First Vince Taylor was one of my favorite Blue Devils as a kid, I have to at least admire your choice in names. I'll go ahead and tell you by posting this you're opening up a can of worms inside a hornets nest and I can already tell you it will be deemed "demonstratively negative". As they say opinions are like ex-wives and everyone has a couple so I'll share mine. Part of me agrees with your post to a certain extent. But I have to say the reason it seems so magnified has to do with the success of a team down the road wearing a nausiating shade of blue. Truth be told in my opinion if one certain player had decided to attend another school besides UNC things wouldn't look as grim to the pessimists. It's really not fair for the Duke players that have played in his era and will play again next year. But his dominance at his position and Dukes inability (and truthfully every team in the country's inability) to counter that dominance makes a scratch look like a gaping wound.
The fans looking through "rose colored" lenses see Duke's misses at recruiting as nothing really out of the ordinary. Nobody gets every player they recruit and I will be the first to say the cliche about "selecting not recruiting" rings hollow until you see how easily the heels are reeling in quality players left and right. While I was firmly in the sky is falling camp, I have been talked off the ledge by Sumner and Watzone. But I have to admit as much as I want to believe everything is alright part of me sees writing on the wall that is hard to ignore. It's not that I dislike any of the players Duke has or has gotten to commit. But the misses, especially when it comes to certain bigmen has had me perplexed for quite a while now. And honestly I have yet to hear anyone take the recent misses and give an honest evaluation of why they chose school X, Y or Z over Duke. As Duke fans we are biased and think any player given the opportunity to put on a Duke uniform and chooses not to needs to see a shrink. And in my opinion any player who chooses to wear light blue needs electroshock therapy.
I firmly realize that some players couldn't pass a basket weaving class at Duke so they are automatically off the list of potential recruits. What troubles me is the players who can, who Duke has shown early interest in and seemed to lead for their services have left Duke at the altar. The Patterson and Monroe incidents still rub me raw. But I also realize that certain players going pro early or never showing up to Duke at all has left voids where the coaching staff anticipated having players A, B and C at least one or two years. The manditory one year rule has benefitted schools like Memphis and USC for a season and I appreciate the fact Duke would like to get more out of their recruits than just one year. But UNC seems to have a revolving door recruits are fighting their way to enter and for reasons I can not comprehend it seems like recruits are having to be lured, proded and pushed through the Duke door.
One thing I used to loathe about Dean Smith was how UNC fans viewed him as infalable and I think some Duke fans have come to view Coach K the same way. God bless the man, when I was a kid the idea of Duke winning one national championship seemed like a pipe dream yet alone three. But last years offensive inovations at least let me realize he is not a stick in the mud and can change with the times. Others will be able to list in detail Duke's recruiting guidelines as to how they select possible recruits, how many targets they go after and how soon the offer. But it seems the evil empire casts it's nets early and wide giving several recruits the chance to jump at the opportunity to don light blue. Unfortunately it also seems their nets are coming back full with quality marine life. And in some peoples eyes Duke is reeling them in one by one and having a hard time getting them in the boat without the line breaking. As they say there are other fish in the sea (don't you love how I worked that in there?) and our resident experts are quick to calm our fears by reasuring us the second and third fish we actually do get will feed us for four years instead of just one or two. Or that fish has an even bigger upside than the fish we lost and is actually going to grow once we get it back to shore.
I don't mean any of this to be sarcastic, and I TRULY appreciate their inside information and break downs of potential recruits strengths and weaknesses. But I am starting to see two schools of thought, not pessimists and optimists pertaining to Duke basketball. But I think there is a group that focuses primarily (if not entirely) on Duke and how well Duke can do and how good they might be. The other school right or wrong looks at Roys boys and their basis of success is based mostly in comparrison to them. Let's face it, in spite of the VCU, LSU and West Virginia disappointments most schools would kill to have those seasons. We Duke fans are spoiled rotten especially from 1999 to 2003, I'll be the first to admit my dissappointment wouldn't be as bad if not for the incredible success from those years.
I guess my chief concern, and probably Vince's concern is for Duke to become an also ran nationally and in the ACC. I don't think anyone expects a Final Four every year and certainly not a national championship. I just don't want to see Duke fighting for third or fourth place in the regular season, ending their ACC tournament on Saturday on a regular basis and not making it past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Some great coaches lost their edge as their careers wound down. Bobby Knight stopped being able to recuit the Isaiah Thomas type player and in my opinion it helped contribute to his downfall. (Sure Knight crossed the line WAY too many times, but it's amazing what schools will put up with when you're winning big.) I don't think Coach K is there by any means, and I'm not in the school that thinks the whole olympic experience has hurt recruiting. I hated to see Dawkins leave, but perhaps a change in roles will help breathe new zeal into recruiting among the assistant coaches. And as the optimists say Duke has potential if the puzzle pieces fall into place. I can totally understand your viewpoint. But the truth is either the nay sayers are right or the rose colored lenses crowd is correct. Time will tell who is more on the money, the bad part is we all have to wait and see. (Some genius Duke student needs to invent a crystal ball!) I don't think if things go Duke's way over the next few seasons the nay sayers will have any dismay about being wrong, and I hope the optimists are right.