Nothing too new to add.
But want to weigh in, if it helps anyone feel better, that I think often about our back to back 2017-18 and 2018-19 Elite Eight losses. They were razor thin close to being Final Fours.
It is painful to think about the wealth of talent on those two teams, in particular, and what could have been.
That and the surging 2020 team with a T. Jones point guard and an emerging (out of nowhere) Justin Robinson X-factor.
The program has been about as close as you can get to a Final Four, without nabbing one, over the past three seasons. I don't put much stock into the results we are seeing this year. The pandemic weighs heavy over the program, and I really couldn't care less about our win-loss record at this point.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Yeah, I'm certainly frustrated that we got no Final Fours in the previous 3 seasons despite really good/great teams. But we were SOOOOO close in 2018 and 2019, and we would have had a legitimate shot in 2020. Like you, I view this season (so far) as an aberrance due to the pandemic rather than a trend. And I expect next season to be a really really good team again.
And I'm not ruling out a crazy finish to this year, although it's certainly on the unlikely side given the performances so far and the limited time left.
K has said he'd like it to be, but he has also said he'd stay out of it after making his thoughts known.
Duke's going to get a new AD soon. If it's someone from "the family" such as Mike Cragg, I'd think they will be more apt to keep the hire within the family. If not, then maybe not.
One thing to consider is how wrapped up K's whole family is within the program. Debbie Savarino has a full time job, Jaime and Chris Spatola are involved to various degrees. That will be a lot to untangle.
While I know that some of K's tree have said they don't want to follow the legend, I think it's the best shot any of them will ever get to coach a blue blood program so they should leap at the chance if it is offered. My $ is on Capel.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Yeah...I think Scheyer as front runner may be recency bias.
I honestly have no idea who it will be. There isn't a "perfect" candidate out there, but there are a lot of good ones.
I know 2 things about the next coach. a) we would be affiliated with Duke (player, ex-assistant) and b) he will be younger than 55. Being younger than 55 means you have a runway for at least 10 years and hopefully 15.
That still leaves a lot of candidates.
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
Hard at work making beautiful things.
Zero chance it's not a Duke guy and I continue to believe in a sport that is predominantly Black that Duke will hire their first Black men's basketball coach. I think it's an important social statement that the University won't pass up. FYI I bet UNC does the same when Roy retires. That's why I think Amaker is MUCH more likely than say Scheyer.
In terms of the disappointing Kansas game discussed upthread the most annoying part to me is Malik Newman had literally the game of his life (32 points!!) and was promptly never heard from again. This is called pulling a Pervis Ellison.
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 hate the “It has to be a Duke guy” talk but it seems like that’s what K wants so that’s probably what we will get. More than likely, it won’t go well for a few years and we will be on to the next era of Duke basketball. People will be hesitant to admit that but that’s just how I see it. Duke needs a top 5 coach.
Pomeroy says at that moment, we were 90.3% to win the game. Sigh... https://kenpom.com/winprob.php?g=6056&y=2018
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What i do not want to happen is for Coack K to coach to long. I played for the winningest highschool football coach in America.i watched him coach way longer than he should have.he was way past done when he was forced to go. I knew in my heart that he wouldnt be around long after he retired .he may have lived 2 or so years after.it absolutely killed him to have the game taken away from him. It was horrible to watch .I do not wish that to happen to any coach. Hopefully it won't and duke finds a good replacement. It may take a coach or two to achieve success.
I totally agree with your belief that Duke will likely make that statement by hiring a highly qualified African-American coach who has earned the right to the position. I happen to think Jeff Capel is a lot more likely than Tommy Amaker, however, to get the job if he wants it.
It's also called pulling a Derrick Williams.
Care to offer which coaches you believe are "top 5" that you think would leave their current positions to take the Duke job if offered, and why they would want to make that move given how much success they have had and are having at their current positions?
Pervis played 11 years in the NBA and had one season where he averaged 20ppg, 11rpg, and 2.7bpg. He was an outstanding college player, an All-American, and Metro Conference player of the year. He was the #1 pick in the NBA draft.
Having him play a relatively strong game against Duke in 1986 was nothing nothing nothing like what happened to us at the hands of Malik Newman, a guy who played in exactly 1 game (4 minutes played) in his NBA career.
Not perfect, as Williams had a truly great season that year for Arizona, but a lot closer.
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