With Patrick Tapé's recent decommitment, and this pervasive lack of stuff to do, I got to thinking about the all-time roster of Duke commitments who never actually suited up for Duke.
I think a starting 5 of Shaun Livingston & Boogie Ellis in the backcourt, Kris Humphries and Patrick Tapé at the 4 and 5, and maybe, like, Carrick Felix as the swing man could be pretty good, right?
Where do we draw the line on this? I mean, in many ways the list could plausibly include Michael Jordan, Vince Carter, John Wall, etc. In perhaps fewer ways it could include everybody who played somewhere other than Duke.
"Amazing what a minute can do."
I think Kobe would qualify, he indicated he would have played for Coach K.
He would probably crack the starting line-up.
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
Yep, agreed. Kobe et al never committed to Duke. Bradley certainly did, although there weren't LOIs back in those days. But Fred Hetzel was denied a Duke scholarship because Bradley accounted for the last one per Jim Sumner.
Was there anybody else besides Livingston that committed to Duke and then chose to go the NBA? I can't recall any. Only other person I can think of off the top of my head committing to Duke and going elsewhere that hasn't been mentioned above was Tyler Adams. Unfortunately, his career at Georgetown was cut short due to a heart ailment. The decommitments are much more common in football than basketball, it seems (given coaches actively recruit even after commitments).
https://www.espn.com/blog/collegebas...-unc-over-duke
He also said he would have played at UNC. I know he was also seriously considering Cincinnati, who was pretty much on equal footing as the two Tobacco Road teams during that time for a few years.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Kris Humphries was an interesting situation. I believe he committed to Duke and then changed his mind shortly after. Later, Kim Kardashian did the same thing to him.
Hey guys and gals! We need a coach! Two candidates -- Adolph Rupp, who backed out of coaching the 1973-1974 team, due apparently to responsibilities at his large farm in Kentucky. And Red Auerbach, assistant coach and heir apparent for a few months in 1949. From Wikipedia on Red:
Auerbach left after a few months for the Tri-Cities team, on his way to the Celtics.fter leaving the [Washington] Capitols, Auerbach became assistant coach of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team. It was assumed that Auerbach would take over for head coach Gerry Gerard, who was battling cancer. During his tenure at Duke, Auerbach regularly worked with future All-American Dick Groat. Auerbach later wrote that he "felt pretty bad waiting for [Gerard] to die" and that it was "no way to get a job".
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
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Yeah and he would have been five more fouls against Okafor after our entire frontcourt fouled out and we had to put in Horvath...no offense to Horvath.
Duke let Kris out of his LOI after his dad reportedly wanted guaranteed playing time for his son...Duke was happy to oblige opening up his recruitment. He was clearly a stud at MN being the Freshman of the Year and had the ball in his hand A LOT in leading his team to a B1G worst 3 conference wins...