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Sterling
08-29-2016, 06:49 PM
Hey everyone,

This is only my second post on this board, but thought you guys might be interested in seeing my preview for your Blue Devils.

http://therunnerports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

It may come as no surprise to you, but I think this is the most talented team of the One-and-Done era. Let me know what you think and if there is anything I missed/should know about you team for this upcoming season.

devildeac
08-29-2016, 07:13 PM
Hey everyone,

This is only my second post on this board, but thought you guys might be interested in seeing my preview for your Blue Devils.

http://therunnerports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

It may come as no surprise to you, but I think this is the most talented team of the One-and-Done era. Let me know what you think and if there is anything I missed/should know about you team for this upcoming season.

Both posts=excellent

Thanks!

Welcome to DBR!

Sporks included. ;)

Tripping William
08-29-2016, 07:34 PM
Both posts=excellent

Thanks!

Welcome to DBR!

Sporks included. ;)

Agreed. Welcome! If you enjoy ACC hoops, puns, beer-talk, advanced metrics, endless hand-wringing about minutes distribution, Chicken Little-like worries about transfers or first weekend exits, and a hyper-focus on spelling players' names, this is a place you should visit regularly. :)

Seriously, the discussion here is first-rate. Please continue to provide your insights.

Edouble
08-29-2016, 08:31 PM
Hey everyone,

This is only my second post on this board, but thought you guys might be interested in seeing my preview for your Blue Devils.

http://therunnerports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

It may come as no surprise to you, but I think this is the most talented team of the One-and-Done era. Let me know what you think and if there is anything I missed/should know about you team for this upcoming season.

The link is bad.

Here is the correct link (I can't believe I'm having to do this):

http://therunnersports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

IMHO, I think you might need one more draft on the article. Things like:

"Coach K is the only men’s basketball coach with over 1,000 career wins and has amassed a record of 1043-321 over his career."
-lacks parallel structure, but if you insist, should at least be "he has amassed a record..."

"His coaching career can be traced all the way to 1974 where he was an assistant under Bob Knight at Indiana University."
-should be "traced all the way to 1974 when he was an assistant..."

"Sean Obi transferred into Duke following his freshman year at Rice"
-I think he either transferred to Duke, or transferred into the Duke program, but transferred into Duke?

There is also a fair amount of content that I have issues with, eg

"Jeter was highly touted as a freshman but didn’t do much in his first season at Duke."
-you follow up with no explanation as to why you feel this way.

"The Blue Devils had a balanced scoring attack with four guys averaging more than 10 points after Jefferson went down."
-I would not describe last season's offense as a "balanced scoring attack", but I guess that's debatable.

"Kennard proved he wasn’t shy last season, averaging just under five three-pointers a game as a freshman..."
-Luke did not average five three-pointers/game last year. He may have averaged five three-point attempts per game.

I kept finding little things like this in pretty much every paragraph. It just seemed like the article needed a bit more attention to detail. JMHO.

Sterling
08-29-2016, 09:29 PM
The link is bad.

Here is the correct link (I can't believe I'm having to do this):

http://therunnersports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

IMHO, I think you might need one more draft on the article. Things like:

"Coach K is the only men’s basketball coach with over 1,000 career wins and has amassed a record of 1043-321 over his career."
-lacks parallel structure, but if you insist, should at least be "he has amassed a record..."

"His coaching career can be traced all the way to 1974 where he was an assistant under Bob Knight at Indiana University."
-should be "traced all the way to 1974 when he was an assistant..."

"Sean Obi transferred into Duke following his freshman year at Rice"
-I think he either transferred to Duke, or transferred into the Duke program, but transferred into Duke?

There is also a fair amount of content that I have issues with, eg

"Jeter was highly touted as a freshman but didn’t do much in his first season at Duke."
-you follow up with no explanation as to why you feel this way.

"The Blue Devils had a balanced scoring attack with four guys averaging more than 10 points after Jefferson went down."
-I would not describe last season's offense as a "balanced scoring attack", but I guess that's debatable.

"Kennard proved he wasn’t shy last season, averaging just under five three-pointers a game as a freshman..."
-Luke did not average five three-pointers/game last year. He may have averaged five three-point attempts per game.

I kept finding little things like this in pretty much every paragraph. It just seemed like the article needed a bit more attention to detail. JMHO.

Thank you for that on the link, I don't know what happened with that. I'll have to work on all the little things a bit more before I submit something to be published next time.

sagegrouse
08-30-2016, 12:36 AM
Thank you for that on the link, I don't know what happened with that. I'll have to work on all the little things a bit more before I submit something to be published next time.

Thanks for your patience in putting up with our minutia.

The internet has made copy-editing obsolete, but "obsolete" is not the same as "unnecessary."

JPtheGame
08-30-2016, 01:06 AM
The link is bad.

Here is the correct link (I can't believe I'm having to do this):

http://therunnersports.com/2016-duke-basketball-preview/

IMHO, I think you might need one more draft on the article. Things like:

"Coach K is the only men’s basketball coach with over 1,000 career wins and has amassed a record of 1043-321 over his career."
-lacks parallel structure, but if you insist, should at least be "he has amassed a record..."

"His coaching career can be traced all the way to 1974 where he was an assistant under Bob Knight at Indiana University."
-should be "traced all the way to 1974 when he was an assistant..."

"Sean Obi transferred into Duke following his freshman year at Rice"
-I think he either transferred to Duke, or transferred into the Duke program, but transferred into Duke?

There is also a fair amount of content that I have issues with, eg

"Jeter was highly touted as a freshman but didn’t do much in his first season at Duke."
-you follow up with no explanation as to why you feel this way.

"The Blue Devils had a balanced scoring attack with four guys averaging more than 10 points after Jefferson went down."
-I would not describe last season's offense as a "balanced scoring attack", but I guess that's debatable.

"Kennard proved he wasn’t shy last season, averaging just under five three-pointers a game as a freshman..."
-Luke did not average five three-pointers/game last year. He may have averaged five three-point attempts per game.

I kept finding little things like this in pretty much every paragraph. It just seemed like the article needed a bit more attention to detail. JMHO.

This is just the worst.
I have to admit that your attention to detail is impressive. You were even able to find the OP's request to have his work publicly dissected and criticized when all I saw was a very generous and polite introduction along with a openness to feedback about the team.
There is the frustrating but endearing quibbles over details like spelling and then there is this. This is just rude and unnecessary. If you're the OP and you received this kind of welcome, why would you ever post again?

Since we are free to just publicly fire off unsolicited feedback here's mine; I think your profile pic is showing the wrong end of that horse.
JMHO

Isaac Sours
08-30-2016, 02:25 AM
I'm going to give my unrequited two cents. I'm not trying to accuse anybody of intentional rudeness or incivility, I'm just giving my thoughts as someone in Sterling's position. I don't speak for him at all, but when I write something for y'all, this is how I'd want to be treated.

As someone who's put out sports writing for public consumption, and someone who reads a LOT of sports articles (and cares very much that they be well-written in addition to factual and insightful), I submit that Edouble's comments/criticisms/advice would have been very welcome as a private message. Anyone who writes anything welcomes constructive criticism (assuming they don't have a Calipari-level ego), but Edouble was a bit harsh, given that it was in a public forum. If I had been the author, I would have been embarrassed the way Edouble criticized the writing, given we're in a public forum.

I think the specificity of Edouble's words were what really made it seem harsh. In a public setting, it's probably best to merely suggest that Sterling simply edit his work and check for redundancy, or grammar issues, or spelling, or fact-checking, or whatever the general trend may be. When one starts listing in great detail the exact places the author went wrong, one risks hurting some feelings. Again, I don't claim to speak for Sterling here, but there's a reason editors at SI and ESPN generally keep their constructive criticisms of their writers private.

It was a thoughtful article that could have used some editing, in my opinion, and that's what I would have stated here. If I were inclined to make specific suggestions, I would do it in private. I understand we're nitpicky around here, but there's a level of detailed criticism that can and should be made privately when we're talking about someone's article that they've clearly put some time and energy into, especially if they're a first-time contributor.

Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
08-30-2016, 07:52 AM
I'm going to give my unrequited two cents. I'm not trying to accuse anybody of intentional rudeness or incivility, I'm just giving my thoughts as someone in Sterling's position. I don't speak for him at all, but when I write something for y'all, this is how I'd want to be treated.

As someone who's put out sports writing for public consumption, and someone who reads a LOT of sports articles (and cares very much that they be well-written in addition to factual and insightful), I submit that Edouble's comments/criticisms/advice would have been very welcome as a private message. Anyone who writes anything welcomes constructive criticism (assuming they don't have a Calipari-level ego), but Edouble was a bit harsh, given that it was in a public forum. If I had been the author, I would have been embarrassed the way Edouble criticized the writing, given we're in a public forum.

I think the specificity of Edouble's words were what really made it seem harsh. In a public setting, it's probably best to merely suggest that Sterling simply edit his work and check for redundancy, or grammar issues, or spelling, or fact-checking, or whatever the general trend may be. When one starts listing in great detail the exact places the author went wrong, one risks hurting some feelings. Again, I don't claim to speak for Sterling here, but there's a reason editors at SI and ESPN generally keep their constructive criticisms of their writers private.

It was a thoughtful article that could have used some editing, in my opinion, and that's what I would have stated here. If I were inclined to make specific suggestions, I would do it in private. I understand we're nitpicky around here, but there's a level of detailed criticism that can and should be made privately when we're talking about someone's article that they've clearly put some time and energy into, especially if they're a first-time contributor.

As someone who is an amateur word-smith and who takes words and proper usage very seriously, I'm sympathetic to Edouble and his/her intention. Typos, internet acronyms, sentence fragments et al drive me up the wall, and as someone who has suffered through countless writing workshops, I certainly understand the value of detailed and specific feedback.

However... this is far from a writing workshop here. I can be as pedantic as the next guy, (as long as the next guy's mother-in-law was an English professor) but I try to restrict my pointed critiques to a jab or a pun and frequently get called onto the floor for it. A line by line breakdown of a piece is far more appropriate for an email or private message, not a message board response to a sports fan who is trying to promote our favorite team.

I'll chalk it up to "it's the off-season, we all need a hobby."

Thanks for the link!

flyingdutchdevil
08-30-2016, 09:11 AM
Thank you for the thoughtful preview! I enjoyed it.

I think this thread is a perfect example of DBR in the offseason (in more than one way)