2019 Men's Basketball Recruiting

[907bluedevils]

EJ Liddell, mentioned earlier this summer as a possible Duke target, has committed to Ohio State

[JasonEvans]

EJ Liddell, mentioned earlier this summer as a possible Duke target, has committed to Ohio State

He's dead to me... Black Falcon 2.1

[UrinalCake]

Josh Green to Arizona. Top-10 guard/wing who was down to them and the CHeats. Nice to know our friends down the road are striking out too, although a potential negative is that he plays a similar position as Wendell Moore so maybe the CHeats now remain an option for Moore.

AZ will have quite a backcourt with Moore and Mannion.

[kAzE]

The tea leaves on the Isaiah Stewart recruitment are not looking good for us . . .

After cutting his list to 6 schools (not including Kentucky), Stewart recently took an official visit to UK, and then posted a picture of himself in a UK jersey on social media.

Vernon Carey or bust?

I guess the silver lining is that he's probably not committing until next spring. Hoping we can get him to schedule a visit before then.

[plimnko]

The tea leaves on the Isaiah Stewart recruitment are not looking good for us . . .

After cutting his list to 6 schools (not including Kentucky), Stewart recently took an official visit to UK, and then posted a picture of himself in a UK jersey on social media.

Vernon Carey or bust?

I guess the silver lining is that he's probably not committing until next spring. Hoping we can get him to schedule a visit before then.

didn't that harris kid post a picture of himself in a duke jersey??

[GGLC]

Reading through this thread from the beginning reveals a dispiritingly inexorable march of downward-shifting expectations :-/

[DavidBenAkiva]

The tea leaves on the Isaiah Stewart recruitment are not looking good for us . . .

After cutting his list to 6 schools (not including Kentucky), Stewart recently took an official visit to UK, and then posted a picture of himself in a UK jersey on social media.

Vernon Carey or bust?

I guess the silver lining is that he's probably not committing until next spring. Hoping we can get him to schedule a visit before then.

I'm a little confused about the subject of this sentence. Is it Carey or Stewart? Carey, for what it is worth, will be on campus for an official visit on 10/19 and will attend Countdown to Craziness. Stewart, despite listing Duke in the Final 6, has not scheduled an official visit.

[DavidBenAkiva]

The announcement will take place in his high school gym at 7:00 p.m. Moore was scheduled to take an official visit to UNC on 10/12, but maybe he won't make it. He has also dropped South Carolina from his final group of schools and will be deciding between the Tobacco Road schools, including Duke, NC State, UNC, and Wake Forest.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

The announcement will take place in his high school gym at 7:00 p.m. Moore was scheduled to take an official visit to UNC on 10/12, but maybe he won't make it. He has also dropped South Carolina from his final group of schools and will be deciding between the Tobacco Road schools, including Duke, NC State, UNC, and Wake Forest.

Based on advanced machine learning analysis of the graphic he posted, it will be Duke. It’s the only uniform that he wore in its purest form without an undershirt (I mean, why would you want a UNCheat uniform to touch your actual skin anyway) or an arm sleeve.

[kAzE]

I'm a little confused about the subject of this sentence. Is it Carey or Stewart? Carey, for what it is worth, will be on campus for an official visit on 10/19 and will attend Countdown to Craziness. Stewart, despite listing Duke in the Final 6, has not scheduled an official visit.

Sorry if that wasn't clear. I was talking about Stewart. And at this point, his "final 6" is pretty much worthless, since it's obvious UK is in the running (if not the favorite) despite not being in his final 6.

Really makes you wonder what kind of dirty tricks Calipari used to pulled this off . . . He has to be pretty desperate after losing out on multiple top targets to Duke in 2018.

[UrinalCake]

Looks like Monday will either bring a huge sigh of relief or a complete board meltdown. Moore is nowhere close to the highest rated recruit we have ever pursued, but feels like one of the most important as we possibly enter a transitional period of sorts.

BTW Jeff Goodman’s latest podcast has some good tidbits on Duke and UK’s recruiting. He starts with some excellent recounting of the FBI trial thus far. I won’t spoil it but will share that he does think we are intentionally moving away from OAD’s.

[JasonEvans]

Looks like Monday will either bring a huge sigh of relief or a complete board meltdown.

And then there will be those of us who know Duke will be fine either way. While I would love for Duke to land Wendell Moore, if we miss on him and all our other wing recruits it just means that AOC and Joey Baker will get more minutes next year... and I'm fine with that too.

[WiJoe]

And then there will be those of us who know Duke will be fine either way.

fine
adjective
1.
of high quality.

now, define high quality.

[kAzE]

And then there will be those of us who know Duke will be fine either way. While I would love for Duke to land Wendell Moore, if we miss on him and all our other wing recruits it just means that AOC and Joey Baker will get more minutes next year... and I'm fine with that too.

So here's the projected rotation for 2019 if we don't land a single recruit (very unlikely, but worst case scenario):

C: Marques Bolden (maybe)
PF: Javin DeLaurier (maybe)
SF: Joey Baker
SG: Alex O'Connell
PG: Jordan Goldwire
6: Jack White
7: Justin Robinson
8: Mike Buckmire

If either Marques or Javin goes pro, I think Jack White moves in to the starting lineup. And as much as I love Jack White, that's not gonna be ideal for competing in the ACC. He's a complimentary player.

Also, we'd be very thin at guard, so I would be stunned if we didn't pick up another guard in this class.

Best case scenario is that we pick up Cole Anthony, Wendell Moore, one of the big men, and Boogie Ellis for depth. That team would be pretty competitive.

I'd be relieved to pick up Wendell Moore for sure (we desperately need his defense on the wing), but I think we really need to pick up at least one, but probably both of those guards to be contenders in the ACC. We could probably survive not landing one of the big men (though it would certainly lower the ceiling of the team significantly), but it would be very tough to not get an additional guard for next year's team. That would be a disaster.

We need someone who can reliably create offense at a high level next year, and that player isn't currently on the roster. (I'm assuming Tre Jones goes pro, obviously.)

There hasn't been much positive news about Cole Anthony lately, but I'm still cautiously optimistic that he will realize at some point that there won't be a better situation for him than playing at Duke next year. The entire team would revolve around him, similar to 2012 with Austin Rivers.

[Troublemaker]

And then there will be those of us who know Duke will be fine either way. While I would love for Duke to land Wendell Moore, if we miss on him and all our other wing recruits it just means that AOC and Joey Baker will get more minutes next year... and I'm fine with that too.

On a long-term scale, sure. Duke's going to remain a great basketball program no matter what happens with 2019 recruiting.

But, confined to evaluating 2019 recruiting, even I will have alarm bells going off if we miss on Moore here. I mean, it would be pretty remarkable if Duke has zero signees in the fall signing period.

[JasonEvans]

I don't want to get into another side-track about this where everyone weighs in with our own guesses... but I would just point out that none of the sites that make a living out of projecting NBA draft decisions have Tre Jones, Marques Bolden, or Javin DeLaurier in the 2019 draft. NONE OF THEM.

[kAzE]

I don't want to get into another side-track about this where everyone weighs in with our own guesses... but I would just point out that none of the sites that make a living out of projecting NBA draft decisions have Tre Jones, Marques Bolden, or Javin DeLaurier in the 2019 draft. NONE OF THEM.

But if you were forced to bet your life savings on whether or not Tre Jones will be in the NBA in 2019, you would bet he's going pro. Nobody had Gary Trent or Frank Jackson (or even Luke Kennard) being drafted before the regular season started, either, and Tre Jones is better than all of those guys IMO. Kids want to be one and done. It is unquestionably the best financial decision.

[JasonEvans]

But if you were forced to bet your life savings on whether or not Tre Jones will be in the NBA in 2019, you would bet he's going pro. Nobody had Gary Trent or Frank Jackson (or even Luke Kennard) being drafted before the regular season started, either, and Tre Jones is better than all of those guys IMO. Kids want to be one and done. It is unquestionably the best financial decision.

I would say it is 50-50 at this point. I'm not sure which way I would bet. I need to actually see him play a few games to have any sense if he has a chance" Evans

[richardjackson199]

I don't want to get into another side-track about this where everyone weighs in with our own guesses... but I would just point out that none of the sites that make a living out of projecting NBA draft decisions have Tre Jones, Marques Bolden, or Javin DeLaurier in the 2019 draft. NONE OF THEM.

Yep, I think it's a great pie bet. I'm not making it. I'm already due to lose another one to Kaze, unless Joey Baker really heats up the oven. So that's enough for me right now. No more pie bets until I finish losing that one.

But if I did bet, I'd bet Chillin that Tre Jones plays for Duke his sophomore year. I think it's greater than 50% likely that he does. But we'll see.

I'm also supremely worried that this abrupt change in Duke's recruiting fortunes points toward Coach K retiring after this season. Many top recruits who we were clear favorites for suddenly start cancelling their visits. Baker comes a year early because his stated reason for coming to Duke was wanting to play for Coach K. (Yes I know playing for Duke is better for his development, but it was an interesting surprise reclass). I like conspiracy theories, and this just makes sense to me. K has to retire sometime relatively soon. Why not after this season? I'm definitely not betting any pies on that. But I find it much more likely than Kylia Carter, Gary Trent Sr., and Tricky Duval suddenly getting these recruits to prefer UK when not on their list or Tennessee.

How our recruiting plays out will definitely be most interesting. And if we lose Wendell Moore to UNCheat, I think some meltdown is completely warranted. It would signal danger time IMO. But hopefully we get him.

[kAzE]

I would say it is 50-50 at this point. I'm not sure which way I would bet. I need to actually see him play a few games to have any sense if he has a chance" Evans

I agree (though I believe the odds are more like 70-30 he's gone), but you can't plan your recruiting strategy assuming guys are coming back. Even if it's 50-50 odds as you say, then you have to assume he's gone.