I don't know how seriously we're looking at Anthony Black, but I found the front-page article really disturbing.
It can be summarized as a 5 star player trying to transfer to Duncanville (the two-time defending state champs for the largest schools in Texas), which is the rationale for his being not allowed to play.
Or it can be summarized as teen moves with his mother, who has been living with someone in Duncanville for 2 years (and who she's been dating for 3 years), in part to escape the boy's father, who has been physically assaultive towards the boy and the mom for a decade.
An additional twist is that the mom's boyfriend is the Duncanville coach and the boy's father was a star at Baylor and that his junior-year coach effectively blocked the transfer by saying, “I understand that they want to label what they have as a family, and there is merit to that, but by the definition of the rules of the UIL, they are not married, they are not in a situation where that would be a justified reason for the transfer."
I don't care all that much about gaming high school sports, but it strikes me that other forces are at work when a kid can't play at the school in his mother's district because the mother and her BF aren't married (though 70% of black children in the US are born to unmarried parents), presumably because the school lacks clout (eg, 2.7% of Duncanville students are white--the rest are fairly evenly split between Hispanic and black), and by academic/financial support measures, the school falls in the bottom group of schools in a state, Texas, that is wealthy but mediocre in terms of educational financing (36th out of 50). But while Texans may be ambivalent about funding education, they do care about high school sports, and so the unanimous UIL decision strikes me as about far more about encouraging basketball in other districts than it does about education or equity.
https://www.dallasnews.com/high-scho...ive-committee/
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/s...24/school.aspx
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05...nding-average/
How did Mark Mitchell recruiting go over the weekend?
Mark Mitchell posted this pic on his twitter feed Saturday night.
Mitchell did sit with the Crazies, along with Lively and Whitehead. While they were over there, the Crazies were chanting "We need Mark."
If this video is any evidence, Mark enjoyed the experience.
https://twitter.com/BrotherhoodCBB/s...01278597410820
https://www.zagsblog.com/2021/10/19/...er-commitment/
“I loved it,” he said. “Duke is everything they say it is. With Cameron Indoor, the Crazies and everything, it’s definitely really cool to see that place rocking like that. It was really cool.”
It's hard to read too much into these interviews. That being said, the timing of the visits, with Mitchell getting to see a practice and go to CTC has to be a good thing for Duke. It was the last visit, after all. They didn't have practice at UCLA or even an event. And now he is going to decide in the next 6-8 weeks. All you can do is put yourself in the best possible position. Now we'll see what he wants to do.
The DBR podcast crew got to sit down with Kyle Filipowski for a chat. He really sees his game more as a 7-footer with guard skills than a guy who is going to stay chained to the post. And when we start talking about his fit with Dereck Lively, you all are gonna love the similarity he sees to a certain Duke frontcourt of the recent past.
https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/duk...=VMP7896068982
Enjoy!!
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Aden Bona just picked UCLA over Kentucky. Not sure if or how this impacts the Mitchell recruitment, but it sure affects Kentucky’s.
Well Bona is a center, so presumably there isn't a positional overlap... it just could conceivably make UCLA a more enticing option with more incoming top tier talent.
From what I understand this was a relatively surprising decision, as many thought Kentucky's strong pursuit of Bona was the turning point when they realized that we were the leaders for Lively. For them to lose out on both Lively and Bona is a big blow, although they still have a top-tier class for next season. Now, though, it's looking like a much clearer #2 to our #1
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?