Originally Posted by
CenOhioDukeFan
Since 2003, K has put 3 guard lineups on the floor for Duke and I don't see that ending anytime soon with the players we'll have over the next couple years. From Duhon, Redick and Ewing, to Redick, Ewing and Dockery, to Redick, Dockery and Paulus, to Paulus, Scheyer and Nelson, to Paulus, Nelson and Henderson, Duke has had some sucess with 3 guard lineups in the regular season but failed miserably in the NCAA Tournament.
Seems like during this 6 year-3-guard lineup run we're always getting outrebounded and with our switching defense on picks, we always get stuck with a 6'+ guard on some 6'7" forward inside and give up easy baskets. Go back to K's great teams and they were always built on 6'6" - 6'9" athletic wing forwards that could guard anyone on the floor, could run the court and finish, and could rebound the ball inside with our centers. (6'8" Mark Alarie, 6'6" David Henderson, 6'7" Brian Davis, 6'8" Grant Hill, 6'8" Tony Lang, 6'8" Roshown McCleod, 6'6" Chris Carrawell, 6'8" Shane Battier, 6'6" Nate James, 6'9" Mike Dunleavy, 6'6" Dahnte Jones, 6'8" Luol Deng....just to name some). For some reason, we've quit recruiting a lot of these type of players for our 12 man teams. Now, because we're putting three 6'0" - 6'3" guards on the floor at all times, maybe these type of players are no longer looking at Duke because if we have more than one (Singler) , there'll be no quality playing time for them!!!
I've always felt 3 guard lineups were for the cute mid-majors (Butler, Belmont, Valpo, Davidson) that couldn't recruit with the big boys for big, athletic forwards and had to make do with having 3 guards on the floor at all times. Have we slipped so much in recruiting we're now always going to be the small team on the floor??
Your thoughts?