Originally Posted by
JasonEvans
Ok--
2008 -
Sylven Landesberg is a top 40 recruit from Flushing. I think that qualifies as being from NYC. He's headed to Virginia and is a 6-6 wing. He also looked at Ga Tech, Kentucky, Texas, and St John's. Seems like a kid K could have gone after, though we are loaded to the gills with wings and he is not the prospect that Eric Williams is.
Kemba Walker is a top 30 PG from the Big Apple. He is headed to UConn. I suppose we could have gone after him, though the year after getting Nolan Smith it doesn't make much sense. Plus, he was recruited by Memphis, Cincy, and a few other schools that typically do not go after the same calliber of student as Duke does. Knowing only who recruited him, I'd say he is not much of a fit at Duke.
2007-
The only NYC kid in the top 100 was Justin Burrell, who was only barely in the top-100. He is a PF who went to St John's. The schools recruiting him were not top caliber (UTEP, Fordham, Drexel, Delaware) though Ga Tech and Marquette had at least some interest. He's just not a kid Duke is likely to go after.
2006-
Curtis Kelley was a top-30 PF recruit from New York City who went to UConn and got looks from plenty of big programs including UNC, Louisville, Texas, and a few others. Still, this line in his recruiting bio gave me pause: "Missed first half of high school season due to academics." That is code for "not going to Duke."
2006 also featured Taj Gibson from Brooklyn (he attended a year of prep school in California so I am not sure where to classify him as being from) who went to USC and Edgar Sosa from NYC who went to Louisville. Both of these guys were top 50-ish recruits who have turned into nice players. Gibson, especially, would be welcome at Duke with his presence inside (he's a fierce rebounder). That said, the type of schools recruiting them does not lead me to believe that they would fit in well in the Duke community.
And that line probably sums much of this up. Duke does not even look at a huge percentage of the top recruits because they are kids who would not fit at our school academically or socially. It is not us being elitist, it is just the reality of the kind of players who thrive at Duke. With Duke recruiting limited in this way and NYC only representing a tiny fraction of the top 50 or so recruits each year (1 or 2 of them seems typical) the odds of a NYC kid being a Duke kinda kid and seems remote.
--Jason "I don't think K has any negative feelings about NYC -- though he does seem to have close ties to New Jersey kids" Evans