Oh good. I see we've found our topic to beat into the ground this season.
I apologize if this has been addressed already. I went back a few pages and couldn't find a thread on it.
Any idea why Jordan Tucker hasn't gotten any PT? Is K planning to redshirt him? It seems odd that he can't crack the lineup at all even when Duke is up 20+ late in the game and the other less acclaimed recruits like Goldwire and AOC are finding some action.
Oh good. I see we've found our topic to beat into the ground this season.
Granted he hasn’t been on the court much, but in that limited time my untrained eyes saw a player who seemed behind those getting more time.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
He played 6 minutes against Elon and therefore can't be redshirted.
We have 13 scholarship players and he seems to be the 13th guy right now. Usually the 13th guy won't be able to get into games. In order to get into games, he needs to begin to outperform JRob and Jack in practice. (And if he wants to be in the rotation, he'll have to outperform JGold and Alex). [And if he wants to start, he has to outperform Gary and Grayson].
As to specifically what his deficiencies have been relative to his teammates, there is nothing on the record because Coach K hasn't been asked in a press conference about him. If you want a wild-booty guess from me, I would guess defense and shot selection, based on youtube.
Not to second guess Coach K, but I'm assuming this was apparent from the start. If there was almost no hope of him getting any PT this season, why play him a few minutes in an early game to burn his redshirt? You can always cancel the redshirt in the middle of the season if something changes, and worst case if after 4 years at Duke he decides he doesn't want to use his fifth year, no one is forcing him to, but it is nice to have that optionality. I felt the same way about Vrank's roughly 15 minutes of PT his freshman year.
Again I apologize if this has been brought up. I tried the search feature and tried looking for old threads. I used to be more active on forums like this but I have an 11 month old now so while I'm finding time to watch the games, I'm not finding much time to keep up with the rumors/gossip/speculation about players and potential recruits. I actually watched the Elon game and didn't remember him getting in which might actually be the answer to my question now that I think about it.
Don't apologize. It's a good thread. My take is that Tucker is a very one-dimensional player right now. And even though this team needs 3pt shooting, I don't think adding Tucker will removing one of our core 7 adds is a net gain.
Goldwire is getting minutes because we need a 1 back up and Coach K doesn't want Allen touching the 1. O'Connell is getting burn minutes because he's just more skilled than Tucker in most aspects of the game. IMO, this may be the case of rankings not accurately reflecting playing time.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
It’s a bad idea to red-shirt if you want the option to transfer later. Duke is thin at guard and it most likely wasn’t clear by the Elon game that Alex is a better option this year. JTuck could still move up to the 7th or 8th position especially in the event of an injury to a guard. Duke most likely loses 3 guard/wing starters for next year but also adds 3 OAD level guard/wings. If Trent were to stay, Alex, Justin, JGold, as wells as Jack and Trent, would actually move further down in the rotation (possible a couple minutes at 4 may be available for Jack and JTuck at 4 depending on Javin/Bolden leaving and no new bigs). Next year we’ll see how Jack, JTuck/Alex react to another year at the end of the bench. I think Jim speculated that one of those 3 may not be back next year. JGold most likely has a role and lower expectations. To my disappointment I have to admit that Jack doesn’t look like a starter or rotation guy at Duke. This off season we might find out if Jack is OK with a minimal role. The “loser” between Alex and JTuck will also be looking at a minimal role for their sophomore year and will be faced with a decision. Vrank looks like a Senior Captain and rotation guy next year. I would love to have Javin, Bolden and Jack the following year but that seems unlikely. We should have at least one and hopefully 2 seniors the following year between JGold, JTuck and Alex. Just realized idk how many yrs of eligibility JRob has.
Best answer I can give is that O’Connell has played better than expected and he and Tucker are kind of mutually exclusive as they are similar players.
I figured coming into the season that one of Tucker, O’Connell and White would emerge as the big guard/wing off the bench. I thought it would be Tucker but O’Connell put on some weight and is coming along nicely. And K would rather give 15 minutes to one player rather than 7-8 minutes to two players.
Yeah, I think it's fairly obvious that Coach K is looking for one guy to back up both of Grayson and Gary. Right now, that guy is Alex O'Connell. That could change, but O'Connell has impressed in his albeit limited opportunities.
Looking big picture, we should be delighted to be talking about the 10th, 11th, or 13th player off the bench. It seems like the team is featuring a 9-man rotation so far. Trevon and Goldwire at the point; Grayson, Gary, and Alex on the wings; Marvin, Wendell, Javin, and Marques up front. Other than the games where Marques was getting over strep throat, that's the rotation at the moment. And frankly, I love this rotation. Play Vrankovic when there's a big lead or foul trouble. Otherwise, no complaints.
In agreement with others, I see the rotation kinda/sorta settling out (in?) and don't envision much PT for Tucker given the "two-deep" that has been outlined above/manifest already in the games we've played.
Last edited by JBDuke; 11-22-2017 at 11:14 PM. Reason: removed material not related to thread
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
True words. Seems like just a few years ago that I was driving my daughters to middle school, then teaching them to drive. Now they are married and living out of state.
The good thing is that they have given me the gift of 4 granddaughters to love and spoil and watch grow up too quick.
I would argue that it's a reasonable question WITH a seemingly easy answer right now. Duke under Coach K doesn't play a deep bench. He has not shown himself to be as good as O'Connell, DeLaurier, or White as a back on the wing or forward spot. He doesn't play PG, so he can't compete with Goldwire either. Thus, he doesn't play.