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tecumseh
10-01-2007, 08:08 PM
Let's assume for a moment that team USA wins gold in impressive fashion at the Olympics next summer what does that mean for Duke? Does it help recruitment? How much a little or a lot?

wilson
10-01-2007, 08:39 PM
I'd think it would help quite a lot. First, it would quite simply be another feather in K's cap. Being able to claim that is yet another concrete piece of evidence that he's a phenomenal coach, truly one of the best in the biz.
But more importantly for recruiting purposes, it shows that he understands NBA players and personalities. While the international game is very different than NBA basketball in certain respects, his ability to mold the team so effectively in such a short time, I think, demonstrates an ability to mold competitive NBA players. Coupled with the Duke grads' great NBA success in the last 5 years or so, I think a recruit with his eye on eventually playing in the NBA has to think harder and harder about Duke. Winning gold with NBA players would strike another blow against perhaps the foremost knock on the program in the last couple of decades, that it doesn't produce elite pro players, or that K can't properly prepare his players to compete there.

mapei
10-01-2007, 09:50 PM
I think it also could help with the tsunami. That too could have a positive effect on recruiting. Anything less, though, and the haters will pile on yet again.

throatybeard
10-01-2007, 10:41 PM
I think it also could help with the tsunami. That too could have a positive effect on recruiting. Anything less, though, and the haters will pile on yet again.

I've long thought the Olympics are close to a no-win for Krzyzewski. If the US wins, then everyone considers it an expected non-failure. Any less than gold, and the media pile on Krzyzewski.

tecumseh
10-02-2007, 12:27 AM
I've long thought the Olympics are close to a no-win for Krzyzewski. If the US wins, then everyone considers it an expected non-failure. Any less than gold, and the media pile on Krzyzewski.
I would beg to differ, not after Athens. I doubt people remember much about the last couple of World Championships but people do realize we did not do too well in the last Olympics. I think it is a great opportunity, now if the USA wins again the next coach has a no win situation.

gep
10-02-2007, 12:37 AM
A comment from the "grim" side... Team USA wins GOLD, Coach K has coached, not "in the NBA", but the NBA stars. So, why would he want to go to the NBA, and have to coach a "real" NBA team. And, he's already has 3 NC's, 10 FF's, etc... why would he want to coach more college. He's at the top... as they say, the best thing is to "go out on top". I've heard before that Coach K sees the Olympics as the only "remaining" goal for him... so if he gets it, then what?

Me... I hope this actually re-energizes him for college, puts a new perspective on his coaching, and gets Duke to the top for many more years to come.

dukeENG2003
10-02-2007, 08:26 AM
his speech at the GPSC campout led me to believe that the Team USA experience has only re-energized him. He was saying how he and the coaching staff are already in mid season form, and want to play NOW.

I see him as using this experience to understand new aspects of the game. As he always has done, he will try and integrate the good things he's learning by coaching such a different game. Its not so much the NBA players that make it different, but the international game. I think he might be learning a bit from watching the other teams play as well. I have no doubt he will, as always, find something positive out of the experience, and use it to only make us better.

trinity92
10-02-2007, 10:13 AM
Winning gold in Beijing would be a huge boost for the Duke program. If you followed this summer's Pan Am games, every NBA player, especially Kobe and Bron, raved about the experience, how the team is really a team, and they've been heaping praise on K. Honestly, listening to Bill Walton gush over Coach was verging on embarrassing-- he would never shut up.

Problem is, not many people watched the games or read the press coverage-- the games were on cable pretty late at night. Moreover, I'd guess this board is far from representative of the average sports fan, let alone the average viewer/newspaper reader, not only because we're more into basketball and sports in general but because of our connection to Coach K and our vested interest in how the team does. I just don't think the average person knew or cared about the Pan Am games, which, after all, are just a qualifier that we always win.

The Olympics are a different story altogether-- big coverage in magazines and daily spotlight in the paper. Prime-time games are very possible and they'll be on network tv. Viewers and readers will be able to see the team play, hear and read all the accolades for the Coach. As long as we win, I call it a HUGE score for K and Duke. If we lose, however. . .

dukeENG2003
10-02-2007, 11:10 AM
minor correction, it was the Tournament of the America's, not the Pan-Am games. Thats a seperate event, involving college atheletes (that we finished 5th in). Jay Wright was the coach, and we sorely lacked outside shooting (confusingly, Chris Lofton was cut from that team).

trinity92
10-02-2007, 12:05 PM
minor correction, it was the Tournament of the America's, not the Pan-Am games. Thats a seperate event, involving college atheletes (that we finished 5th in). Jay Wright was the coach, and we sorely lacked outside shooting (confusingly, Chris Lofton was cut from that team).

Count me as your Ugly American of the day.

:p

tecumseh
10-02-2007, 02:17 PM
Let's not forget how the Olympics are telecast, they pick a few feel good stories and beat them to death. The Mens basketball team could easily emerge as the stars of the Olympics. Let's also not forget the NBA has made a good display of the stars a HUGE priority to showcase the league and new talent.

Clipsfan
10-02-2007, 08:37 PM
Let's also not forget that we're not trying to reach the average sports fan, but rather the die hard basketball fans (most likely). Our basketball recruiting targets are likely to follow basketball in general more closely.

trinity92
10-03-2007, 09:51 AM
Let's also not forget that we're not trying to reach the average sports fan, but rather the die hard basketball fans (most likely). Our basketball recruiting targets are likely to follow basketball in general more closely.

We're trying to reach the recruits' parents, relatives and friends just as much as the recruits themselves.

Olympic Fan
10-03-2007, 11:17 AM
I can't imagine that winning the gold (whether impressively or not) could be anything other than a major plus for Coach K and, by reflection, the Duke program.

You can be sure the network doing the games will drum home how this team is trying to recapture American dominance in the sport after almost seven years of struggle. The casual fans will be reminded over and over of the failures in the 2004 games and the 2002 and 2006 world championships. K will be praised for succeeding where NBA veterans (and UNC guys) Larry Brown and George Karl failed.

Plus, it can't hurt with potential recruits to hear guys like Kobe and LeBron singing Coach K's praises.

Could the Olympic experience be a negative?

I think yes ... not so much if the team plays hard, together and merely fails to win the gold. Finishing third in Athens didn't really hurt Larry Brown's reputation. If Team USA come up short, the Duke-haters will pile on, but they hate us anyway, so bid deal. There will be some criticism that we shouldn't have had a college coach coaching pro guys, but I doubt that impacts Duke's program. It will just mean that the next Olympic coach won't be a college guy (I think it will be D'Antonio anyway).

The only thing that could be a real negative for Duke is if this team falls apart and the players start sniping at the coaches. We got just a tiny preview a year ago when Arenas was cut and he ripped K as he went home. In context, it sounded like the disgruntled whining of a selfish player ... but if four or five players off a disappointing team sound off in similar fashion, that could have a negative impact on K's reputation with recruits.

I don't expect that to happen. I think the US will be the favorite in Beijing. I don't base that on the Tournament of Americas -- a rout of mostly second-tier international teams (Argentina, our biggest challenger from this hemisphere had already qualified for the Olympics and didn't send its best team). But our showing a summer earlier in Japan, when we finished a strong third (losing one close game) against the best in the world with a Kobe-less, Kidd-less, big man-less team that was just learning to play together gives me confidence that we'll win the gold in Beijing.

And there's no way that could hurt K's reputation or the Duke program.

tecumseh
10-03-2007, 02:07 PM
I don't mean to sound politcally incorrect but Coach K and Duke has gottern a reputation of being maybe "too white" for some recruits tastes and more importantly the tastes of those whispering in their ears. To have Kobe and Lebron and Carmello singing his praises has to help that a lot.

wilson
10-03-2007, 02:19 PM
I don't mean to sound politcally incorrect but Coach K and Duke has gottern a reputation of being maybe "too white" for some recruits tastes and more importantly the tastes of those whispering in their ears. To have Kobe and Lebron and Carmello singing his praises has to help that a lot.

I disagree with that. I think the "too white" argument was the stuff of the early '90s. Brand, Boozer, Maggette, et al pretty much discounted that, as evidenced by our continued securing of players like Gerald Henderson, Lance Thomas, Nolan Smith, etc.

tecumseh
10-03-2007, 05:03 PM
Last years team seemed a little pale to me and was that the code word working in the loss of the Patterson kid.