Henry Coleman to Texas A&M

[CameronDuke]

Pretty funny to lament the lack of allegiance to college programs when kids like Coleman get recruited over pretty regularly.

Coleman worked his tail off this year to earn rotation minutes and develop, and then Duke goes out and recruits a transfer player over him. Why should he show any allegiance at that point? Especially if he can immediately play elsewhere and get more minutes.

Justin Robinson showed allegiance because Duke showed allegiance to him - offered him a scholarship as a walk on, even though his dad could pay his way easily. And he really only got minutes as a last resort his senior season, so it's not like he felt recruited over. He understood his role coming in; him transferring his sophomore year would be like Keenan Worthington transferring.

Henry wanted to be at Duke, which is why he chose Duke. But Duke showed they didn't want Henry by bringing in Theo John. It was a short sighted move IMO.

How do we know John would get more minutes? Could he be out worked and out played by Henry in practice? Could John get hurt? Folks are acting like we recruited Charles Barkley. The guy averaged like 8 and 5 in the Big East. We didn’t bring in Jesus. Strap it on and earn your minutes vs him ...

[FerryFor50]

100% agreed. It was a slap in the face imo. Develop the players you have.

It's not even isolated to Duke, honestly. But I really don't like Duke becoming Kentucky and seemingly chasing guys off.

[bshrader]

100% agreed. It was a slap in the face imo. Develop the players you have.

You guys throwing the word "allegiance" around, as if the current college basketball landscape is predicated upon it and supports such a notion.

[CameronDuke]

Had anyone honestly heard of Theo John before he signed with Duke? Honest answers only. I don’t want all yes responses either. Let’s get serious ...

[DukeTrinity11]

Duke should just recruit surefire OADs who are All-American caliber like Banchero as soon as they step on campus and fill out the rest of the roster with the best transfers available.

Raiding the transfer portal has worked great for the Muss Bus over at Nevada/Arkansas and for Chris Beard over at TTU.

Duke can actually use this new change in the college basketball landscape to its benefit due to its incredible prestige, TV exposure and NBA connections through Coach K and staff. If we have a starting spot available, the best transfer at that position will jump at that opportunity immediately.

Lets stop worrying about developing multi-year players. Gen Z'ers are incredibly adaptive and they're used to jumping from place to place anyway. They don't need to have their hand held and experience emotional and personal growth on one campus. Gen Z'ers are used to packing and unpacking their bags.

For you old timers, I know the romance of college basketball is dead - watching a raw Brian Zoubek and Quinn Cook blossom into key upperclassmen on national championship squads...those days are gone.

Lets stop getting attached to these players and start getting attached to our program's goals: winning ACC Regular season titles, winning ACC Tournament titles and winning National Championships.

[FerryFor50]

How do we know John would get more minutes? Could he be out worked and out played by Henry in practice? Could John get hurt? Folks are acting like we recruited Charles Barkley. The guy averaged like 8 and 5 in the Big East. We didn’t bring in Jesus. Strap it on and earn your minutes vs him ...

Loyalty is a two way street. Why did Duke bring in a senior big as a rent a player if they were loyal to the players they already had?

This isn't a "earn your minutes" thing. This is "I picked your program and worked my way into the rotation and you brought in a transfer at a position we were already pretty stacked at."

I wish Henry had stuck around, but I don't buy the "blind loyalty" argument. He'll go elsewhere and have to earn his minutes, too. But he'll less likely be recruited over at a less heralded program.

[flyingdutchdevil]

How do we know John would get more minutes? Could he be out worked and out played by Henry in practice? Could John get hurt? Folks are acting like we recruited Charles Barkley. The guy averaged like 8 and 5 in the Big East. We didn’t bring in Jesus. Strap it on and earn your minutes vs him ...

Risky strategy. Why not go to another school where you are guaranteed to start? In your strategy, one player "loses". Now? Both John and Coleman can "win".

[Heaven's Guardian]

100% agreed. It was a slap in the face imo. Develop the players you have.

The weird thing is that we didn't even really recruit over him. We recruited a backup to Mark. We don't have any commitments in the 2022 class as of yet and will have no returning big men unless Mark plateaus and stays a third year. Henry would be 100% guaranteed minutes in his upperclassmen years, and would still have an opportunity for playing time this year, since John isn't exactly a superstar who is guaranteed minutes.

[FerryFor50]

You guys throwing the word "allegiance" around, as if the current college basketball landscape is predicated upon it and supports such a notion.

No, we're saying the same as you. Allegiance doesn't exist anymore and it honestly shouldn't. These kids should do what they need to do for their best interests. Especially when only the coaches and schools have historically benefitted. Now the players get some autonomy with the new transfer rules.

Do I like it? No. But the fix isn't to "stop allowing transfers." The fix is to repair the NCAA's broken system.

[RetireVergaJersey]

100% agreed. It was a slap in the face imo. Develop the players you have.

Maybe I am missing something but I see John as backup center and Coleman as back up PF. I would hate to count on 6 ft 7 Coleman to play many minutes as Center.

[Alan_Wilson]

You guys throwing the word "allegiance" around, as if the current college basketball landscape is predicated upon it and supports such a notion.

I'd like to think Duke has higher standards that Louisville or UK. But that's just me.

[scottdude8]

Duke should just recruit surefire OADs who are All-American caliber like Banchero as soon as they step on campus and fill out the rest of the roster with the best transfers available.

Raiding the transfer portal has worked great for the Muss Bus over at Nevada/Arkansas and for Chris Beard over at TTU.

Duke can actually use this new change in the college basketball landscape to its benefit due to its incredible prestige, TV exposure and NBA connections through Coach K and staff. If we have a starting spot available, the best transfer at that position will jump at that opportunity immediately.

Lets stop worrying about developing multi-year players. Gen Z'ers are incredibly adaptive and they're used to jumping from place to place anyway. They don't need to have their hand held and experience emotional and personal growth on one campus. Gen Z'ers are used to packing and unpacking their jobs.

For you old timers, I know the romance of college basketball is dead - watching a raw Brian Zoubek and Quinn Cook blossom into key upperclassmen on national championship squads...those days are gone.

Lets stop getting attached to these players and start getting attached to our program's goals: winning ACC Regular season titles, winning ACC Tournament titles and winning National Championships.

No more Brian Zoubeks...

[CameronDuke]

Loyalty is a two way street. Why did Duke bring in a senior big as a rent a player if they were loyal to the players they already had?

This isn't a "earn your minutes" thing. This is "I picked your program and worked my way into the rotation and you brought in a transfer at a position we were already pretty stacked at."

I wish Henry had stuck around, but I don't buy the "blind loyalty" argument. He'll go elsewhere and have to earn his minutes, too. But he'll less likely be recruited over at a less heralded program.

I see what you’re saying, but I guess we disagree that Henry was a shoe in not to get many minutes. Minutes are always there for the taking to me. Yes Duke brought in a guy that played his position but that doesn’t necessarily equate to Henry not getting any opportunities to showcase what he can do. Don’t see him playing much after college so going to VCU (likely) is close to home but don’t see him showcasing his talents any better there. Yeah, maybe a bit more playing time and beating up on LaSalle, Fordham, George Mason, etc. but overall don’t understand the decision.

And there’s a lot more than basketball for NCAA D1 players, or at least there used to be.

[CDu]

Coleman is likely headed to VCU. You think that’s better for his career, exposure, and opportunity to head there from Duke? What happened to staying the course and earning your minutes?

Yes, I do think that's better for his career. Because he can go there and start next year. And if he starts next year, who is to say he won't do enough to get on draft radar? If he'd stayed this year, with or without John, he was probably not playing more than like 10-15 mpg. And there is no guarantee he'd be starting at Duke even as a junior.

By going to a lesser-tier program, he can probably play starter's minutes right away. And even VCU gets plenty of television coverage with the new media coverage of college bball. So there isn't a huge penalty from going to a lower-tier program anymore.

[CameronDuke]

Risky strategy. Why not go to another school where you are guaranteed to start? In your strategy, one player "loses". Now? Both John and Coleman can "win".

Risky for what though? Do you see Henry as perennial NBA all star? I see him having a similar collegiate and professional career to Josh Hairston for example.

Do you understand the value of a Duke degree and being an ambassador to the university?

[CDu]

Had anyone honestly heard of Theo John before he signed with Duke? Honest answers only. I don’t want all yes responses either. Let’s get serious ...

I'm not sure what the point of this post is. How many folks outside of Duke fans do you think have heard of Coleman?

[dukelifer]

Well Duke will be starting over fresh after next year. Roach and Blakes will likely be the only ones left and that is assuming one or both don’t bolt. It will be very hard to build a program from scratch.

[BlueDevilStop]

Very sad that Coleman will never play in front of the Crazies. They would have fed off his energy. Will be rooting for the young man wherever he ends up, he's going to make a program very happy.

[Kedsy]

How do we know John would get more minutes? Could he be out worked and out played by Henry in practice? Could John get hurt? Folks are acting like we recruited Charles Barkley. The guy averaged like 8 and 5 in the Big East. We didn’t bring in Jesus. Strap it on and earn your minutes vs him ...

It doesn't matter if John would get more minutes. [**WARNING: minutes conversation to follow] With Williams and Banchero (each getting close to 30 mpg, with Griffin sliding down to PF for 5 to 10 mpg), there was only going to be 10 to 15 minutes available for a 3rd big who couldn't play out on the wing (probably closer to 10). Henry appeared to be sanguine about filling that 10 to 15 minute role. But bringing in anybody likely to get any minutes would reduce that role. Even if Henry clawed ahead of Theo and Theo's time was reduced to 5 mpg, that only leaves Henry with a maximum of 10 mpg and probably closer to 5 and apparently that was unacceptable to him.

And personally, I can't blame him. It's exactly because this guy isn't Charles Barkley that it probably felt like a slap in the face to Henry. I would feel exactly the same way, which is why this was so easy to see coming.

And for those who say Theo wouldn't be competing with Henry for minutes, that's just incorrect. Coach K historically has strongly preferred having a three-big rotation instead of one backup center and one backup PF (the only exception I can think of is 2010) In the case of next year's roster, when Mark sits, Paolo could easily have slid over to center with Henry (or AJ) guarding the opposing PF.

We actually may be a bit less flexible with Theo instead of Henry, because it's unclear to me that when Paolo sits that Theo can guard quicker opposing PFs. I guess in that case, it will be AJ sliding down to PF and another wing (Wendell or Trevor) subbing in.

[FerryFor50]

I see what you’re saying, but I guess we disagree that Henry was a shoe in not to get many minutes. Minutes are always there for the taking to me. Yes Duke brought in a guy that played his position but that doesn’t necessarily equate to Henry not getting any opportunities to showcase what he can do. Don’t see him playing much after college so going to VCU (likely) is close to home but don’t see him showcasing his talents any better there. Yeah, maybe a bit more playing time and beating up on LaSalle, Fordham, George Mason, etc. but overall don’t understand the decision.

And there’s a lot more than basketball for NCAA D1 players, or at least there used to be.

I think Henry could have won rotation minutes, but I also think John was recruited to be a main rotation guy and that Henry was going to be the odd man out unless John ended up getting hurt or being a bust.

If I'm a recruit, I want the staff to bet on me and not bet on a one year rental player and even if I *knew* I could fight to earn spot minutes, I'd be more content going elsewhere and get 25-30 minutes per game to showcase my abilities.

I can't say whether he'd play after college or not because I haven't seen him play enough in college. I know that when Semi transferred to SMU to beat up on Houston, South Florida, Tulane, etc, he went from "may not ever play after college" to "rotation guy for the Boston Celtics." Playing time matters.