Does Duke seriously have a shot at getting both Dickinson and Williams? Seems as though that would be a lot of competition for post minutes
K has played Singler, Jack White, Zion, Josh Hairston, Lance Thomas, Amile Jefferson at center.
He played Lebron, Kevin Love at center in the olympics.
All listed PF in high school has played extended minutes if not primary minutes at the center at Duke.
Brakesfield is 6'8 210. Should be able to add 20 lbs, maybe an inch of height, before stepping on court. If we only have Mark Williams, I expect Brakesfield to be the main backup.
Last edited by proelitedota; 10-04-2019 at 09:03 PM.
I think a senior or junior PF can step in to man the 5 in a pinch. They’ve done it in the past. But that would be a very tough ask for a freshman Coleman of Brakefield or Johnson.
No doubt. Duke has been successful playing with that stretch 4 type player. Both Brakefield and Coleman and Johnson can all do that. Duke need the true bigs to supplement in the post. If Duke can land both Williams and Dickinson, this class would be good, just not deep with guards for they would only have Goldwire, Roach, Stewart and AOC
How Duke Recruits😀😀
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In this scenario we would have Williams and Dickinson as "post" guys but also Coleman at the 4 and and Brakefield at the 4/5 plus I suspect Jalen Johnson will see some time as a small ball 4 (he's 6'8 and known as a great passer and I know K will love to run the offense through him at that position). And there's still the pipe dream that Kuminga or Banchero will reclass, both of whom could play small ball 4.
So yeah, we could potentially have a lot of guys in the mix up front. But that's a lot of if's.
The challenge with only landing Williams or Dickinson, and not both, will be on the defensive end.
If one of them gives us 25 minutes at the 5, that still leaves 15 minutes a game where we are playing an under-sized freshman power forward at the 5. I emphasize freshman because I think it's easy to imagine someone like Jack White playing the 5 - he's done it and held up OK. But that's as a physically developed and mentally tough junior. And Jack is a very good post defender for his size.
If Henry Coleman were to add a couple of inches and come in at 6'9", 240+ or Jaemyn B were to put on 25 lbs (currently listed at 215) then it would start to feel more workable, but I don't think either is likely to happen. The other solution is that Carey or Hurt come back for a second year - not something to count on. At this point I think we really need both big men. But what do I know?
I think even if we land both Dickinson and MWilliams, it's unlikely that they will combine for 40 minutes at center. I mean, typically these incoming freshmen ranked ~30th or below aren't even in the rotation, so it's already unusual that we might end up relying on one to start and one to provide backup minutes. As of today, I'm guessing we probably will see some smallball next season with Jalen Johnson playing the 5, at least to finish games.
And I'm okay with that personally. The barrier to being another top-5 team in 20-21 as of right now is that we probably need one more star player on the team. Kuminga would be nice.
You may be right. And I know Jalen Johnson is a huge talent. But asking a freshman SF to guard the 5 in ACC play would be a big challenge even for 5-10 minutes a game.
Truth is it will likely be a combination of several different guys during the year. Henry Coleman does not have the length but would seem to have the bulk and strength to not get pushed around.
From what I've read on Mark Williams, his strengths right now are athleticism, size, defense and rebounding. I expect he'd get all the minutes he could handle next season - I hope he's excited by that...
Some info is popping up out there that Kentucky is making great strides with Kuminga, especially if he reclassifies, which is expected.
Would be a major disappointment if true.
Just saw that Dickinson will take his official visit the weekend of C2C. So good news on that front. When was the last time we had a player 7'2 or taller? I believe Zoubek was listed at 7'1.