2024-2025 Men’s Basketball Season General Discussion

brevity said:
60 Minutes did not turn their back on the best coach in the sport.



Start at the 8:50 mark of the first video.

Jon Wertheim: "I suspect it's very helpful to have someone in this household who doesn't necessarily rip her hair out when the team misses a screen or someone misses an open jum--"

Andrea Hurley: "I don't even know what a screen is. I don't even know what that is."

Dan Hurley: "With the way that I'm wired --"

Jon Wertheim: "You don't know what a screen is?"

Dan Hurley: "She doesn't know. She's not playing for the camera. She has no idea."

Andrea Hurley: "I have no idea."
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While I have no reason to not believe Andrea, it seems absolutely incredible to me that she doesn't know what a screen is.

Could you imagine your significant other devoting their life to a profession so engrossing and life impacting and not knowing in the slightest some of the most basic concepts that they deal with day to day? Crazy!

- Chillin
 
SkyBrickey said:
Do you know for sure that Rachel is doing this? I'd be surprised. She's not a basketball person. If anyone, this likely falls under Mike Schrage.
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I get what you are trying to say, but the General Manager of Duke Men’s Basketball is most certainly a basketball person. More so than you or I or anyone else on this board, for sure.
 
cato said:
I get what you are trying to say, but the General Manager of Duke Men’s Basketball is most certainly a basketball person. More so than you or I or anyone else on this board, for sure.
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Here is Rachel's bio on Duke's website: Rachel Baker Bio

Nothing in this bio suggests that she is involved in talent evaluation. It appears to be a marketing/NIL focused role. I think her title confuses people because we are used to professional sports GMs being the team executive primarily tasked with roster construction.
 
SkyBrickey said:
She's just not. She's a brand manager from Nike. She has no experience coaching or evaluating talent. That's not why she was hired. But she's VERY good at what she does.
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Oh I don’t think she was hired to scout portal targets. There are people that do that for free on the internet.

I’m saying she was hired to play a high level role putting together the Duke roster and that being GM in and of itself makes her a basketball person.

Or maybe Baker could learn a thing or two about basketball by reading DBR?
 
cato said:
Oh I don’t think she was hired to scout portal targets. There are people that do that for free on the internet.

I’m saying she was hired to play a high level role putting together the Duke roster and that being GM in and of itself makes her a basketball person.

Or maybe Baker could learn a thing or two about basketball by reading DBR?
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Yeah, I think we just have different definitions of "basketball person". She's in the basketball business for sure. But very different role than an NBA GM...
 
SkyBrickey said:
Yeah, I think we just have different definitions of "basketball person". She's in the basketball business for sure. But very different role than an NBA GM...
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Oh I understood your point. Mine is that you might be assuming too much about what Rachel Baker does and doesn’t bring to the program.

Let me put this another way. Who do you think was on Kon Island first — you or Baker?

She was brought in as GM three years ago and the program has done amazing things since, including recruiting at a very high level from both high school and the portal.

I’m not going to write off Baker as a brand manager. That may be her background, but I’m guessing that she is pretty well steeped in Duke basketball.

At any rate, I am very happy that King and Scheyer have put together such a wonderful staff. I’d love to know more about the secret sauce of what they all do on a day-to-day basis, but I’m not holding my breath.
 
cato said:
Oh I understood your point. Mine is that you might be assuming too much about what Rachel Baker does and doesn’t bring to the program.

Let me put this another way. Who do you think was on Kon Island first — you or Baker?

She was brought in as GM three years ago and the program has done amazing things since, including recruiting at a very high level from both high school and the portal.

I’m not going to write off Baker as a brand manager. That may be her background, but I’m guessing that she is pretty well steeped in Duke basketball.

At any rate, I am very happy that King and Scheyer have put together such a wonderful staff. I’d love to know more about the secret sauce of what they all do on a day-to-day basis, but I’m not holding my breath.
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She's not a brand manager today. That was her background at Nike. She obviously has broader duties at Duke as GM that neither one of us have full visibility into.

Seems like you want to argue about it. I'm not interested.
 
SkyBrickey said:
She's not a brand manager today. That was her background at Nike. She obviously has broader duties at Duke as GM that neither one of us have full visibility into.

Seems like you want to argue about it. I'm not interested.
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I don’t want to argue. We are aligned in loving this team and the program that is off to a great start following the end of the Krzyzewski era. It’s all good and let’s hope that this season keeps rolling and the next ones do too.
 
cato said:
I don’t want to argue. We are aligned in loving this team and the program that is off to a great start following the end of the Krzyzewski era. It’s all good and let’s hope that this season keeps rolling and the next ones do too.
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I’ve been following your the posts about roster construction and want to add a few thoughts. I don’t think anyone on the Duke staff works in a silo and they all have probably learned a few things from one another. Therefore I am guessing the conversations on the staff are dynamic with everyone contributing to the talent discussion and NIL discussion.
 
SkyBrickey said:
Yeah, I think we just have different definitions of "basketball person". She's in the basketball business for sure. But very different role than an NBA GM...
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I think my outsider's understanding of Baker's duties is similar to yours, but it does seem like there are cases where division between court side and business side "basketball people" can be fuzzy. Rob Pelinka is a JD/MBA who had been a player agent for 20 years when the Lakers hired him to be GM. He played college hoops but had zero experience as a coach, scout, or front office executive before he started running the Lakers. The much maligned Nico Harrison was a Nike executive for two decades before he became Mavs GM.
 
KenPom on the SEC tourney:
bsky.app

kenpom (@kenpom.com)

We conclude with the granddaddy of them all, the SEC tournament, which begins momentarily from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Fun facts: - Winner gets bye to the Final Four - Officiating will be done by AI - 8 teams rank in the nation's top 40 of experience
bsky.app bsky.app
 
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