I actually think Joey will play a long time in the NBA. I don't disagree that he was one dimensional last year in what should have been his freshman season, and he has a ton of room for improvement, but he's really big, he's athletic, and his best skill is shooting. Unless he turns out to be an awful defender (I don't think he will), he's going to eventually be a staple in 10 man NBA rotations for a decade. That's just how the league values shooting now.
I'd be surprised if he doesn't become a starter at Duke by his junior year.
If KAZE can “internet board” into existence, I’m all for Baker developing into the kind of player with a 10-year NBA career.
I’ll be astonished, but thrilled. Baker appears to have a tough guy mentality, but to me he looks a step slow on D both physically and mentally.
Here’s to a big “junior leap” that we used to see with recruits like Joey back in the 90’s!
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Chet Holmgren releases final seven. Duke not among them.
https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/m...al-seven-list/
According to 247, if you are a top twenty ranked recruit from the state of Minnesota, here is where you have attended college in the past 7 years:
2020 - Jalen Suggs, Gonzaga
2019 - Matthew Hurt, Duke
2018 - Tre Jones, Duke
2017 - no top 20 recruits
2016 - no top 20 recruits
2015 - no top 20 recruits
2014 - Tyus Jones, Duke
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I really wanted him because I assumed his real first name was Chester, and every school should have a Chester, but no, Chet's his real name and he can take it elsewhere.
He DOES go to Minnehaha Academy which, contrary to rumor, is NOT a comedy club, just a private high school.
Yup, I knew Gary was technically a Minnesota kid but I was unsure if there might be others that 247 had moved to another state that I was missing out upon so I did not think it was fair to include him. Still, Duke has pretty much owned elite recruiting in Minnesota for a while now.
Sorta like how we owned Alaska in the late 90s and early 00s.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
The state of Minnesota actually had three major 5-star recruits in 2014, none of which became Gophers. Tyus was the highest rated, but Rashad Vaughn, who played his last year out west, I think maybe at Findlay "Prep" before enrolling at UNLV, and Reid Travis who of course ended up at Stanford and then Kentucky, were highly regarded as well. Vaughn was top 10 on some lists, top 15 in most, and Travis was a bit lower. But both were very high major recruits.
Mario Chalmers, who hit a famous 3 in the 2008 National Championship game for Kansas, was from Anchorage. I believe he was the last Alaskan 5-star recruit.
I remember being a little bummed in 2006 or whenever he was a high school senior that he wasn't looking at Duke so that we could keep the Alaskan pipeline going. Alas.
We've had a few over the years, most recently Daishen Nix (5* #21 ESPN) and JT Thor (4*, was a 5* top 10 before reclass ESPN). They didn't attend HS in AK, but were here until HS, so I still consider them AK kids. A couple years ago FSU had Devon Bookert, an Alaskan kid who started for them for 1 or 2 years. Played well against Duke.
Chet Holmgren is someone's real name?
It sounds like a name I'd give when the cops showed up to a party back in high school