A little higher than I expected, but as people have pointed out, there don't really seem to be too many elite teams in college basketball coming into this year. What really threw me off was Katz being unusually bullish on Duke:
"Losing Josh McRoberts just means the Blue Devils will rely on Brian Zoubek more in the post. But McRoberts' overall loss is made up by the arrival of Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Taylor King, three heralded recruits who -- combined with the return of Jon Scheyer, DeMarcus Nelson, Greg Paulus and Gerald Henderson -- make the Blue Devils the second-most talented team in the ACC outside of Carolina (and we didn't even get to Lance Thomas and David McClure). "
Thoughts?
Last edited by Classof06; 06-20-2007 at 05:27 PM.
I think that without directly saying it, Katz is basically referring to the ridiculous number of Burger Joint All Americans we have on the team. We really do have a ton of talent, the key thing for this coming year will be getting natural development out of the younger guys (especially Lance and Zoubek) while finding the style that fits the players. This team could be really really good, and I'm looking forward to the coming season.
I for one am curious to see how K uses all the talented players. We all know for some reason K likes to keep a smaller rotation and trim down to around 8 players. However I see all these players being able to contribute this year;
Greg Paulus
Demarcus Nelson
Jon Scheyer
Gerald Henderson
Dave McClure
Lance Thomas
Brian Zoubek
Marty Pocius
Kyle Singler
Nolan Smith
Taylor King
That is 11 players that are all talented and can most likely get the job done. Out of thost 11 I can't see King or Marty getting minutes due to them being behind on defense. Even though Marty came on strong at the end of the year, I think he could definitely help but I am not the coach. That leaves us with 9 players that K will most likely work from, I'm very anxious to see how he does with all this talent! We all know that he is capable of handling this.
Last edited by kydevil; 06-20-2007 at 01:41 PM.
Man, I hope Nolan Smith is as good as advertised since we have two of him!
Thanks for noticing I will have to edit that post.
What can I say I really like the kid
I think 11 is a good spot for us - I could see us ending up 5 or 6 higher or 5 or 6 lower.
In 03 and 98 we used very deep rotations so I can imagine that we'd use one again if it was appropriate.
I'd love to see us run a lot this year, I think that we could do it, although I'm not sure how well Zoubek can keep that up. But maybe we could mix it up some, and put in a running team at times and a more half-court oriented team at others. I think that a team with Paulus, Henderson, Nelson, Thomas and Singler would really be able to run. I thought about Smith in there instead of Paulus, but Paulus really does see the open court well, and I'm hoping that he surprises us with how much faster he will be with good wheels.
The one thing that excites me about this year is I believe we will be able to matchup well with whoever we play. We can run with teams with a smaller lineup (taking out Zoubs, and playing Thomas/McClure/Singler) and we can bang with teams (using Zoubs and Thomas/McClure/Singler.)
Excellent point. When we've had true depth, K has used it.
In 98 regular minutes went to (in no order)
Wojo
Langdon
McLeod (who remembers the stare?)
Brand
Battier
Burgess
Avery
C-Well
Mike Chappell
+ Spot minutes for Domzalski and Price (that team was also Nate's redshirt year - WOW)
In 03:
Duhon
JJ
Casey
Dahntay
Shelden
Shav
Ewing
Horvath
Dockery
+spot minutes for Melchionni. Thompson, and Andre the Doherty killler
I think we go 8-9 deep next year. Hopefully.
I too feel that Duke has the opportunity to be quite solid. I think we certainly have the talent to be #11, whether or not we can put it together will be seen.
I think the best option is to pick up the tempo offensively. We have the personnel and the depth to run, so I would love K to play 10 kids regularly because all 10 or so of these kids are good enough to play.
Predicting Singler will start, we can match up well with different opponents at the "5"; we can start Zoubek against a bigger lineup or Lance when we want to run a bit more or we're facing a more athletic/quicker team with not as much size. That being said, I think Zoubek can keep up in a faster game if need be; IMO he has above average agility for his size. Either way, I expect to see many different starting lineups this season, and if we have that many kids capable of starting, then that can only be a good thing...
Frankly I wish we were ranked lower to start. I think our guys need to start hungry and work for everything they get.
and if losing in the first round is not enough motivation, then how about the players having to hear how Duke is on the downfall. Now that should really get them heated!
Lets go boys!
Hey whatever it takes. I think in this age of everything being super over-scrutinized by the media, it's hard to keep a program on top for so many years because the kids coming in buy into the hype a little and just expect to win and forget that part of winning is not only their talent, but hard work and hunger. Hopefully last season motivates them this summer and into next year.
Duke was also #11 in foxsports.com's updated rankings as well.
And we're #13 on CBS Sportsline, so there's a pretty clear consensus on our starting point.
Unless they improve drastically over the summer, playing Thomas and McClure together means that you have 2 out of your five players on the court with virtually no offensive ability save for maybe , and I emphasize maybe, getting an offensive rebound and putting it back up.
Also, if you mean playing Zoubek,Singler and either McClure or Thomas, I think that Duke might have trouble with teams that have a legitimate power forward to go along with a center because at 6-7 I don't see McLure guarding a true power forward with any consistency nor do I think that Singler unless he puts on weight can do it either. Add this to the problem as to what happens if Zoubek gets into foul trouble...then what?
I for one that Paulus is going to be an excellent player for Duke, but I think that the one player who can make Duke a top team is Brian Zoubek. If he can improve and be a presence then Duke can be a legitimate powerhouse. If he is mediocre, then I think that Duke will be just be average.