Pondering. Pondering. Pondering. This one is going to take a while before I'm ready to vote.
It is a classic matchup of scoring guards. The #1 seeded Jason Williams against the #4 seed Johnny Dawkins. It is our youngest competitor left versus the oldest competitor left.
I am not going to open the poll just yet. But I am opening this thread so folks can post their thoughts and arguments-- their campaign statements. I'll open the thread in a few hours or so and will leave it open until Tuesday at least.
-Jason "this should be fun!!" Evans
Pondering. Pondering. Pondering. This one is going to take a while before I'm ready to vote.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
9F 9F 9F
https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com
How they got here:
#1 seed Jason Williams-
- Won round of 32 vs. #32 seed Tate Armstrong with 89.55%
- Won Sweet 16 vs. #17 seed Danny Ferry with 72.05%
- Won Great 8 vs. #9 seed Mike Gminski with 64.78%
#4 seed Johnny Dawkins-
- Won round of 32 vs. #29 Robert Brickey with 92.76%
- Won Sweet 16 vs. #13 seed Shelden Williams with 83.54%
- Won Great 8 vs. #5 seed Bobby Hurley with 52.72%
--Jason "I think JWill is vulnerable, but that young voting block is strongly behind him" Evans
Being only 21 I don't remember Johnny playing, why I do have great respect for him I have to vote for J.Williams.
Dawkins was more significant historically, and has made a great contribution as a coach as well, but J-Wil could take over a basketball game better than anyone else except maybe, MAYBE Grant Hill. He was also in my graduating class, and brought a title to Duke while I was a student, which is really special to me. Gotta go with J-Wil
JWill vs. Johnny Dawkins
Jason... I hate you for this.
Gotta go with JD. Has given and continues to give his heart and soul to Duke. A couple of tidbits: Wrote a letter to the student body to ask them to leave for Spring Break after, not before, the Duke-UNC game his Senior season. Clued Coach K that the VT defense would leave Dockery open setting up the last second victory two years ago. The cornerstone of Duke's success under K in so many ways.
I can't see the poll...
Early returns:
Johnny leads, 1-0
Early returns- JD leads 12-6 after one hour.
Mine is essentially an historical, rather than a political, argument. As a player, it was Johnny Dawkins who provided the turnaround and established the foundations for what has become the gold standard for college basketball.
JWill was great and did some great things, but he stood on the shoulders of giants, and had the support of Shane, Carlos, and Mike.
As has been mentioned by Ozzie and others, the skew on this poll is trending toward the younger posters. Perhaps that is how it should be as it ensures that the fan commitment needed to carry the program is safe into the future. But hey, young guys (and gals), "don't forget the one who brung us."
Vote JD!
Without JD this board would not exist.
One thing to remember in favor of JWill - he came back to Duke for his junior season when he could have left as a lottery pick after 2 years.
In Alice in Wonderland, the Dodo Bird watched an odd race and said,
"Everyone has won and all must have prizes!"
I feel like the Dodo Bird.
On that note, I voted JD, whose lead has shrunk since Jason's review.
You've probably not noticed but I've stayed away from this because voting for someone seems too much like voting against someone. Who wants to vote against Tate Armstrong or Chris Carrawell? But that's just me.
But I'm going to break my self-imposed moratorium to say a few words about Mr. Dawkins. His stats sure look impressive on paper. 2556 points. Two-time consenseus first-team All-America. Only Duke player to make All-ACC four seasons. Only Duke player to lead the team in scoring four seasons. 1986 Naismith winner. [ as an aside, both JD and JWill were national players of the year without being ACC players of the year; an interesting accomplishment]
But look at the context. On March 5, 1982 Duke finished its season with an 88-53 loss to Wake Forest in the first round of the ACC Tournament. The loss was Duke's 17th, a school record for futility. Mike Krzyzewski inherited three future NBA players from Bill Foster. But Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard were seniors, Vince Taylor was a junior.
Mike Krzyzewski's first two recruiting classes produced exactly one ACC-caliber starter, Dan Meagher, and he was a role player. Krzyzewski was sending Todd Anderson against Ralph Sampson, Doug McNeely against James Worthy, Greg Wendt against Michael Jordan, and it wasn't pretty. The wolves were at the door and not just Valvano's wolves. Coaching is one thing but you don't win in the ACC unless you can bring in talent and there were plenty of critics who maintained that Krzyzewski was in over his head.
Krzyzewski got early committments from the class of '82 from Bill Jackman and Weldon Williams, top-100 talents who never played much at Duke. Jay Bilas was next and Bilas was higher on the charts but still not a prep All-American. Duke needed a statement player. Desperately.
Then only a few days after the loss to Wake, Mike Krzyzewski got the call he had been waiting for. Johnny Dawkins was coming to Durham. Make no mistake, Johnny Dawkins was nobody's sleeper. He was a McDonald's All-American, a Parade All-American. He could have gone anywhere. Digger Phelps wanted him so badly he couldn't stand it. Lefty Driesell, Providence, pretty much the entire Big East. But Dawkins told them no, told Krzyzewski yes, and Duke basketball was on the way back up the charts. Mark Alarie picked Duke a few weeks later, then David Henderson, a few weeks after that, and Tommy Amaker the following season and all cited the presence of Johnny Dawkins as a key factor in their decisions.
It didn't happen overnight and JD would be the first to tell you he didn't do it alone. But to a man, Alarie, Amaker, Ferry, and the rest will tell you they got in line behind Johnny Dawkins and followed his lead. And Dawkins did it without preening, with strutting, but with a grace and composure that was even more chilling to opponents than any amount of taunting. We've won before and we're going to win again. We've been here. Get used to it.
I make no claim that Mike Krzyzewski couldn't have done it without Dawkins. Fortunately, we'll never have to find out. But he sure did it with Johnny Dawkins, a player who combined natural talent, skill, hard work, and class as well as anyone could have. So JD gets my vote.
Looks like I broke an 18-18 tie with my vote for JWill.
If this were a vote for "most important to Duke" then JD all the way, but it isn't, it's favorite, and I can't help it, JWill's smile is contagious.
I can't believe we are at a 43-43 tie. JD started it all. I know many on this board are too young to remember him, but come on old timers, get out the vote.
JD gets my vote. JWill was my second favorite until his lapse in judgement with a motorcycle...he is still a favorite but 4th for me in this final four.