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ice-9
07-22-2009, 06:56 AM
I found this article through a post in a different thread, but I thought it was interesting enough that it deserved its own thread so people won't miss it (mods feel free to delete if you disagree).

It's a great interview with on-the-point questions -- http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=uwire-qampadukebasketballassista&prov=uwire&type=lgns

Some interesting tidbits:

- The coaching staff felt that three scholarship guards (Nolan, Scheyer, Ewill) + Jordan was more than enough depth

- Staff feels that Jordan is talented enough to play in real games -- awesome news!

- Pocius was set to go to Europe for a while so they didn't really try to convince him to stay for a 5th year

- The coaches feel that Singler's natural position in college is small forward. This is interesting to me only because I remember so many posters here insisting Singler is better suited at the 4 than the 3. I don't want to say I told you so but...........I told you so :D

- Lakers recruited Coach K hard back in 2004

No mention of Dawkins, but little surprise there until a formal announcement is made.

theAlaskanBear
07-22-2009, 08:49 AM
I thought the statements about USA basketball were particularly interesting:

the USA program fulfills Coach K's curiousity about the NBA and his desires to coach the very best players in the world at the highest level of competition (not that the Olympics are equal to the NBA, but you get the idea, best players, stiff competition, national pride).

CDu
07-22-2009, 08:50 AM
I found this article through a post in a different thread, but I thought it was interesting enough that it deserved its own thread so people won't miss it (mods feel free to delete if you disagree).

It's a great interview with on-the-point questions -- http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=uwire-qampadukebasketballassista&prov=uwire&type=lgns

Some interesting tidbits:

- The coaching staff felt that three scholarship guards (Nolan, Scheyer, Ewill) + Jordan was more than enough depth

- Staff feels that Jordan is talented enough to play in real games -- awesome news!

- Pocius was set to go to Europe for a while so they didn't really try to convince him to stay for a 5th year

- The coaches feel that Singler's natural position in college is small forward. This is interesting to me only because I remember so many posters here insisting Singler is better suited at the 4 than the 3. I don't want to say I told you so but...........I told you so :D

- Lakers recruited Coach K hard back in 2004

No mention of Dawkins, but little surprise there until a formal announcement is made.

That's a nice interview, though I have to believe that the Davidson comment is just talking up the team. I'll be very surprised to see him get significant playing time this year. Nothing I've seen from him suggests ACC-caliber guard. But hopefully he proves me wrong and is an ACC-caliber guard. It'd be nice to have a third (or fourth if Dawkins does make it) guard.

Also, I think it remains to be seen whether Singler's best position in college is small forward. I'm not sold just because of that quote. But we're going to see it happen either way so hopefully they're right. I certainly think Singler is better suited for the 4 than the 2, which is where he'd have to play a lot if we don't get Dawkins and if Davidson isn't up to ACC level. But hopefully the coaching staff is right - they certainly know more basketball than me. But I'll reserve judgment for when I see Singler dominate on the wing. He'll be trading off an advantage in quickness (when he played the 4/5) for an advantage in size (moving to the 3). Hopefully that works to his advantage and not to the advantage of the opponent.

The Pocius discussion is indeed interesting if true. It's disappointing that he didn't want to return, but I can't blame him for wanting to go back to Europe and pursue a professional career.

And for all of those that say Duke doesn't have positions, Collins seems to mention small forward an awful lot. :)

_Gary
07-22-2009, 09:03 AM
I won't use the word "concerned", but I'll just say I found it a bit strange for Chris to keep referring to Kyle as a guard very matter-of-factly. Just strange. I agree very much with CDu that I think Kyle is a better 4 than a 2. Not even close in my mind. Can he play the 3? I'm sure he can and if/when he plays with the big boys (i.e. NBA) I'm sure that would be his natural position, so might as well get going now on it. But for Chris to keep referring to Duke's guards and putting Singler there was a little weird, IMHO. Guess we shall see.

Hope Dawkins is a done deal for this year. I still say we need him to have a 3 guard rotation, and play Kyle more at the small forward spot. I know, I know... Duke doesn't play positions. But you guys know what I mean.


Gary

mo.st.dukie
07-22-2009, 09:39 AM
Offensively, Kyle has played like a guard the last two years. I know he was technically our "4" but most of his points came from 3's, mid-range, or drives to the hoop. There were times when he would be down low and benefit from a nice assist by Greg, Jon, or Nolan, or he would get a put-back but alot of the time he was on the perimeter. Defensively is where the biggest change for Kyle will be IMO but even then he has defended guards before on switches. I think his full talent will shine through by playing more of a full-time guard and having bigger players alongside him. And he will still be able to play like a "4" on occassion because Mason/Ryan could float out on the perimeter, Lance/Miles could be at the high post and Singler could post up a small guard in a high-low invert type of play.

I'm pretty sure coaches are not allowed to talk about unsigned recruits. Since Dawkins is neither signed nor enrolled it's no surprise that Collins talked about Davidson being a fourth guard.

CDu
07-22-2009, 09:47 AM
Offensively, Kyle has played like a guard the last two years. I know he was technically our "4" but most of his points came from 3's, mid-range, or drives to the hoop. There were times when he would be down low and benefit from a nice assist by Greg, Jon, or Nolan, or he would get a put-back but most of the time he was on the perimeter. Defensively is where the biggest change for Kyle will be IMO but even then he has defended guards before on switches. I think his full talent will shine through by playing more of a full-time guard and having bigger players alongside him.

There's a difference between playing like a guard and actually playing guard. Kyle has played like a guard, but mostly against guys who are not guards. The reason I think Kyle's best position in college is at the 4 is because it allows him to pull bigger guys out onto the perimeter and take advantage of their discomfort out there by attacking them off the dribble. I think that advantage is somewhat mitigated against quicker perimeter players who are comfortable defending out there.

As for defense, defending quicker players has not been his strong suit. He has had to do it on switches, but I don't think he's shown to be consistently good at it.

I will say that I think I prefer Singler at the 3 than having him at the 5. But I still think the college 4 (which typically translates to NBA 3) is his natural position. On this team though, that's not going to be an option. He's going to play pretty much exclusively at the 3 I think, because we have a lot of bigs and not a lot of small/quicks.


I'm pretty sure coaches are not allowed to talk about unsigned recruits. Since Dawkins is neither signed nor enrolled it's no surprise that Collins talked about Davidson being a fourth guard.

That is correct. I think it's coach-speak talking about the roster as is, because he can't talk about Dawkins until Dawkins enrolls (or until he signs a letter-of-intent for the 2010-2011 season if he happens to not come this year). I'll be surprised if Davidson sees significant PT.

NovaScotian
07-22-2009, 10:06 AM
- The coaching staff felt that three scholarship guards (Nolan, Scheyer, Ewill) + Jordan was more than enough depth

- Staff feels that Jordan is talented enough to play in real games -- awesome news!


I agree that Jordan is talented enough to get ~5 minutes a game with this kind of rotation, but I thought a few months ago we heard that he was leaving? Has the team announced his return?

WWJDD?

msdukie
07-22-2009, 10:26 AM
Keep in mind that this is just a new reprint of a JULY 2 Chronicle article:

http://sports.chronicleblogs.com/2009/07/02/catching-up-with-chris-collins/

Yes, Jordan will be back next year.

CDu
07-22-2009, 10:32 AM
Keep in mind that this is just a new reprint of a JULY 2 Chronicle article:

http://sports.chronicleblogs.com/2009/07/02/catching-up-with-chris-collins/

Yes, Jordan will be back next year.

I was going to ask about that. It seemed like it might have been an older article based on the questions asked. It is hard to tell though, as Collins still can't talk about Dawkins anyway.

Of course, according to some, the "Dawkins to Duke early" process has been in the works for a while. So the only difference between the interview a month ago and an interview now might be that the reporter would ask a Dawkins question and Collins would say something like "I'm not at liberty to talk about things like that."

ACCBBallFan
07-22-2009, 10:04 PM
It was 3 years ago but Kyle was SF-1 (not a PF) andTop 10 in a class which was strong enough that most if not all of his then peers are now in the NBA.

I was more thankful to hear coach Collins essentially say Miles and Z would share as many post minutes as they could handle.

Ryan was PF-4 and Mason PF-6 on scouts and C-2 on ESPN Insiders. Miles was PF-14 but has since bulked up to 245 pounds and retained some balhandling and passing skills.


"... guys like Lance Thomas and Kelly, Mason and Plumlee, (edit - intersting how one is Mason and his brother is Plumlee) those guys will have to help us with ball-handling. Lance especially will have to be able to guard other teams’ wing players, really the way we’ve defended the last couple of years with a lot of switching…. More defensively, you’ll see that Lance and Kyle have to guard more perimeter guys and then there’s no question that Jon and Nolan will have to be in the kind of shape to log a lot of minutes and take a lot of our ball-handling responsibilities and our guard duties.

TD: I talked to Scheyer, Zoubek and Thomas last week about the freshmen coming in and I get the impression that they are mobile big-men that like to play on the perimeter a fair amount. Is that an accurate assessment?

CC: Yeah, there’s no question. They are both really skilled, they both have good ball-skills. They can handle the ball, they can pass, they both have range to the three point line, they can both move. With Ryan being 6’10 and Mason being 6’11 they’re long-armed, they’re big bodies and they are very mobile big men....


"Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly are two of the better big men in this class. We feel that getting two McDonald’s All-Americans at 6’10 and 6’11, we are very happy with where our frontline is. We feel Miles Plumlee is going to be an outstanding post-player, and we feel that Brian Zoubek as a senior is going to have a great year."

I don't think this was as much coach party line as the Davidsson quote