Men's Basketball: How many scholarships were used this year? How many "saved"?

[chazz101s]

In EVERY discussion that I've seen (here in EKF) and in newspapers, I've never seen the numbers--2015-16, Duke had X scholarships being used/awarded and Y scholarships that were not used ("saved"). . . ?

Anybody know the specific numbers?

BTW, I did an advanced search for "scholarship" and came up with this thread:

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...ht=scholarship

From what we now know about the 2015-16 season, the above thread was both blind and way insightful.

Anyhow, if I've overlooked applicable data about this year's scholarships here on EKF, I apologize.

The title of this thread reflects my frustration--even disbelief--that a Duke basketball team could wind up so short-handed as this year's team.

Yes, I know that Tyus J's entering the draft was, perhaps, a surprise. Yes, I have learned here on the Forum that Obi has been physically unable to help this team, which perhaps couldn't have been anticipated. Yes, I know that Jeter has had a tough, tough year. (Hey, I remember when Will Avery was a surprise, going pro.)

But a season like this one--it hurts.

These days, doesn't a coaching staff have to run scenarios in which the 2015-16 debacle was at least considered--if not planned for?

If the kind of short-handedness suffered by this year's men's basketball team had happened in the profit (or non-profit) business world, I'm thinking that somebody (or somebodies) would be looking for new jobs.

Will the men's basketball staff learn from their 2015-16 failure to recruit enough bodies?

Ducking here--but scholarship numbers, please, if you have them.

[rsvman]

I don't have any insight into scholarship numbers for you. I just came on this thread to object most strenuously to the use of the word debacle to describe this season, which, by the way, isn't over yet.

[El_Diablo]

Here's the roster:

2 Chase Jeter F/C 6-10 240 Fr. Las Vegas, Nev. (Bishop Gorman)
3 Grayson Allen G 6-5 205 So. Jacksonville, Fla. (Providence School)
5 Luke Kennard G 6-5 180 Fr. Franklin, Ohio (Franklin)
12 Derryck Thornton G 6-2 175 Fr. Chatsworth, Calif. (Findlay Prep [Nev.])
13 Matt Jones G 6-5 200 Jr. DeSoto, Texas (DeSoto)
14 Brandon Ingram G/F 6-9 190 Fr. Kinston, N.C. (Kinston)
21 Amile Jefferson F 6-9 225 Sr. Philadelphia, Pa. (Friends Central School)
30 Antonio Vrankovic C 7-0 270 Fr. Delray Beach, Fla. (Pine Crest School)
34 Sean Obi F 6-9 250 So. Kaduna, Nigeria (Greens Farms Academy)
40 Marshall Plumlee C 7-0 250 Gr. Warsaw, Ind. (Christ School [N.C.])
45 Nick Pagliuca G 6-3 195 Jr. Weston, Mass. (Milton Academy)
50 Justin Robinson F 6-8 190 Fr. San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio Christian Academy)
53 Brennan Besser G 6-5 180 Fr. Chicago, Ill. (Latin School)

I believe everyone but Nick and Brennan are on scholarship this year (Justin is getting one this year because we had one available, but he is on a preferred/recruited walk-on status and is not promised a scholarship every year). So...11 scholarships.

I don't understand your reference to "saved" scholarships, unless you just mean "unused." If so, we have 2 unused scholarships.

[pfrduke]

We had 10 recruited scholarship players - Allen, Ingram, Jones, Jefferson, Plumlee, Kennard, Thornton, Obi, Jeter, Vrankovic. We then had three additional roster athletes: Robinson, Pagliuca, Besser. I believe at least Robinson, but maybe all three, were on scholarship for this season because we did not otherwise fill our complement of 13.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

But a season like this one--it hurts.

I think it is fair to ask how we ended up so short-handed (though I think you already answered you own question through your comment) but I disagree wholeheartedly with your above statement. I have enjoyed this season immensely. Our team has been frequently overmatched, often tired, and always short-handed. We have played hard, tough, gritty ball and never once backed down. Outside of the recent Pitt game, we have been "in" every game in the last minutes.

Allen has been remarkable. Ingram has developed in many facets in a short amount of time. And MP3 has become a man unleashed, as we haven't seen since Z.

We didn't win every game. We won some games we probably ought to have lost, though. And I really like our guys.

In a wide-open year with no strong national favorites, I will continue to enjoy every minute of ball these guys have left.

To your bigger and valid point of how we got here, there's plenty of time to dissect that in the off season. For now I am going to appreciate and support our guys on the floor during their last minutes of the season.

Let's Go Duke!

[dukelifer]

In EVERY discussion that I've seen (here in EKF) and in newspapers, I've never seen the numbers--2015-16, Duke had X scholarships being used/awarded and Y scholarships that were not used ("saved"). . . ?

Anybody know the specific numbers?

BTW, I did an advanced search for "scholarship" and came up with this thread:

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...ht=scholarship

From what we now know about the 2015-16 season, the above thread was both blind and way insightful.

Anyhow, if I've overlooked applicable data about this year's scholarships here on EKF, I apologize.

The title of this thread reflects my frustration--even disbelief--that a Duke basketball team could wind up so short-handed as this year's team.

Yes, I know that Tyus J's entering the draft was, perhaps, a surprise. Yes, I have learned here on the Forum that Obi has been physically unable to help this team, which perhaps couldn't have been anticipated. Yes, I know that Jeter has had a tough, tough year. (Hey, I remember when Will Avery was a surprise, going pro.)

But a season like this one--it hurts.

These days, doesn't a coaching staff have to run scenarios in which the 2015-16 debacle was at least considered--if not planned for?

If the kind of short-handedness suffered by this year's men's basketball team had happened in the profit (or non-profit) business world, I'm thinking that somebody (or somebodies) would be looking for new jobs.

Will the men's basketball staff learn from their 2015-16 failure to recruit enough bodies?

Ducking here--but scholarship numbers, please, if you have them.

When you say the season hurts is that because you believe that if Duke had recruited another top 5 player- that player could have replaced an injured Amile Jefferson or if Duke had better anticipated Semi O leaving or that Rasheed S would have done something to get kicked off the team- Duke would be not in the position of having little experience? Duke ran into bad luck. They also look into the future so they can recruit multiple top 10 guys in a given class that fit K's style. The only thing that hurt for me is not having Amile out there during the ACC season.

[MarkD83]

Quick answer going forward and then I will continue to enjoy this years team that has shown great heart and toughness.

Assuming amile gets his redshirt and Grayson stays and Ingram goes.

There are 13 players with scholarships next year. 5 freshmen 4 sophs 2 juniors 1 senior 1 grad student.

This years team was short handed by justise and tyus leaving early and semi transferring. Derryck (sp due to buttons on phone) offset this a little.


Just to add the decisions by semi justise and tyus were great because they decided they were the right things for them to do.

[freshmanjs]

Quick answer going forward and then I will continue to enjoy this years team that has shown great heart and toughness.

Assuming amile gets his redshirt and Grayson stays and Ingram goes.

There are 13 players with scholarships next year. 5 freshmen 4 sophs 2 juniors 1 senior 1 grad student.

This years team was short handed by justise and tyus leaving early and semi transferring. Derryck (sp due to buttons on phone) offset this a little.

and Sulaimon being dismissed and Amile's injury.

[Henderson]

and Obi not being able to contribute.

We know now that his knees aren't 100%. K said he's ok in the half-court game but...

[CDu]

We used 11 scholarships this year. That does not include the unexpected dismissal of Sulaimon and the transfer of Ojeleye. Of course, Duke probably wouldn't have tried to convince Thornton to come early had Sulaimon been around, so that's six of one, half dozen of the other. It also doesn't include the failed attempt at landing Swanigan, a top-10 recruit big man. But had we gotten Swanigan, we probably don't bring in Vrankovic. So again, it's six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Most programs don't use all of their allotted scholarships. This is especially true for teams affected by the one-and-done era. You just never know who will leave and who will return. Heck, had we not done so well in the tournament, it's possible that Tyus Jones returns. But his Final Four performance and our championship took away any doubt there.

As for next year, we will most likely max out our scholarships. We'll lose Plumlee, Ingram, and most likely Allen, and we'll add Giles, Tatum, Jackson, DeLaurier, and White. That puts us at 12 scholarships, with an offer outstanding for Bolden. If Bolden accepts (I suspect this is unlikely given Jefferson's return), then either Robinson will go back to non-scholarship status (he wasn't recruited by Duke, and the understanding is that a scholarship is only available if we don't use them all on recruited players) or someone else is leaving that we don't know about. Either way, though, we'll likely use all 13 of our scholarships.

But the issue with this season had very little to do with the lack of use of scholarships. We had a TON of bigs going into the season. There was an ongoing debate about who was going to get squeezed out of minutes. There were four bigs not including Ingram. Early in the season, Coach K was talking as though we had 8 starters (with Jeter being a "starter"). It turned out that neither Jeter or Obi was ready or able to convince Coach K that they deserved meaningful minutes. As such, when Jefferson went down, we became incredibly thin. But that had nothing to do with lack of recruiting foresight. We had a ton of depth already, and we tried very hard to land a better-quality big in Swanigan anyway.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I agree with most of the comments above, and there is something else to consider: with the unexpected emergence of Winslow and Tyus, we did not know until pretty late in the recruiting cycle how potentially short handed we could be this year. At that point, there were not many uncommitted players out there, and we did well to get the players we did. However, the current freshman class nationally was considered one of the weaker classes in a long time. So we might have been able to get someone else to have another player for practice and emergencies, but is it worth tying up a scholarship for the next four years to have someone who is likely to play minimally and doesn't have a lot of upside? I would rather play with what I have this year (which, despite the cries of the Chicken Littles on this board has worked out pretty well) and not mortgage our future.

[Saratoga2]

We used 11 scholarships this year. That does not include the unexpected dismissal of Sulaimon and the transfer of Ojeleye. Of course, Duke probably wouldn't have tried to convince Thornton to come early had Sulaimon been around, so that's six of one, half dozen of the other. It also doesn't include the failed attempt at landing Swanigan, a top-10 recruit big man. But had we gotten Swanigan, we probably don't bring in Vrankovic. So again, it's six of one, half-dozen of the other.

Most programs don't use all of their allotted scholarships. This is especially true for teams affected by the one-and-done era. You just never know who will leave and who will return. Heck, had we not done so well in the tournament, it's possible that Tyus Jones returns. But his Final Four performance and our championship took away any doubt there.

As for next year, we will most likely max out our scholarships. We'll lose Plumlee, Ingram, and most likely Allen, and we'll add Giles, Tatum, Jackson, DeLaurier, and White. That puts us at 12 scholarships, with an offer outstanding for Bolden. If Bolden accepts (I suspect this is unlikely given Jefferson's return), then either Robinson will go back to non-scholarship status (he wasn't recruited by Duke, and the understanding is that a scholarship is only available if we don't use them all on recruited players) or someone else is leaving that we don't know about. Either way, though, we'll likely use all 13 of our scholarships.

But the issue with this season had very little to do with the lack of use of scholarships. We had a TON of bigs going into the season. There was an ongoing debate about who was going to get squeezed out of minutes. There were four bigs not including Ingram. Early in the season, Coach K was talking as though we had 8 starters (with Jeter being a "starter"). It turned out that neither Jeter or Obi was ready or able to convince Coach K that they deserved meaningful minutes. As such, when Jefferson went down, we became incredibly thin. But that had nothing to do with lack of recruiting foresight. We had a ton of depth already, and we tried very hard to land a better-quality big in Swanigan anyway.

There are some unknowns every year, such as will we have any transfers. Barring that, the other unknowns are about Grayson and Amile's status and Obi's knee health. Vrank is about the same size and athletic ability as Marshall and like Marshall probably needs/needed time to contribute but I wouldn't rule out a significant step forward for him next season. Perhaps Justin will also step forward to add playing depth to the team as well. The fact is that we still have the offer out to Bolden who would compete with Amile for PT. Giles and Tatum are both likely starters at the forward positions and we will be loaded at the guard position even without Grayson. Coach K is building more depth going forward.

[wk2109]

In EVERY discussion that I've seen (here in EKF) and in newspapers, I've never seen the numbers--2015-16, Duke had X scholarships being used/awarded and Y scholarships that were not used ("saved"). . . ?

Anybody know the specific numbers?

BTW, I did an advanced search for "scholarship" and came up with this thread:

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...ht=scholarship

From what we now know about the 2015-16 season, the above thread was both blind and way insightful.

Anyhow, if I've overlooked applicable data about this year's scholarships here on EKF, I apologize.

The title of this thread reflects my frustration--even disbelief--that a Duke basketball team could wind up so short-handed as this year's team.

Yes, I know that Tyus J's entering the draft was, perhaps, a surprise. Yes, I have learned here on the Forum that Obi has been physically unable to help this team, which perhaps couldn't have been anticipated. Yes, I know that Jeter has had a tough, tough year. (Hey, I remember when Will Avery was a surprise, going pro.)

But a season like this one--it hurts.

These days, doesn't a coaching staff have to run scenarios in which the 2015-16 debacle was at least considered--if not planned for?

If the kind of short-handedness suffered by this year's men's basketball team had happened in the profit (or non-profit) business world, I'm thinking that somebody (or somebodies) would be looking for new jobs.

Will the men's basketball staff learn from their 2015-16 failure to recruit enough bodies?

Ducking here--but scholarship numbers, please, if you have them.

Below is a breakdown of the past 6 rosters, taking into account positions, redshirts, transfers/dismissals, etc. With the exception of 1 season ('13-'14), Duke has had 10 eligible recruited scholarship players (I'm applying redshirts in hindsight to guys who didn't play and am considering them ineligible). So just looking at the numbers, this season doesn't really stick out compared to the previous 5.

There are a few factors to take into account, some of which may affect your perception of Duke being short-handed or unprepared:
1. The staff presumably expected Sulaimon (and probably Tyus) to be on this year's roster. However, if Sulaimon and/or Tyus were on this year's roster, Thornton probably wouldn't have reclassified.
2. Getting Ingram to commit was huge. If he hadn't chosen Duke, who knows where the team/roster would be today.
3. The staff probably didn't expect Semi to transfer.
4. Of course, Amile's injury was huge. It transformed Ingram from a "hybrid" to a "big," which means that Duke has only had 4 guys to man the 3 perimeter positions. It also means that there was no real backup at the 4 spot -- either Jeter had to play the 4 (which K clearly doesn't prefer), or Duke has played all 4 perimeter guys around a big. In the 24 games Duke has played since Amile went down, Ingram has played every single minute of 6 games (this doesn't include his 42 minutes in the overtime game against Utah). He's played 37+ minutes in 10 additional games (including Utah).
5. The staff probably expected Jeter and/or Obi to be more ready to contribute.
6. This season was the only season besides '12-'13 in which half of the scholarship players were strictly bigs. So, this season is similar to '12-'13 in that we have 4 guys playing the 3 perimeter spots. However this season differs from '12-'13 because we had multiple guys who K gave minutes at the 4 spot (Kelly, Hairston, Jefferson and Murphy), whereas this year it's been primarily just Ingram.

In my opinion, taking into account the unexpected dismissal of Sulaimon and perhaps unexpected early entry of Tyus, the staff did a great job putting together this year's roster. The bad luck came with the combination of a) Amile's injury AND b) Jeter/Obi's inability to contribute. If we only had one of a) or b), you probably wouldn't be calling this season a "debacle" (which is an assessment I strongly disagree with).

'10-'11 (10 total scholarship players)

Perimeter (5 total)
Irving
Smith
Thornton
Dawkins
Curry

Hybrid (1 total)
Singler

Bigs (4 total)
Plumlee
Plumlee
Hairston
Kelly

'11-'12 (12 total scholarship players, 10 eligible)

Perimeter (6 total)
Rivers
Cook
Thornton
Dawkins
Curry
Gbinije

Hybrid (1 total, 0 eligible)
Murphy*

Bigs (5 total, 4 eligible)
Plumlee
Plumlee
Hairston
Kelly
Plumlee*

'12-'13 (12 total scholarship players, 10 eligible)

Perimeter (5 total, 4 eligible)
Cook
Thornton
Sulaimon
Dawkins*
Curry

Hybrid (2 total, 1 eligible)
Hood*
Murphy**

Bigs (5 total)
Plumlee
Hairston
Jefferson
Kelly
Plumlee

'13-'14 (11 total scholarship players)

Perimeter (5 total)
Cook
Thornton
Jones
Sulaimon
Dawkins

Hybrid (2 total)
Hood
Ojeleye

Bigs (4 total)
Parker
Hairston
Jefferson
Plumlee

'14-'15 (11 total scholarship players, 10 eligible)

Perimeter (5 total)
Cook
Jones
Sulaimon**
Jones
Allen

Hybrid (2 total)
Ojeleye**
Winslow

Bigs (4 total, 3 eligible)
Jefferson
Plumlee
Okafor
Obi*

'15-'16 (10 total scholarship players)

Perimeter (4 total)
Jones
Allen
Kennard
Thornton

Hybrid (1 total)
Ingram

Bigs (5 total)
Jefferson
Plumlee
Obi
Jeter
Vrankovic

*redshirt
**midseason transfer/dismissal

[Matches]

Most teams have a player or two who they can't really afford to lose. Imagine an injury to Singler in 2010. Or Kelly in 2012 (ouch - don't have to imagine that one). What if UNC lost Brice? (Or Kendall Marshall in 2012?) Unfortunately Amile was that guy for us. It happens.

No one really wants to come to Duke to be an insurance policy in case of injury. It's only realistic to have so much quality depth. If Jeter had played the way most of us thought he would, we'd have been fine.

[duke09hms]

In EVERY discussion that I've seen (here in EKF) and in newspapers, I've never seen the numbers--2015-16, Duke had X scholarships being used/awarded and Y scholarships that were not used ("saved"). . . ?

Anybody know the specific numbers?

BTW, I did an advanced search for "scholarship" and came up with this thread:

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...ht=scholarship

From what we now know about the 2015-16 season, the above thread was both blind and way insightful.

Anyhow, if I've overlooked applicable data about this year's scholarships here on EKF, I apologize.

The title of this thread reflects my frustration--even disbelief--that a Duke basketball team could wind up so short-handed as this year's team.

Yes, I know that Tyus J's entering the draft was, perhaps, a surprise. Yes, I have learned here on the Forum that Obi has been physically unable to help this team, which perhaps couldn't have been anticipated. Yes, I know that Jeter has had a tough, tough year. (Hey, I remember when Will Avery was a surprise, going pro.)

But a season like this one--it hurts.

These days, doesn't a coaching staff have to run scenarios in which the 2015-16 debacle was at least considered--if not planned for?

If the kind of short-handedness suffered by this year's men's basketball team had happened in the profit (or non-profit) business world, I'm thinking that somebody (or somebodies) would be looking for new jobs.

Will the men's basketball staff learn from their 2015-16 failure to recruit enough bodies?

Ducking here--but scholarship numbers, please, if you have them.

haha don't worry, totally legitimate question, and I felt the same everytime K mentioned "we only have 6 guys" in his press conferences, to which I would always think, "well, why do we only have 6 guys?"

But honestly, this year is not any poor reflection on K's planning abilities. Most championship teams usually see a mass exodus of talent leaving for the NBA, and they do terribly the year after. Tyus and Justise were unexpected departures, especially since Justise would be perfect at the 4 this year, and Tyus was probably the biggest surprise departure given his lack of size and athleticism. We'd have several more wins with Tyus at the PG this year, an experienced hand and expert game manager. No blown leads for sure. Sulaimon was a surprise dismissal though he wouldn't have really helped in the post.

Last year, we were probably planning to go into this year with Justise, Amile, Plumlee, Obi, Jeter, and Vrank in the post. Justise/Amile/Plumlee would have crushed it. Then of course Justise explodes and leaves, Amile gets injured, Obi has knee problems, and voila here we are. It's hard to find fault with K, I mean perhaps he COULD have recruited another big man in 2013 or 2014 who would be ready this year. But either he's talented and doesn't want to play behind Jabari/Jahlil or he's not that good to contribute.

BUT at the same time, 1 injury shouldn't entirely derail our season, and maybe K is taking steps to mitigate that with a big recruiting class coming in this year and only 2 or 3 departures.

[BigWayne]

Verbal commits can help understand the scholarship count. http://www.verbalcommits.com/schools/duke

What they have posted (-1 scholarships available for incoming recruits) does not take into account:

Amile returning (-1)
Robinson going off scholarship (+1)
Ingram going pro (+1)
Allen going pro (+1)

If all 4 of those happen, then there is one spot for Bolden. If Allen stays, then there are no open spots for him to go into unless something else changes.

[CDu]

There are some unknowns every year, such as will we have any transfers. Barring that, the other unknowns are about Grayson and Amile's status and Obi's knee health. Vrank is about the same size and athletic ability as Marshall and like Marshall probably needs/needed time to contribute but I wouldn't rule out a significant step forward for him next season. Perhaps Justin will also step forward to add playing depth to the team as well. The fact is that we still have the offer out to Bolden who would compete with Amile for PT. Giles and Tatum are both likely starters at the forward positions and we will be loaded at the guard position even without Grayson. Coach K is building more depth going forward.

At the risk of dangerous speculation, I do wonder if Coach K's playing of Vrank for a handful of minutes this year has any implications on his future at Duke. Clearly, it would have made sense from Duke's perspective to redshirt him this year. The only reasons I can see burning the redshirt option on a few minutes in a November game would seem to be that Vrank doesn't want to burn that free year should he decide to go elsewhere.

I don't see much reason to assume Robinson will see more playing time. He was not recruited by any of the major D-1 schools (possibly not recruited by ANY D-1 schools). I think it was a low-risk acquisition of a smart kid with a good family background to be a practice player who might somehow emerge as a prospect with late growth like his dad.

But I agree with what you're saying overall. Next year's team should be loaded, with or without Bolden. We will have a nice balance of youth and experience both inside and on the perimeter.

This year was just an unfortunate "miss" (if you can call a top-25 season a miss) in that the bigs we brought in weren't as ready as hoped, we had two (maybe 3) unanticipated exits, and we weren't able to recover from that late in the game.

A team of T. Jones, Sulaimon, Allen, M. Jones, Kennard, Ojeleye, Jefferson, Plumlee, Jeter, and Obi looked really good as of last November/December. We were able to replace Jones, Sulaimon, and Ojeleye with Thornton and Ingram, which was a step back in terms of experience and probably in terms of college-ready talent. And when you add in the lack of readiness of Jeter and Obi and the unexpected injury to Jefferson, it became a perfect storm.

[Kedsy]

Will the men's basketball staff learn from their 2015-16 failure to recruit enough bodies?

No one really wants to come to Duke to be an insurance policy in case of injury.

I think Matches has the answer.

The original question seems to take as granted that Duke can just go out and snag a top 10 player any time we want. Which simply isn't true. Fact is, we had plenty of "bodies." We just didn't have enough guys that Coach K felt comfortable playing big minutes after Amile's injury. Chase Jeter was ranked #14 in the class, so in order to remedy the "failure," we'd have had to have recruited an additional someone better than that. But what top ranked high school player is going to agree to stick around just in case one of Coach K's top 7 guys gets hurt?

So the original post is asking a flawed question. There was no "failure."

[CDu]

I think Matches has the answer.

The original question seems to take as granted that Duke can just go out and snag a top 10 player any time we want. Which simply isn't true. Fact is, we had plenty of "bodies." We just didn't have enough guys that Coach K felt comfortable playing big minutes after Amile's injury. Chase Jeter was ranked #14 in the class, so in order to remedy the "failure," we'd have had to have recruited an additional someone better than that. But what top ranked high school player is going to agree to stick around just in case one of Coach K's top 7 guys gets hurt?

So the original post is asking a flawed question. There was no "failure."

Well, to be fair, if Caleb Swanigan had come to Duke, he stood a good chance of being a regular in the rotation. Even before Jefferson went down. That would likely have cut into Plumlee's role and may have marginalized one of our guards a bit. Remember that Coach K was talking about Jeter as one of his 8 starters back in November/December, so he was envisioning playing 8. It's just that Jeter wasn't good enough.

We certainly recruited Swanigan heavily. We just didn't get him. Again, that's not a fault of the staff's lack of foresight, as we very much tried to address a potential need. It just didn't work out.

[chazz101s]

So the original post is asking a flawed question. There was no "failure."

Um, the question I asked was about scholarships: How many did we use this year? How many were not used?

Thanks for all the great info from various of the replies. It does make things easier to understand.

I stand by my use of the word "debacle." But it's just one word. Add in another word I used, "failure." Yeah, I won't eat that one, either.

It chapped me big-time to see players with hearts as big as MP3, Matt, and Grayson forced to deal with this season's perfect storm that swept in after Amile's fracture.

Can a staff as accomplished as Duke men's basketball prevent a perfect storm? Obviously, no. Prepare for one . . .? Use this experience to prepare better down the road? That's mainly what I was getting at. And I'm unaware of any of the staff mentioning anything like that. . . .