PDA

View Full Version : N&O Early Peek at ACC



gw67
06-22-2008, 12:34 PM
J.P.Giglio provides a good early look at the coming ACC basketball season in a series linked on the front page by DBR. I haven't looked at the schedules but UNC, Duke and Wake seem to be the top three teams with Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson filling out the top of the league. After that, it is very fuzzy with each of the remaining teams having some mix of good players and a couple of holes that need to be filled. Depending on the schedule, Florida State may be a dark horse with their incoming freshmen class.

gw67

beltwayBD
06-22-2008, 12:47 PM
I'm just reading it right now -- let's just call it a nice time to think about Duke before we all get caught up in the Olympic game.

I found a couple things interesting in the Duke projection. First, they're calling Henderson a forward. Second, they have Zoubek starting over Thomas.

I can see Zoubek starting -- his offensive and rebounding efficiency are excellent, though my prediction is that Thomas will start, along with Singler, Paulus, Henderson, and Scheyer. Zoub still has to prove he can play in the post without traveling, and defend without fouling. But I can see us playing big against big opponents, starting Plumlee, Zoub, Henderson, Paulus and Singler -- that is, if Plumlee shows early he can hack it against ACC-caliber opponents. At the very least, we will have greater depth at Forward, and can presumably keep Singler fresher with Czyz and Plumlee in the rotation (along with Zoub).

I would disagree with their take on Duke recruiting. Coach K has recruited guys that will stay 3-4 years, rather than people that will flirt with the draft after 1 or 2. I can definitely live with that.

Anyway, a fun read going into the summer.

fan345678
06-22-2008, 12:56 PM
Coach K has recruited guys that will stay 3-4 years, rather than people that will flirt with the draft after 1 or 2. I can definitely live with that.


I think that's another way of saying, "Recently, K has missed out on all the guys who are talented enough to flirt with the draft after 1 or 2 years, so hopefully the guys who have actually come to Duke will be as good by their senior year as Brandan Wright was as a freshman."

miramar
06-22-2008, 01:42 PM
I think that's another way of saying, "Recently, K has missed out on all the guys who are talented enough to flirt with the draft after 1 or 2 years, so hopefully the guys who have actually come to Duke will be as good by their senior year as Brandan Wright was as a freshman."

Unfortunately, it would be more accurate to say that we have gotten guys who aren't good enough to flirt with the draft after two years, but do so anyway. Hello, Development League!

Nevertheless, the number of years that players spend in school obviously has a huge impact on your program. Years ago everyone wanted Kenny Anderson at point guard, and there is no question that he was outstanding at Georgia Tech for two years. Nevertheless, Bobby Hurley had a much greater impact at Duke over four seasons. For the same reason, Kyle Singler (for example) will be much more important than Wright and most other one and dones.

Edouble
06-22-2008, 04:48 PM
Unfortunately, it would be more accurate to say that we have gotten guys who aren't good enough to flirt with the draft after two years, but do so anyway. Hello, Development League!

Nevertheless, the number of years that players spend in school obviously has a huge impact on your program. Years ago everyone wanted Kenny Anderson at point guard, and there is no question that he was outstanding at Georgia Tech for two years. Nevertheless, Bobby Hurley had a much greater impact at Duke over four seasons. For the same reason, Kyle Singler (for example) will be much more important than Wright and most other one and dones.

Kenny Anderson took Ga Tech to the Final Four... something that Travis Best and Mark Price couldn't accomplish in their four years at Tech. Hurley had Hill and Laettner, who were much more talented than Brian Oliver and Dennis Scott. Number of years has a huge impact as does raw talent. Without Deng's one year, no Final Four for Duke in 2004, even though two other players on that team went on to have their jerseys hung up. From 'Melo to Love and Rose, having an elite one-and-done guy is showing itself to be more and more valuable. Had Lawson left this year, he would have done so having a greater impact on UNC's program than Paulus has had thus far on Duke's program. I'm all for four year guys, but it's becoming harder to get an elite level four year guy (Hans and JJ are probably the only ones in recent memory) than it is to get a fresh one-and-done every couple of years.

bhd28
06-22-2008, 04:59 PM
Kenny Anderson took Ga Tech to the Final Four... something that Travis Best and Mark Price couldn't accomplish in their four years at Tech. Hurley had Hill and Laettner, who were much more talented than Brian Oliver and Dennis Scott. Number of years has a huge impact as does raw talent. Without Deng's one year, no Final Four for Duke in 2004, even though two other players on that team went on to have their jerseys hung up. From 'Melo to Love and Rose, having an elite one-and-done guy is showing itself to be more and more valuable. Had Lawson left this year, he would have done so having a greater impact on UNC's program than Paulus has had thus far on Duke's program. I'm all for four year guys, but it's becoming harder to get an elite level four year guy (Hans and JJ are probably the only ones in recent memory) than it is to get a fresh one-and-done every couple of years.

I would guess most people would think a combo would be the ideal: A number of solid 4 year players who may one day play in the NBA, a couple of guys (ala Henderson and Singler) who will likely stay 2-3 years and may decide to stick around for 4, (when available) and one (or maybe 2) 'superstar' guys who are longshots to stick around for more than a year or two. If the players from the final group are open about it but still willing and able to be relatively serious students while they are here (the Deng/Brand type players). Coach K has done a good job on most of that... there has just been trouble landing that last group the past 2-3 years.

Edouble
06-22-2008, 05:07 PM
I would guess most people would think a combo would be the ideal: A number of solid 4 year players who may one day play in the NBA, a couple of guys (ala Henderson and Singler) who will likely stay 2-3 years and may decide to stick around for 4, (when available) and one (or maybe 2) 'superstar' guys who are longshots to stick around for more than a year or two. If the players from the final group are open about it but still willing and able to be relatively serious students while they are here (the Deng/Brand type players). Coach K has done a good job on most of that... there has just been trouble landing that last group the past 2-3 years.

Yeah, I would think that a combo would be ideal. That was pretty much the formula for our last two Final Fours.

CameronCrazy'11
06-22-2008, 06:38 PM
There's no doubt that one-year players can fit into our system some of the time. Last year we had I believe two extra scholarship spots available. If we had given one of those spots to someone like Beasley, we would have been completely unstoppable and an overwhelming favorite to win the championship. And then, when Beasley left, we would still have the same team we have now. One year players are fine as long as we can build a team that doesn't need them to stay more than one year.

Edouble
06-22-2008, 06:45 PM
There's no doubt that one-year players can fit into our system some of the time. Last year we had I believe two extra scholarship spots available. If we had given one of those spots to someone like Beasley, we would have been completely unstoppable and an overwhelming favorite to win the championship. And then, when Beasley left, we would still have the same team we have now. One year players are fine as long as we can build a team that doesn't need them to stay more than one year.

A good example of this is Texas 2006-07 was awesome, they lose Durant, and then Texas 2007-08 is still highly competative.

CameronCrazy'11
06-22-2008, 06:56 PM
One and dones only really hurt us if we believe they're going to stay for longer or if we don't plan for life after they leave. On the other hand, Singler may be the best freshmen not to enter the draft and Smith is another one of the best returners. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that K had a pretty good idea that they were both in it for the long haul.