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  1. #1

    Welcome to Duke, Theo John!

    The former Marquette C/F has announced via twitter that he will play his final year at Duke. Welcome!


  2. #2
    Welcome to the Brotherhood!

  3. #3
    That was quick! I watched quite a few Marquette games last year. He's a bruiser inside and will be great in short stints for the team. Huge add! Also, he can bring some leadership to a young team. Pumped!

    Time to add Jaylen Blakes and call it an offseason.

  4. #4
    While diving into his stats, I also noticed a little wrinkle. He was a fairly poor FT shooter his first three years, something close to 50%. Then last season, following wrist surgery, he jumps to 74% FT shooting and knocked down 3 of 4 3's. He had never attempted a 3 in his career before last season. I doubt he plays a ton of minutes with Williams and Banchero on the roster, but it's something to notice. Maybe he's found a jumper and wants to showcase that at Duke in a reserve role?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Boston, MA

    Yaaaaaaaaaaasssss!

    More great news.

    Now let's focus exclusively on backcourt depth.
    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

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    North of Durham
    Great news. Nice to see us filling out the roster with someone who adds talent and experience. I'm assuming Henry is cool with this and it should help his development. Hope we can get Blakes and then we should be all set. The Minnesota-to-Duke pipeline (via Wisconsin in this case) continues!

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by DavidBenAkiva View Post
    While diving into his stats, I also noticed a little wrinkle. He was a fairly poor FT shooter his first three years, something close to 50%. Then last season, following wrist surgery, he jumps to 74% FT shooting and knocked down 3 of 4 3's. He had never attempted a 3 in his career before last season. I doubt he plays a ton of minutes with Williams and Banchero on the roster, but it's something to notice. Maybe he's found a jumper and wants to showcase that at Duke in a reserve role?
    Good news he’s coming. If Williams and Banchero are both on our roster next season and stay healthy, I agree he will not play lots of minutes. But he’s a great insurance policy based on next year’s unknowns.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Nashville
    In what I hope is unrelated news, Mark Williams just put out a one word tweet, simply saying "no"

    ETA: Should have looked closer, he sent that late last night

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    I think this will prove to be a good addition, presuming he's healthy. Sounds like he was playing through injuries the last two years, and his numbers dipped a bit especially this past year. But comparing his sophomore and junior-year per-100 numbers to the freshman numbers for Mark Williams and we get the following:

    John (SO): 15.8 points, 14.0 rebounds, 5.9 blocks, 10.5 fouls, 60.2 fg%
    John (JR): 13.8 points, 14.0 rebounds, 4.9 blocks, 7.3 fouls, 54.9 fg%
    Williams: 27.1 points, 17.0 rebounds, 5.3 blocks, 5.6 fouls, 66.4 fg%

    So if healthy, he seems like a pretty solid backup to Williams, more or less replicating the shotblocking prowess, with a bit of a reduction in rebounding and a big reduction in offensive value. But for a backup big, that seems pretty darn useful.

    And in the event of an injury or Williams deciding to go pro, a healthy version of him is a credible starting center.

    I like it. And I agree that if we can land Jaylen Blakes and keep Roach/Moore/Williams, it feels like a really good offseason all things considered.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by brlftz View Post
    In what I hope is unrelated news, Mark Williams just put out a one word tweet, simply saying "no"

    ETA: Should have looked closer, he sent that late last night
    I believe that tweet was last night, wasnt it?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    Quote Originally Posted by brlftz View Post
    In what I hope is unrelated news, Mark Williams just put out a one word tweet, simply saying "no"
    That tweet was posted prior to the John announcement. It might be related, might not.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Oh boy! Welcome Theo! Wow! What a commitment from Coach K and staff. Maybe the Wojo connection helped a bit with Duke landing Theo? Although Wojo isn’t there anymore he did recruit Theo to Marquette.

    I like the way this Duke roster is forming. If they land a backup point guard now, I think the team is set ...

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by CameronDuke View Post
    Oh boy! Welcome Theo! Wow! What a commitment from Coach K and staff. Maybe the Wojo connection helped a bit with Duke landing Theo? Although Wojo isn’t there anymore he did recruit Theo to Marquette.

    I like the way this Duke roster is forming. If they land a backup point guard now, I think the team is set ...
    Connection was also with Carrawell, who was an asst at Marquette and recruited John. And we know where CWell is now

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by arnie View Post
    Good news he’s coming. If Williams and Banchero are both on our roster next season and stay healthy, I agree he will not play lots of minutes. But he’s a great insurance policy based on next year’s unknowns.
    He certainly will compete in practice and I suspect he will give more than Tapé did this year. I think it is a solid pickup. Injuries happen and this kid is experienced. He is also pretty physical - that will help Williams develop and will help against some bulky opponents. Added bonus- he played at the Dean Dome and did pretty well (5-7).
    Last edited by dukelifer; 04-16-2021 at 10:55 AM.

  15. #15
    scottdude8's Avatar
    scottdude8 is offline Moderator, Contributor, Zoubek disciple, and resident Wolverine
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Storrs, CT
    I'm psyched for this move... I think this is the type of pickup that a pretty solid majority of the board was hoping for given the madness of the transfer portal. John by all accounts looks to be a player who can give us solid minutes off the bench at both the 4 and the 5 this year, and is a veteran presence for our young guys.

    While I'm sure we're all a touch nervous about Mark's status since nothing has been officially stated, it seems clear to me that he and John are completely different caliber players, so I highly doubt John is being viewed as a "replacement" for Mark. If we were expecting Mark to leave, there are plenty of "bigger fish" that would be expecting a starting role that we would've likely been at least connected to in the portal (Oklahoma's Brady Manek immediately comes to mind).

    Now, assuming nothing unusual happens, I think it's safe to say that our frontcourt will be a major strength next season, with Paolo and Mark penciled in as starters, guys like Wendell and AJ who can play a small-ball 4 when/if necessary, and two guys in Henry and Theo who are solid bigs off the bench. Heck, if we have injury/foul trouble we even have Jones, who has at least played non-trivial minutes at the mid-major level. The question now is how we shore up the depth on the perimeter, especially at the point. It sounds like Blakes is the likely option there, and if that commitment comes I have to imagine we won't go too hard into the portal for perimeter help since there won't be major minutes available, but may seek a depth/practice player akin to Jones.

    Losing Matt earlier this week was a blow, but I'm still VERY excited about next year's squad, and John is going to be a big part of it.
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  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    Quote Originally Posted by arnie View Post
    Good news he’s coming. If Williams and Banchero are both on our roster next season and stay healthy, I agree he will not play lots of minutes. But he’s a great insurance policy based on next year’s unknowns.
    Theo John scored 11 points on 5-7 shooting and had 5 rebounds in Marquette's win over unc. In my book that would give him some playing time in at least 2 games next year.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    raleigh
    welcome to the party, pal !!
    "One POSSIBLE future. From your point of view... I don't know tech stuff.".... Kyle Reese

  18. #18
    Couple of other fun wrinkles to the Theo John commitment:

    He is a native of Minneapolis, MN
    AAU teammate of Gary Trent, Jr and Tre Jones, among other high-major D1 players
    You can add him to the Minny-Duke connection.


    Here's a video highlight of him from his time on the Howard Pulley AAU circuit. There are some familiar faces in this.


  19. #19
    Front court is looking really good.

    Mark Williams / Theo John

    Paolo Banchero / Henry Coleman

    Very physical group.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    NC
    The crazy thing is how much he's remade his body in college. He was a skinny, 6'8", 210lb kid coming out of high school. Now? He is absolutely chiseled and massive, at 6'9", 255lb. A BIG, strong dude.

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