Originally Posted by
Kedsy
For those who believe Antonio Vrankovic and Jack White are known commodities who have shown they can play at this level, consider this: last season, if you don't count the 50 point blowout against Georgia Tech, Antonio played a total of 10 minutes against ACC competition (he also played 1 minute against ACC competition in 2015-16), and Jack played a total of 6 minutes against ACC competition (for comparison's sake, Marques played 106 minutes against ACC competition, not counting Ga Tech).
So, we have two guys (Antonio and Jack) who were ranked outside the top 200 coming out of high school and who essentially haven't played in any college game that matters. On what, exactly, are people basing their opinions that either of these guys have shown enough to warrant future playing time? I mean, I guess almost anything's possible, but to say that Antonio is going to beat out Marques or Javin for playing time, or that Jack is going to beat out Jordan T or even Alex for playing time, is actually much more of a wild hunch than that of the people who are enamored with the "shiny new toys," because those shiny toys have at least been evaluated as pretty good by the recruiting experts.
I'll take that challenge.
First, [all together now] "RSCI is prologue, not destiny." If only the Bard had been around to post on DBR! Still trying to figure out how anyone was able to put a ranking on a player who never played here -- but, whatever. Vrank is the classic late bloomer, whose coordination is still developing, and whose HS play was fairly wooden, and I don't mean John.
Second, why will Vrank and Jack play in 2018? Because they are two of only five players who have been part of the Duke program for more than two weeks and have been taught how K wants to run defense. Casting a gimlet eye at the in-coming crowd: the freshmen will have no clue about Duke-style team defense until January -- at best.
Third, the most underappreciated players going into a new season are the veterans on the bench -- everyone focuses on the rookies and the returning stars.
I expect both to play a good bit -- although Mo Bamba might affect Vrank's time on the court.
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