could be involved in these playoff games.

Young / Porter's team is struggling and won't make it. Harry Giles' team is at .500 and could still make it but has work to do.

Thanks for the Head's Up. nice to see what we might be getting.

[Bluedog]

I think this would qualify as "double hearsay". LOL.

But it does raise the somewhat interesting question of what the academic cutoff (in terms of SAT or ACT scores and high school grades) is for an elite basketball recruit (say, a top 5 or 10 player) to be admitted to Duke to play basketball. Obviously, neither the admissions office or the basketball team reveals such info but I sometimes wonder how much leeway the admissions office does give to Coach K in his recruiting. I also wonder if the fact that many of these players will be the OAD's and perhaps never get a Duke degree affects the admissions process for many of these athletes (in terms of more leeway).

They give Coach K HUGE leeway to say the least. Having said that, it's a case by case basis. If there is an individual who they truly think cannot deal with Duke academics even with the tutoring services given to them, they will definitely have that conversation with Coach K. In the recent past, Bledsoe did not cut the mustard. I don't think they consider if a player will be one and done at all when making the decision -- just if they can handle the rigors if a Duke education at all.

It's not just the NCAA minimum that Duke goes by, but we're being dishonest if we try to convince ourselves that standards aren't severely relaxed for elite basketball and football players (other sports at Duke have largely different standards, but it varies based on sport and quality of a recruit/how much the coach wants the student athlete). The last time Duke published average SAT scores for the class of 2007, the average for football recruits was 1063 and basketball was 997. That's got to be two standard deviations away from the rest of the student body. Having said all that, we definitely get our fair share of great students on the basketball team as obviously Duke would be appealing to those guys. Zoubek and Ryan Kelly come to mind in the recent past.

[sagegrouse]

They give Coach K HUGE leeway to say the least. Having said that, it's a case by case basis. If there is an individual who they truly think cannot deal with Duke academics even with the tutoring services given to them, they will definitely have that conversation with Coach K. In the recent past, Bledsoe did not cut the mustard. I don't think they consider if a player will be one and done at all when making the decision -- just if they can handle the rigors if a Duke education at all.

It's not just the NCAA minimum that Duke goes by, but we're being dishonest if we try to convince ourselves that standards aren't severely relaxed for elite basketball and football players (other sports at Duke have largely different standards, but it varies based on sport and quality of a recruit/how much the coach wants the student athlete). The last time Duke published average SAT scores for the class of 2007, the average for football recruits was 1063 and basketball was 997. That's got to be two standard deviations away from the rest of the student body. Having said all that, we definitely get our fair share of great students on the basketball team as obviously Duke would be appealing to those guys. Zoubek and Ryan Kelly come to mind in the recent past.

Point #1. Talented athletes everywhere get special consideration from admissions offices. Yep, including the Ivy League -- or maybe, especially the Ivy League. I remember a NY Times article on the surprising rise of football at Division III University of Chicago, an outstanding academic institution at both the undergrad and graduate levels. Football players do have to meet the same standards as everyone else (which maybe I believe); the "special consideration" is that the football coach can walk an application into the admissions office and get an immediate decision. As they say in business, "Time is money" and that is worth a lot.

Point #2. In the K era, let's not forget academic stalwarts, such as:
Jay Bilas
Quin Snyder
Crawford Palmer
Clay Buckley (son of rocket scientist Jay '64)
Trajan Langdon
Taymon Domzalski, MD
Shane Battier
Nick Horvath
Brian Zoubek
Ryan Kelly
And surely others

[conmanlhughes]

FWIW, Suliamon was a participant in the Duke TIP program.

[Duke95]

Should anyone be interested.

https://twitter.com/Bluedevilsreign

Gooch says tomorrow may be a special day for Duke basketball.

[Duvall]

Should anyone be interested.

https://twitter.com/Bluedevilsreign

Gooch says tomorrow may be a special day for Duke basketball.

Gooch is pretty unreliable.

[OldPhiKap]

Peach Jam:

image.jpg

Coaches K, Scheyer, Collins and Wojo.

Also saw Coaces Capel and Nate. Walked in with Johnny Dawkins. Immediately bumped into Bobby Hurlay.

[Duke95]

Gooch is pretty unreliable.

I report. You decide.

[conmanlhughes]

3h3 hours ago
Blue Devil Nation ‏@BlueDevilNation
@Im_that_dude22 Jayson Tatum told me that he would be committed to a school soon during the Nike EYBL Peach Jam.

Peach Jam ends tomorrow.

Woohoo!!

[Troublemaker]

Good to see Jayson getting to the line at such a high rate (and hitting them too!) Draft Express did a recent scouting report on Jayson (and others) and one of the "weaknesses" for JT was that he "barely got to the FT line" in the U19's. They seemed to really like him overall though.

Interestingly, Tatum actually leads the Nike circuit in FTs Made by a wide margin and is 3rd in FT Attempts: http://www.d1circuit.com/page/show/1725297-statistics

I have to think his low numbers in the U19s were just a freaky outlier.

Thanks for the Head's Up. nice to see what we might be getting.

I hope you won't be cursing me tomorrow, though! After posting that heads-up, I thought about previous times I've watched high school basketball, and I'd say 95% of the time it's pretty ugly and unentertaining. Exceptions would be something like the Hoop Summit. Tomorrow, I'll be happy to see the Duke coaching staff on TV and to see one or more of our recruits play for a few minutes, but I'll probably stick to Wimbledon after that.

[Troublemaker]

June 10

* Coach James joined up with the rest of the Duke staff at the Peach Jam, leaving no Duke representatives at the Adidas and Under Armour events yesterday. It's the right move since we have so many more recruits we're interested in at Peach Jam, and the additional assistant helps Duke spread our presence around even more.

* Duke again watched all of our offered recruits, with Tatum, Giles, and Bagley again receiving a lot of love. Duke also showed up 4-deep to Marques Bolden since our presence was sparse with him the previous day. Carter, Young, and Porter also saw Duke coaches at their games. Note: Gary Trent's team didn't win enough to qualify for Peach Jam, so he's entirely missing this weekend. But otherwise, all of our 2016, 2017, and 2018 offered recruits have been watched by the staff the past few days.

* Non-offered recruits we watched were wing DJ Harvey ('17) and center Tony Bradley ('16). Harvey is hoping a Duke offer comes his way soon: http://zagsblog.com/articles/d-j-har...s-recruitment/

* Adam Rowe ‏@BlueDevilLair 17h17 hours ago
Coach K is on celebrity status here at #PeachJam. Just turned down two kids who wanted selfies. Couldn't do it because they're players.

* Best performance by a Duke recruit: Going with Harry Giles' 26 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks performance in a dominating win against a previously undefeated team. He shot 11-13 from the field: http://www.d1circuit.com/game/show/10850894
Correction: I wrote above that Giles' team was .500 but Nike has since corrected the standings. His team is tied for first in the pool and will qualify for the knockout round with one more win.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Peach Jam:

image.jpg

Coaches K, Scheyer, Collins and Wojo.

Also saw Coaces Capel and Nate. Walked in with Johnny Dawkins. Immediately bumped into Bobby Hurlay.

Great pic! You know those guys are lifers, even if the affiliation changes a little. Them, Dawkins, Amaker, and Hurley. What an incredible coaching pedigree being churned out by the program.