Originally Posted by
CDu
Yes, all of my examples are not one and dones. Which is kind of the point: one and dones are, by nature, short-term. They don’t get a lot of time to develop. That isn’t to say that none develop: Tatum pretty clearly evolved in his one year, as did Carter this year, Ingram two years ago, and Winslow 3 years ago. But it is hard to really develop one and dones in one year since so much of development happens in the offseason. You said Duke wasn’t developing players anymore. My examples were the counterargument to disprove your point.
Also, the one and dones at Duke have typically not struggled. Duval did, and Giles did thanks to injury. But most were studs in their one year. Parker, Okafor, Jones, Winslow, Irving, Rivers, Ingram, Tatum, Bagley, Carter, Trent. The hit rate is pretty darn good. One or two misses along the way ain’t too shabby: recruiting isn’t an exact science.
[B]I think you are also wrong about the leaving. They aren’t being pushed out. [B/]Trent and/or Duval would have played a TON had they stayed. But they came to Duke seeing themselves as elite, one and done players. It is hard to change that perception. They chose to go, not the other way around. Heck, Duval hinted as such back in February.
And if you don’t think missing on getting one-and-dones to the pros is a bad look, I think you are not paying attention. As a UNC fan, that is expected: your school is pretty much the only one that regularly takes top-10 recruits and convinces them to stay longer, usually at the detriment of their draft stock. The scandal didn’t help with one and dones either, but you are kidding yourself if you think the repeated failure to get top-10 guys to the league in one year hasn’t hurt in recruiting. Fortunately, the holding guys back longer than others worked out, as you managed to get a team loaded with second-tier juniors and seniors for three or four years. That well is likely running dry now. It will be interesting to see what happens with third-tier vets and talented freshmen. Very different than what you have been used to.
As for MSU, it doesn’t get too much grief for Bridges because he is the only example they have had like that. Izzo doesn’t get many top-10 guys to begin with, so he doesn’t have many shots at one and done. Bridges did raise eyebrows by returning, but it takes more than one to screw it up. And they made good with Jackson Jr this year.