Jalen Johnson opts out of remainder of season

[arnie]

I hope for the best for Jalen, whether it is injury or other issues he is going through

For Duke, no doubt the team talent level has gone way down, but maybe Coach K can fit the pieces better and rally the team with an “us against the world” underdog mentality.

If he’s no longer playing cause of injury, I’m sure we’ll see him on the bench supporting the team😡😡

[CameronDuke]

A few questions: will he be associated with the Duke basketball program going forward? Will he be in street clothes on the sideline supporting the team or is he gone from Duke?

Who recruited him? Seems he may either lack maturity or he has people in his ear influencing him to make these kinds of decisions. I am surprised that wasn’t revealed in his recruiting process.

Will Duke claim him in the future as part of the Brotherhood? Him cleaning out his locker doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. Seems like he quit on the team.

[Bay Area Duke Fan]

Has he checked out of the WaDuke?

[dukelifer]

A few questions: will he be associated with the Duke basketball program going forward? Will he be in street clothes on the sideline supporting the team or is he gone from Duke?

Who recruited him? Seems he may either lack maturity or he has people in his ear influencing him to make these kinds of decisions. I am surprised that wasn’t revealed in his recruiting process.

Will Duke claim him in the future as part of the Brotherhood? Him cleaning out his locker doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. Seems like he quit on the team.

I feel we don’t know the whole story and there is a lot of speculation. There are a lot of possibilities for this.

[WHOneedsSOX]

A few questions: will he be associated with the Duke basketball program going forward? Will he be in street clothes on the sideline supporting the team or is he gone from Duke?

Who recruited him? Seems he may either lack maturity or he has people in his ear influencing him to make these kinds of decisions. I am surprised that wasn’t revealed in his recruiting process.

Will Duke claim him in the future as part of the Brotherhood? Him cleaning out his locker doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. Seems like he quit on the team.

I would be surprised if he stuck around Duke at all. I bet he's dropping out of school too and will be going home and start training for the draft.

[Dukehky]

A few questions: will he be associated with the Duke basketball program going forward? Will he be in street clothes on the sideline supporting the team or is he gone from Duke?

Who recruited him? Seems he may either lack maturity or he has people in his ear influencing him to make these kinds of decisions. I am surprised that wasn’t revealed in his recruiting process.

Will Duke claim him in the future as part of the Brotherhood? Him cleaning out his locker doesn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. Seems like he quit on the team.

I think the fact that he's opting out of the season clealry indicates no for most of this. He will be welcome back if he wants it, but he won't. He won't be on the sideline, because he's focusing on the draft (shrug).

This was revealed in the recruiting process. Duke worked with him as he left IMG to try and rehab his image because they believed in him and believed in his talent. JJ was a Scheyer/K recruit (i think), and Duke believed that it was the place where JJ could be the best of himself.

All of the feelings you have that I can infer from these questions are right.

Duke took a shot. It didn't work out.

[Stray Gator]

Can we please just thank the young man for choosing Duke, express appreciation for his contributions during a difficult season, and wish him well going forward? Speaking only for myself, I believe these posts castigating Jalen Johnson and questioning his character -- based on speculation that is inconsistent with the statement posted by Coach K -- are not only unseemly, but embarrassing to the DBR community and Duke fans generally.

[dukelion]

So a lot of folks here bashed Jeff Goodman when he hinted at issues between Jalen and Duke early this season.

I'll repeat what I posted then...Jeff Goodman is one of the best in the business and if he's hinting at something we better take notice. Again, many here wanted to blue sky away the report but here we are.

Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanHoops
·
1h
Source: There have been off-court issues between Jalen Johnson/his camp and Duke dating back to early on in the season.

[kshepinthehouse]

I really don’t understand this “not a surefire lottery pick” mentality. He’s going to be a lottery pick. James Wiseman opted out on Memphis last year and went #2.

The only issue here to me is the potential questions around him doing this at HS and now college. But potential and talent-wise, he’s going in the lottery.

James Wiseman is much more talented than JJ and I think JJs play will cause him to slide as much as his character will.

He has a lot of holes in his game.

[dukelifer]

I would be surprised if he stuck around Duke at all. I bet he's dropping out of school too and will be going home and start training for the draft.

Well he can still take classes from home

[Music man55]

Hate to hear this, but something just never seemed quite right with Johnson, like he was having trouble buying in to the coaches or maybe even his teammates. Still, sorry to see him leave, I still thought he would play an important role before the end of the season. I wish the best for the young man. Maybe the rest of our guys will pull together and finish strong.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

So when he is drafted, whether it be in the lottery or later in the first round, do we label it as another success for “ The Brotherhood”?

It will be interesting to see Silver's face when he has to say "From Duke University, Jalen Johnson." Given that a) the draft is unlikely to be in person, and b) we don't have any other likely first round picks, I don't think we will be sending any of our coaches to be there for him as we have in the past.

[TKG]

And this is the right move when you want to be in the good graces of other top recruits.

The flip side of this is Duke has a number of folks in positions of influence in the League; a coach, a couple of GMs, the Commish and a number of players. Also a pretty strong relationship with Nike. I would not be at all surprised if a message was delivered to JJ and his camp along the lines ‘Bad mouth Duke on your way out the door and it might cost you a few dollars.” So let’s all play nice.

[Acymetric]

If he’s no longer playing cause of injury, I’m sure we’ll see him on the bench supporting the team😡😡

No reason for someone out for the season due to injury to continue going through all the COVID protocols (and serving as another potential point of entry for infection to the team).

[Dukehky]

Can we please just thank the young man for choosing Duke, express appreciation for his contributions during a difficult season, and wish him well going forward? Speaking only for myself, I believe these posts castigating Jalen Johnson and questioning his character -- based on speculation that is inconsistent with the statement posted by Coach K -- are not only unseemly, but embarrassing to the DBR community and Duke fans generally.

I understand your feelings here. But Jalen removed every photo of him in a Duke uniform from his instagram page except his Clemson dunk. What is the incentive for K or Duke to do anyting other than what they did, regardless of the circumstance?

I hope he figures it all out, but I feel like the response here has been fairly measured beyond some of the good riddance/see ya stuff. There is undoubtedly more going on than his injury, though. If the Board wants us to accept the injury, then lock the thread. I also understand and appreciate that it's been an awful year, and that some people might be affected moreso than others, so I'll warrant that JJ may have had a tougher time with everything affiliated with his season than others.

[TKG]

Well he can still take classes from home

Just like he was at the WaDu? 😉

[kAzE]

Best of luck to Jalen, I'm sure he's doing what is best for him. Very talented kid.

It's not all bad for us, though. I look at this as a developmental year anyways. Jalen was going to be gone next season regardless, and now we have much less of a logjam for minutes in the frontcourt. We can play the guys who are staying and develop them for next year. I'm looking forward to watching how Mark, Henry, and Jaemyn develop with the increased opportunity for playing time.

[summerwind03]

This was a shock to me, even though you could see in recent games that he wasn't engaged. What a shame. He showed flashes of brilliance and i kept hoping he would put things together. I wish him the best.

[Namtilal]

We can speculate all day and all of the night, but we simply don't know what the issues were. What really matters it the effort and the competitiveness of the remaining players who are committed to our team's success. Personally, I don't care if we snag a bid and make some noise in the tourney or lose every game left on the schedule, as long as I feel they players gave a 100% effort. I have not felt that way often this season, but I still have hope.

If I was Coach K, I would make Williams a captain and make clear to the team that his effort and dedication must be matched by anyone who wants to get playing time. Results are great, but at this point, commitment to giving 100% effort is the only thing we can control.

[Duke76]

I think the fact that he's opting out of the season clealry indicates no for most of this. He will be welcome back if he wants it, but he won't. He won't be on the sideline, because he's focusing on the draft (shrug).

This was revealed in the recruiting process. Duke worked with him as he left IMG to try and rehab his image because they believed in him and believed in his talent. JJ was a Scheyer/K recruit (i think), and Duke believed that it was the place where JJ could be the best of himself.

All of the feelings you have that I can infer from these questions are right.

Duke took a shot. It didn't work out.

Just another indication that college basketball is sick, imo very sick. Covid or no covid TV ratings would be in the tank, if they aren't they should be imo. Until we resolve this "one and done" fiasco with a different set of qualifying requirements for nba entry from high school and college it won't recover imo.