Originally Posted by
feldspar
One of Pessah's main points is that Duke basketball in the Coach K era has been defined by individual players putting aside their individuality for the sake of the team. We saw this time and again as Duke went on its amazing run through the late '80s and early '90s. We saw it again as the Duke resurgence happened in the late '90s and early '00s. It was manifested in a huge way with the '01 championship and the Boozer-Sanders saga.
This is how Coach K has been able to build championships. He gets guys who buy into the "team above all else" mentality.
Pessah's main point, though, is that it is growing increasingly difficult in today's college basketball environment to create that kind of mentality with players. More and more players are jumping earlier and earlier, notwithstanding the new draft-eligibility rules. Duke used to be immune from this, but not anymore. We now have to deal with the Sean Livingstons and Mike Dunleavys and Corey Maggettes - players who were expected to be around at least one year longer than they were, and resulted in glaring holes in our lineups. Then there are the players we didn't get, like the Greg Monroes, the Patrick Pattersons - players who didn't seem to want to subscribe to Coach K's strict "team first, me second" mentality. This opened up even more holes. As Pessah says, it creates a Catch-22 for Coach K. Do you stockpile talent, knowing that they are "one-and-dones" and likely aren't going to buy into your proven system of winning (team first) but provide a year or maybe two of spark and in so doing, essentially become a sell-out, or do you take what you can get in terms of talent who (like Singler) seem willing to buy into the system, and sacrifice top recruits, and as a result, have to work with what you have in terms of a lineup?
It's an interesting argument, and one that I think is deserving of some discussion and much observation. Duke's first early jump to the NBA didn't happen until 1999. That puts us at least 5-10 years ahead of any other major college basketball program in terms of having to adjust recruiting, lineups, etc, which means that Coach K is really only in his infancy when it comes to learning about this aspect of college basketball in the "modern era."
In my opinion, we're now rounding out the middle of his learning curve. The next few years, in my opinion, will tell a lot about Coach K's ability to adapt to this new era in Duke basketball. Pessah seems pessimistic about K's ability to adapt well. I, of course, am much more optimistic, but I still feel that his larger arguments are worth examining.