Originally Posted by
jimsumner
A large number of the best players in Duke history are North Carolinians, from old-timers like Bill Murray, Fred Crawford, Dan Hill, Elmore Hackney, Gordon Carver, Bob Gantt, and Billy Cox to Murray players like Jerry Barger, Sonny Jurgensen, Mike McGee, and Wray Carlton, to my peers like Leo Hart, Wes Chesson, Billy Bryan, and Steve Jones.
Duke had a run in the early '80s-largely because of Red Wilson--that netted Cedric Jones, Chris Castor, Dennis Tabron, Emmitt Tilley, Charles Bowser, and Keith Crenshaw.
Dave Colonna and Clarkston Hines came later in the 1980s.
Then Duke just stopped recruiting the state. Coach after coach used the same excuse. The state's academics simply precluded signing NC prepsters. They just couldn't get in. Some years Duke would only have one or two recruits from in-state and they usually weren't top-tier players. So, UNC, State, Wake, East Carolina, VT, even Tennessee poached the top players from North Carolina, while Duke faded into in-state irrelevancy.
Cutcliffe has exposed the can't-recruit-in-state-myth for what it was, an excuse used to rationalize years of failure. He and his staff are working the state, making contacts, and conceding nothing on the recruiting trail, all welcome contrasts to their immediate predecessors.