It's true.
Can anyone confirm this?
It's true.
That was sudden.
well then, can i get his ticket to the Duke/Carolina game?
It was very disappointing that he didn't make the UNC visit. He chose Florida over Duke. He had wanted to commit early and Duke thought the had a good chance. Duke was his second choice, not that we care anymore. I suppose this opens up the recruiting of Deshaun Painter or a stud from Michigan.
This sucks but at least it's early enough that we can focus on someone else and at least it's not Boynton or Echenique
I'd love to make some wry comment re: the recruiting thread, but I'm just sad. This is the second guy who didn't even feel the need to take a visit. Missing on a guy is one thing, but an offhand "meh, no need to hear your pitch, no thanks" is tremendously discouraging.
Hope we can land Ech and Painter.
I'm a Duke alum who made his decision to attend Duke after a visit.
So, this will paint me as a big jerk, but those who have expressed interest in Duke, and then pick another program without a visit are guys I root against, no matter how great a kid they are etc.
yes, this is not logical. yes, this makes me an arrogant, obnoxious, elitist Duke fan. yes I shouldn't hold it against those kids. Whatever. I do. I'll ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur.
“I’m trying to visit Miami. I’ve been talking to the guys. Something that’s important to me is a diverse culture with a lot of Hispanic people because I’m far away from home. I care about something like that."
This is a quote from Echenique, according to a Terp poster.
Cause we clearly need some perspective.
Now we've missed out on the first of the four "targets" and we'll be working from behind with other big men like Painter or Riley. That's a great position to be in.
And I suspect it's a position we'll be in with at least one of the other three "targets" for this class. And we'll have no backup plan.
It's been confirmed on other sites, I believe.
Keep whistling in the dark though. All is well!
Murphy had said for a while that Florida was in the lead for his services. When it was brought up here, it was widely discounted.
Perhaps the board needs to be more receptive to things that are valid, instead of dismissing them because the board does not wish thim to be true.
Patrick Yates
This news just made me laugh out loud.
Please, please, please DBR optimists, lecture me on why my concerns about Duke's recent frontcourt recruiting is misplaced and outrageous.
Great timing to have TWO articles stating that we all need perspective.
And, still, for the record, I'd love to eat crow on this.
I consider myself an optimist when it comes to Duke recruiting, but us missing our targest seems to be happening more and more. But we still have 3 left and if we can get Boynton and Enichique (sp?) I will be happy. In other words, my glass is still half full, but it seems someone keeps taking sips when I'm not looking.
I'm going to call BS on this unless you can link me. Show me the series of posts where you (I'm assuming you're the "wizened sage" from your post title) reported this and then it was widely discounted.
Because anyone who follows recruiting knew that Murphy was the longshot of the 4 targets, so I doubt you broke the news. If yesterday someone had told me that one of the Group of 4 would commit elsewhere today, and I had to guess which, I would've put all my money on Murphy. I'm pretty sure the people who follow recruiting like watzone would've done the same.
So, although you were probably kidding, you're not a sage, and it's sort of silly to even begin to couch the acts of reading recruiting articles and regurgitating them in those terms. It ain't rocket surgery.
As for the news itself, this makes Echenique a ridiculously important recruit to get, and I DO wish there were more offers out there to other big men. That said, if the staff bats 1.000 from here on out and Ech, Boynton, and McDonald all commit, then it would be a great recruiting season with needs having been met.
See, the question is: does Duke need 2 big men from this class, or is 1 enough? I would say 2 would be nice but 1 is enough (but also necessary, making Ech very important to nab).
The 2010 roster would have Jr. King and Sr. Thomas at the 4 and Sr. Zoubek and Fr. Echenique at the 5 even if Singler is gone. Then, one year later, Thomas and Zoubek go away and you'd still be left with Sr. King at the 4 and So. Echenique at the 5 but making it necessary to get 1 or 2 big men from the class of 2010 to serve as freshman backups. Hopefully So. Czyz will have developed enough to pitch in a bit as well.
Losing Murphy increases the importance of getting a big from 2010 but as long as Echenique comes, things are fine. Echenique MUST come, though, and that's where it's scary to not have multiple offers.
Backups are neat.
The idea that "Ech is enough" is, to me, symptomatic of the problem we've been having. How many people thought: "Josh is enough. He's the #1 overall prospect, has height, hops, and can see the floor so well." He wasn't enough.
At some level even Shel, as great as he was, wasn't enough. He spent his entire career in danger of quick fouls and we were absolutely blessed that he never had a major injury. Still, in four successive seasons we flamed out when other big guys (Collison, Okafor, M. State's front line, Big Baby/Thomas) took advantage of this liability. One real post player (and I say again, after 1.5 years we have no one I consider a legit 5 right now) is subject to injury, fatigue, foul trouble, not developing, etc. (Not that we've seen any of these at Duke . . .)
Ech is an overwhelmingly important priority and would make us worlds better. But leaving him on an island is an invitation for trouble. Give me Ech and one more (Painter?) and I'll feel good.
Never thought Duke would be so desperate that the 45th ranked player (i know rankings aren't always accurate) would be the difference in legitimately competing for a title.