Agree. For a freshman, Mark has been an excellent defender this year, with the ability to cover multiple positions. No one knows how well the three incoming freshmen will be as defenders. But they will have to be pretty good to displace Mark as an upperclassmen with his defensive abilities. Sean Stewart is a great athlete but as limited as Mark is offensively. I haven't seen where Powers or Mgbako are great defenders on the high school level. But very good offensive skills.
I don't keep up with those sites that project drafts positions, but a friend who does, stated that our freshman class has played themselves out of the first round.I'm sure someone on here can contradict that.
I think Flip can play himself into a lottery pick were he to come back. Proctor probably into the first round. Lively and Whitehead were never coming back and the talk last summer was that Mark wanted to be in college for one year.
These kids have often pretty much made up their mind before they play their first college game. And it didn't change for kids like Keels, Steward, Stanley and others who either fell to the second round or were not drafted at all. They wanted to get to the next level as quick as possible. And a majority of posters on the Duke boards feel like they made the right decisions.You can supposively get better without all the "distractions" of college by playing in one of the many minor league organizations. Didn't seem to hurt kids in the pre-OAD era of Duke basketball, but I guess things changed.
I think our best chance of seeing sophomores at Duke are Flip and Proctor. And Schutt. I think Mark would have a huge sophomore year, despite the presence of Powers, MgBako and Stewart. MgBako might be the only player coming in that could be considered ready for the next level. And he, like anyone in this years class, is near the one year players Duke has seen the last five years. No Tatum, Bagley, RJ, Zion, or Banchero.
So, back on topic for the 2023 recruiting thread, for those of you interested, I got another, even better look at Caleb Foster last night. His Notre Dame team played Sierra Canyon for the second time in less than a week, this time in the semifinals of the league playoffs, and this time in Notre Dame's gym, which is a small, old school gym, rather than at Pauley Pavillion. I was therefore able to get a very up close view of Caleb as well as the numerous other high D-1 recruits in this game, including but not limited to Bronny James. Bronny did not play in the game last weekend, but he did last night. On the other hand, Sierra's best player, junior Isiah Elohim did not play last night as he was on crutches due to an ankle injury suffered in the previous game. This was anticipated to be a great matchup, but Notre Dame dominated, blowing Sierra Canyon out of the gym by I think it was 27 points.
I won't bore anyone with reviews of the other outstanding prospects in this game. So what about Caleb Foster?
This is as close as I've been able to watch Caleb, and what is very clear is that he is really a power point guard. He is a plus athlete, and he is built. He will not be getting knocked back by anybody. He has a nasty crossover, a crossover/stepback, and when he wants to beat his man and get to the rim, he can do so with no problem at least at this level. A couple of times Sierra tried to guard him with a skinny sophomore and it was a joke. No chance. It was much more challenging when Bronny guarded him, but still Caleb was pretty much able to get to his spots. Caleb pushes the ball at every opportunity, really putting pressure on the entire defense.
His jumpshot is really something to behold. It is far from classic, as he puts what seems like waaaaay too much arc on it. Like it's gonna bring rain. But damn if that ball doesn't come down into the bottom of the net an awful lot. Not much margin for error when you shoot like that, but he really knocks them down, including from distance. And at least on this team, at this level, Caleb has no conscience. He was pulling up from the logo and launching, and hitting. Not sure those shots are going to be good enough shots in the context of the Duke offense, but dang. He ended up with 20 points to lead a balanced attack.
What I didn't see, again, is a whole lot of distributing, and creating shots for others. Yes he passes the ball, moves it around the perimeter, but I didn't see much dishing to others for open shots. Caleb definitely gets his, but I'd have liked to see him create easy shots for teammates a bit more often. It's obviously something he needs to add to his game if he's going to play point guard, although as I think about that, Duke has had other point guards including Jeremy Roach who have not excelled in that area. I'd also like to see him add some kind of floater/runner in the lane to his repertoire, as the shotblockers coming at him at the ACC level are obviously going to be more imposing than those in high school.
I just like the intensity with which Caleb plays. He brings it every night, and he seems to rise to the occasion even more when playing against top competition. I like that a lot. Some say he may be like a Trevon Duval in terms of his athleticism and physicality at the PG position, and his ability to move his feet on defense, but to me his long range shooting put him in a completely different category. Would sure be nice to have that type of physical player at the position next year who can also shoot it. Adding the distribution piece would complete this young man as a player. Can't wait to see him in Duke Blue!
^Thanks for the review of Foster. I saw him play on TV as a sophomore and even then he looked strong. On that team he was maybe the 3rd best player and showed some ability to dish. However, he probably is more of a combo guard than true PG.
Watching a game on ESPNU between Montverde and La Lumiere. Sean Stewart is a solid body, for sure, but has started slowly. He’s missed 5 of 6 FTs, and his FT form is not good. Announcer said Stewart has been coming off bench, as his coach said he’s trying too hard, or something like that. Stewart is starting 2d half. Nice 15’ jumper just now.
Easily the most impressive player is Montverde’s Liam McNeely (‘24). Hope he’s a major Duke target, as he does it all, including constant movement, passing, driving, shooting. Cooper Flagg (‘25) is obviously multi-skilled, but has been too passive.
Two other ‘23 commits look good for an overmatched La Lumiere team: 4* Kaleb Glenn (UL) and 4* Gus Yalden (Wisc).
ETA — Stewart just hit another elbow jumper, good form, second swisher.
Last edited by gumbomoop; 02-02-2023 at 04:07 PM.
I disagree about all but Roach.
Trevor Keels is currently only 19.5 and just coming into his own for the Knicks G-League squad. He's averaging 14 but has recently ripped off a few 20+ point games and is up near 40% from 3.
Tyrese is also only 18 and has yet to fill out. He may still grow, but he has nice size for a PG.
Mitchell needs to keep working on his shot, but he's the right size to guard 1-4 in the NBA.
As for Roach, he'll need the right situation. But, did any of us think that Jose Alvarado would be a legit NBA rotation player?
It's not a bad comp. The problem for Jeremy is that Alvarado did pretty much everything better than Roach does. And several things (shooting, steals, efficiency stats) a LOT better.
Code:Player pts/40 oRating dRating PER eFG 3pt% asst% to% stl% ws/40 BPM Jose Alvarado (SR) 16.4 119.7 100.5 22.2 58.6 39.0 20.7 14.3 4.5 0.179 8.1 Jeremy Roach (JR) 15.2 105.2 101.6 13.0 45.8 34.2 18.8 13.5 2.0 0.117 2.4
Mitchell has an NBA body and motor. He’s got great touch on his shot even if the release needs some adjustment. I expect he’s a guy the NBA GMs will covet for potential, so I’m expecting him to leave.
Roach and Proctor are tougher calls. I hope a nice NIL deal will lure Jeremy back. Proctor also has great potential and room to develop. Seems like a borderline first/second round pick. Is he in a hurry to leave? How much does he love playing at Duke?
My expectation is that all draft discussion will shift come March. There are plenty of examples of players pushing their way into the 1st round through the NCAAT. The draft prospects for Dereck Lively have certainly shifted down and now maybe back up since the season began. Mitchell, Whitehead, Filipowski, and maybe even Proctor and Roach might all have a chance to impress or not.
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
I believe Jason commented on the Roach/Proctor situations a few weeks ago in regards to the draft, and I believe his comments insinuated that within the inner circles its pretty much been decided that Roach will be foregoing to go pro, one way or another.
I believe he commented at the time that the Proctor situation felt truly up in the air, but that was before he started playing better, so at this point who knows.
They both can handle the ball and they both can shoot it. I suspect both will spend time at both spots, but I suspect Foster will be more of a primary ballhandler and McCain more off the ball. But it won't be exclusively that way. More importantly: they're both ballers in the backcourt. Don't worry so much about the labels.
Disagree. I don't think Mitchell has great touch on his shot at all. As far as his body goes, he's solid and seems long enough, but his ballhandling, jumping and his burst both look average to me. Not saying he can't find a role (assuming he reworks his jumpshot) but at his size there aren't that many guys getting meaningful minutes in the league without a better shot and/or better athleticism than Mark. Not zero, but not a lot.
Agree with those saying Proctor is a much more intriguing prospect at this point.
No doubt that Proctor is a far more interesting pro prospect. Behind Kyle, I'd argue that Tyrese is the next best pro prospect. Mitchell doesn't have much to offer at the offensive end - if anything, he's regressed on that end since the start of the season. He's getting his shot blocked a ton on drives to the basket. He finishes well on fast breaks, but the NBA is an offensive league. Mitchell would very likely go undrafted.
Hope we get some sophomores next year and a Senior. I’d love to have Proctor, Roach and Schutt back but, with 2 new guards coming in, that seems very unlikely.