Cameron Hall was the first foreign-born player I can remember at Duke. He was from Ontario. Hall was 6-9 and a member of the same class as Jim Spanarkel, Harold Morrison, Steve Gray and Scott Goetsch. Hall was a promising prospect but had chronic back problems and dropped off the team in the middle of the 1977-'78 season, apparently lacking the powers of prognostication.
I don't know what kind of swag that 1978 team got at the Final Four, but it could have been yours, Cameron Hall.
Foster signed an Italian forward named Marco Bonamico. He was in the same class as Mike Gminski. But for reasons too complicated to explain here, he never showed up at Duke. Gminski told me once that he had never even met Bonamico. But Bonamico was good enough to play for Italy in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
And of course K signed Dan Meagher and Greg Newton, both of whom prepped in Canada.
Christian Ast (Germany) is another non-American who played high-school ball in the U.S. before going to Duke.
Yeah, Newton was as far as I can remember the last foreign-trained player Duke successfully recruited under Coach K. And even then, he was from Canada just a half-hour North of Buffalo, so not that complicated a recruiting exercise. I don't think anyone else between Newton and White was foreign raised through high school. The intercontinental recruiting game appears to be something Coach K has only fairly recently dipped his toe into, and with minimal success (just Jack White).
For those wondering, this is what Dariq Whitehead looks like a Duke jersey. He was on Duke's campus over the weekend for his first official visit. He is not committed according to his tweet but says that he had a great time.
Oh, we all remember hum all too well. This is the guy that essentially almost single-handedly gift-wrapped another national championship for the Cheaters. Just seeing his name in your post gave me a bit of PTSD. Couldn't he have made ONE or TWO layups or put-backs within four feet of the freaking basket?!
I need to go take some deep breaths. I will be ok...
One of my first overseas flights was London to Los Angeles. After we left the British Isles we didn't encounter an obvious town or city until we got to CA -- Greenland, Hudson Bay, Prairie Provinces, Dakotas, Rockies, etc. A charming Mom on the flight, who was from New Zealand, wondered whether anyone lived in North America.
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
According to Andrew Slater, Duke has extended an offer to JJ Starling, a 6'4" PG from Indiana's La Lumiere Academy. Like former La Lumiere standout Isaiah Stewart, Starling hails from upstate New York, just outside of Syracuse. Starling joins Derrick Lively and Dariq Whitehead as offers from the Class of 2022. Expect that list to grow as other recruits, including Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell, visit Duke later in June.
Agree rsvman. I could not believe what I was witnessing that night. This big dude had been automatic all year long near the basket missed so many chippies it was ridiculous.I told my wife midway through, I was getting a bad feeling because this guy couldn’t make a layup that even I could have made. Only against the cheats!