Very much agree here. White is a great example of the type of player who is perfect in these kinds of lineups, too: he can space the floor and play more or less completely as a wing offensively, but he's a terrific interior defender who can really dominate the glass and the paint against anybody but the biggest bigs (as Jason mentions, you wouldn't run him out there against Azubuike, say, but otherwise he can generally hold his own). And it does seem like our next class has a couple of guys who might be able to fit that model.
I'll have to go back and watch some of those possessions to be sure, but my sense watching was that he was doing some "Brook Lopezing," where, since he was playing the role of the big, his job was to box out, tie up as many of the Tech rebounders as possible, and clear space for other guys to fly in and chase the ball. Also, in the second half when we were going smaller, it seemed like we were forcing much wilder shots than the layups they were getting with one of our more traditional bigs in. That may just be my faulty memory of those possessions, though. (We need a resident film study person to cut us tape for these cases! Think we can persuade Kevin Cullen to join the board and weigh in?)
"This is the best of all possible worlds."
Dr. Pangloss - Candide
Can we stop linking to that website? They've been off on so many recruits its embarrassing for Duke fans. Total speculation.
Evan Daniels on Dickinson’s pending decision... says he’s getting close, may be down to two schools but none stand out from the others very significantly.
https://247sports.com/college/basket...140004962/Amp/
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
Blue Devil Nation @BlueDevilNation 8h8 hours ago
Future Duke guard Jeremy Roach led Paul VI (VA) to a 67-56 win over IMG Academy while Mike Krzyzewski looked on at the National H.S. Festival.Roach had 16 in the win and Mark Williams 16 pts, 12 rebs in the loss. Jalen Johnson was a DNP
Adam Rowe @AdamRoweTDD 9h9 hours ago
"Mark Williams was awesome. By far the best I’ve seen him play. He’s taken a major step forward. "Jeremy Roach shot the ball, played with pace and made good decisions. He looked like the Jeremy I knew pre-injury." -- @EvanDaniels on #Duke's two signees:
Jack Herron @jwherron10 8h8 hours ago
FINAL
Paul VI 67
IMG 56
What a game!! Co-MVPs 2021 Trevor Keels and 2020 Jeremy Roach with huge games for PVI.
2020 Mark Williams with 16P 12R 6B for IMG. Will join Roach at Duke next year
Jeremy Roach 1 - 7 on 2PT FGA. Did any board members actually watch the game? Comments?
Bob Green
After looking at M. Williams stats I'm less hyped than the person who said this was his best performance. Rebounds were not off the chart, didn't make it to the free throw line and 4 turnovers. I hope he's had better performances.
Nevermind. Was looking at the player directly above in the boxscore. I'm loving the 6 blocks and 12 rebounds.
That IMG academy team is scary stacked. I'm surprised they lost! That Diabate kid is an absolute beast. He might be top 3-5 when its all said and done next year.
Mark Williams is a human eraser. If he stays four years at Duke he might break some blocked shots records.
Thanks for posting those tweets, Troublemaker. It's great to see that more than one guy was watching and seeing Roach and Williams play well.
The shooting for Roach is encouraging. 3-6 from 3 and made all 5 of his FT attempts. I expect that the lack of explosion as he recovers from the ACL tear is part of the reason Roach struggled inside the rim. That's just speculation as I didn't see the game or know where the shots were coming from. Still, no TOs. If he shot the ball better inside the arc, it would have been a great game against a really good high school opponent in IMG.
Very encouraged to hear that Williams was contributing in all facets of the game.
Great to hear that Roach has recovered from his injury and is back into form. It’s got to be hard for a kid that young to go through rehab and recover. Sounds like he and Williams are on the rise, I’m still not sure what to expect out of a team that will be such a complete overhaul and reliant on non-elite freshmen, but there’s definitely talent.
Are you talking about next year's Duke team?
Alex, Joey and Jordan will be on that completely overhauled team. 50/50 chance that Moore and Hurt will also be on that team. And Jalen Johnson will be as good as any freshman on this years team. Could well be different from the 5 out/5 in teams that we have seen.
Williams is going to be a defensive stud next year! He basically blocked everything.
Jeremy Roach is also a fearless PG leader. I think this kid is going to be very very good from day 1. IMG were so much bigger than Paul VI but Roach and co. never backed down and showed alot of grit and toughness.
We should probably also be looking at Trevor Keels. He is probably going to rise in rankings (No. 35 in 2021) and can flat out score the basketball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lbx02hsLXc
While it's nice to see our recruits playing well, it's probably best to not get overexcited just yet. Not trying to be a downer or anything, but it's probably worth pointing out that Marques Bolden, who was a consensus top 20 recruit, averaged 23.6 Points, 10.2 rebounds, and 2.6 blocked shots as a high school senior, and it took him a long time to adjust to playing at the D-1 level.
Hopefully Mark Williams can adjust more quickly (and has MUCH better luck with his health) when he suits up for Duke, but it might be a tad early to declare that he'll be a defensive stud next year.