Originally Posted by
CDu
I mentioned in another thread way back when that I didn't expect we'd have all three of Williams/Brakefield/Coleman back next year, and that there was a good chance that 2 of the 3 at least would be gone before the 2022-23 season. I hoped we'd get two seasons out of two of them, but such is the reality of college basketball these days. You simply can't expect top-50 recruits to sit and wait their turn for 2-3 years. If they don't have a clear path to 20+ mpg by at least year 2, the expectation should probably be that they will transfer.
And honestly? I can't blame them. These are kids who know their window of opportunity in college is limited, and they know they don't HAVE to wait in line to get the exposure and opportunity. Keeping Coleman beyond 2021-22 was already going to be difficult, as who is to say we wouldn't bring in an all new frontcourt? Or that he'd grow tired of seeing his peers at other schools getting PT.
It stinks, but that's where we are in college basketball. Hopefully Coleman finds the right situation for himself. I'm sad that it isn't at Duke, but c'est la vie.
These kids all have aspirations to play in the NBA. And you cannot get to the NBA if you can't even get off the bench at Duke. But you can prove yourself at another team (Power 5 or not) and scouts will watch tape all day because EVERY game is televised/streamed.
Also, I wonder if Ojeleye is having an impact on Duke transfers. Ojeleye didn't get off the bench at Duke. He transferred to a program where he started, then starred, and then got drafted. He was the first Duke transfer in the OAD era to actually make it to the NBA. I wonder if current non-top 25 players see this and say, "welp, I'm not playing next year which means I'm not going to the NBA. But if I transfer, start, and star, I can get drafted." Probably a crazy thought, but makes sense to me.
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