Well, Nolan was on staff when Ingram and Tatum were at Duke. He joined the staff in Feb 2016, while Ingram was there and before Tatum arrived. He wasn’t an assistant coach then, but he was on staff.
It is a really weird marketing approach, but it isn’t factually incorrect about Duke.
I mean, even if he WAS a coach at the time, how much involvement did he have with the development of Tatum? I doubt any of the coaches did a lot of developing of the one-and-done players.
So it is misleading? Potentially, although it doesn't say they developed those guys (though that is a natural assumption one could infer). Is it factually incorrect? No. Is it a weird strategy? Yes. Although I guess you do whatever you can when the entire coaching staff is new to the university.
I suppose it’s semantics - I was considering “staff” in the traditional sense of a head coach and 3 assistants.
I didn’t say it was inaccurate anyways, just misleading. And I’ll stand behind that. Bragging that Nolan was a special assistant for the last month of Brandon Ingram’s Duke career is akin to me saying that I attended Reed College at the same time as Steve Jobs and implying heavily that I had a role in his success.
Exactly. It is misleading… advertising and maybe even considered false . He did not coach JT and was at most minimally involved at most in making JT’s dream of an nba superstar a reality Including his image in a Celtics uniform implies that JT was one of his guys and if you are very clueless one of KP’s guys. “Our guys being on staffs that produced…”. Very small print that is basically illegible on a twitter post on an iphone pro max with a big phone screen . (My phone)
USA Basketball has announced the 27 players who have been invited to try out for the Team USA U18 team that will compete this summer in the FIBA Americas U18 tournament (being held from June 6-12 in Tijuana*, Mexico).
https://www.usab.com/news-events/new...mp-roster.aspx
The list includes 2 future Dukies, bolded below:
12 guys will make the team. I would suspect top ten 2022 guys like Nick Smith, Amari Bailey, Kel'el Ware would be close to locks to make it. A top ten recruit in the class of 2023 like GG Jackson would also be likely to get there. Will be interesting to see if Foster or McCain can land a spot. Would be a really nice feather in their cap if they did.Representing the class of 2021 is Corey Floyd.
The class of 2022 will be represented by Mark Armstrong, Amari Bailey, Anthony Black, Eric Dailey Jr., Dior Johnson, Ty Rodgers, Nick Smith Jr., Seth Trimble, Jordan Walsh, Kel’el Ware and Cam Whitmore.
Expected to participate from the class of 2023 are Matt Bewley, Omaha Biliew, Xavier Booker, Kanaan Carlyle, Stephon Castle, Isaiah Collier, Caleb Foster, Brandon Gardner, Brandon Garrison, Gregory ‘GG’ Jackson, Carter Lang, Jared McCain, Ja’Kobe Walter and Bryson Warren.
From the class of 2024 is Derik Queen.
-Jason "*- taking a bunch of 18 year olds to Tijuana... what could go wrong?" Evans
Last edited by JasonEvans; 05-10-2022 at 02:44 PM.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
"Is Duke becoming the team to beat for 4-star Xavier Booker?"
https://www.on3.com/news/is-duke-bec...t-final-visit/
Four-star Xavier Booker has been one of the most talked-about prospects since the start of 2022. The 6-foot-10 forward led his Indianapolis (IN) Cathedral High team to a state title and has started the travel ball season off with a lot of buzz.
“I’m a stretch-big,” Booker told On3. “I can shoot the ball, stretch the floor, bring the ball up the court, take my defender off the dribble, and facilitate. I’ve gotten stronger recently, which has built my confidence in my game. I like watching Giannis Antetekoumpo, how he creates contact, Kevin Durant with his ball-handling, and how he creates off the bounce.”
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
This guy is my favorite type of recruit. He's trending up. Guys ranked highly very early on can sometimes carry risk that they are near their ceiling. Sometimes, that gate to gate top 5 is a Durant or James or Zion. Sometimes those guys who were top 10 for most of HS fall off towards their Sr years.
I love athletic guys with size who start to climb heading into their Senior years. This means that they are putting it together at the right time. Often they are guys who relied on athleticism or size to be good players, but not great players. As upperclassmen, they start to work on their skills, or play harder, or just "get it" somehow. Sometimes there is a late growth spurt, a la Ingram who went from a 6-7 junior with good/great wing skills to a 6-9 senior with great wing skills. His skills and athleticism didn't increase that all that much, but those extra 2 inches made a huge difference. A 6-7 wing as opposed 6-9+ wing is just a different cat. One is a bobcat, the other is a freaking jaguar.
Kyrie is another guy that comes to mind. Regardless of the circus his career has become, his on court abilities have never been in question. And he was outside the top 20 as a soph, outside the top 10 at the end of his junior year. He was borderline top 10 heading into his Sr year, and top 5 at the end of the all star games. After the pro-am that summer, he was the clear cut number 1 player in college, and that shallow moat around that position turned into a chasm until his injury.
I'm not saying this Booker is another Ingram or Irving, but I like guys that are trending up like this. They seem to put it together towards the end of their jr years in HS, really come on in their pre senior summer, and then just detonate during their Senior years of HS. I love that the staff is ID'ing guys that are climbing. Most of Jon's first two classes have had guys that are climbing as opposed to long term top guys. Kudos to the staff on that, and I hope they can reel in this Booker guy.
Some relevant updates for our '23 guys:
Great video of Mackenzie Mgbako from a few days ago. His 3 point stroke is super smooth. Super excited about him: https://twitter.com/pthoops_/status/...I0psCW1Xc1Nd8g
Caleb Foster will be transferring from Oak Hill to Notre Dame High School (CA) for his senior year of high school: https://twitter.com/Samad_Hines/stat...I0psCW1Xc1Nd8g
Video of Xavier Booker (high prospect of ours) from the same tournament as Mgbako: https://twitter.com/pthoops_/status/...I0psCW1Xc1Nd8g
Kentucky fans gonna lose their mind over this...
https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/sta...23560521965569
Louisville head coach Kenny Payne has hired Milt Wagner - the grandfather of the No. 1 player in the country, DJ Wagner, on staff.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I feel like we discussed this before but I guess not. This is not a total Ed Manning situation - Wagner played at Louisville with Payne (and also played professionally for a while including in the NBA) and though his first quasi-coaching job at Memphis was likely in relation to getting his son, he had two four year stints at UTEP and Auburn that were not solely in relation to landing one of his descendants as a player.
I'm guessing that given the personal relationship and the relationship to the school, Payne likely had the lead for the grandson without hiring Milt. But giving gramps a few hundred grand to be an assistant coach is also a nice form of NIL.
That being said, I would love to see Dajuan Sr. going to work for Penny at Memphis. Then things would get really fun...
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
Oh yeah, there is no question that Milt Wagner is qualified to be on any staff.
One small note-- he is not an assistant coach. Milt is being given the Dir of Players Development title. That means he will be unable to go on the road and do recruiting stuff. I'm not sure how the NCAA handles it if the recruit happens to sleep at your house because he is your grandson.
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
They would have hired grandma, too, but she was busy making cookies.
According to Rupp Rafters, the ONLY reason these things keep happening is because Kentucky refuses to cheat. It is their stock answer to any lost recruit or potentially lost recruits. If other school didn't employ dirty tactics then Kentucky would have its choice of 5* recruits.
How does Dajuan Wagner, Sr. fit into all this?
Is he able to work full-time considering the health issues that shortened his promising career?
I consider Kentucky a highly ethical program, by which I mean that ethics enters into their thought process almost hourly.
They have to constantly debate whether they are going to cheat, and really, almost every hour, and certainly every day, they explicitly decide not to cheat, or at least decide not to initiate a new cheating strategy. When they choose not to cheat, they suffer with misgivings and lost opportunities and lost sleep. When they do take the leap into refining ways to creatively interpret the system, to push the envelope in new and exciting ways, they also quiver, though with such a private, humble enthusiasm that they don't want to announce their success. The pattern recurs the next day, every day, and they then have to seriously debate whether to lie, cheat, and/or steal, and they have to do it while sleep deprived. It must be exhausting.
Kentucky and Carolina share this preoccupation with ethics, this relentless debate over whether to initiate a new cheating program, this ability to balance on the line with most of their body quivering--tremulous and exhausted--on the wrong side of the ethics line, but able to make a plausible case that at least their toes are firmly planted somewhere near the line. Kudos to everyone involved.