I have about come around to the same conclusion. Why should there be a law that limits what a player can receive or what boosters are willing to pay? If there is a salary cap the schools and coaches that cheat are going to be paying money under the table just like they always have. You have to admit that State got ahead of the curve on this one with the Will Wade hire.
I like him. And he and Harrison are absolute hell on 2A teams in NC. But neither he or Harrison are high major basketball players I don't think. Harrison signed with Oregon for football and basketball. Harrison isn't athletic enough, nor enough of a shooter to play there. His future is football. Big time football talent. Neal tracks as a D2 or lower level D1 player
Interesting take, but not sure I agree with that. Neal is currently a 3-star prospect and one of the top point guards in the state. That would be a pretty big get for a D2 or even low level D1 school. He just received an offer from Boston College, and has a full summer and another season to continue to improve and showcase his game, so more high major offers will likely come. Not saying he's a guy who comes to Duke and competes to start, just wondering if a football target like that might get the opportunity to join the team as a walk-on. I think I've read somewhere that he's receptive to that. Doesn't seem like there has been much of that in past, even with a guy like Riley Leonard. Last I remember is Reggie Love for a couple of seasons, but I'm thinking a guy who put up 23 ppg, 9 asst, 5 rbs, 7 steals, and 62% from 3 as a junior could be a pretty valuable asset as a walk-on!
Assuming the House settlement goes through, there will be no more walk-ons. However, there will have to be players satisfied with performing the role of being primarily practice players.
good point, yeah, I was noting how women's rowing will go from 20 scholarships now (a lot) to 68 (!) in the future. There have to be provisions for women to "walk on" (swim on?) without having a scholarship...no way Duke is funding 68 rowing scholarships.
We all know you can't start at point guard at Jon Scheyer's Duke unless you're 6'5 or taller, but the same rule doesn't apply elsewhere in the ACC. Kihei Clark did alright at 5'10, and Markus Burton is listed at 5'11.
The good news is (and you can check previous rosters) players can choose any height they want to list...
Chris Lykes was pretty damn good at Miami listed at 5’7
He isn't close to the best PG I have seen in NW NC. He is a scorer. Quick. Shoots it well. But he is tiny. I just don't see any way he can play for a Power 5 team. He's not as good as Kemp Phillips at North Surry, Tyson Patterson was at East Forsyth or Mitchell Bittle was at Reynolds (comparable size guards) and they went to App St, App St and UNCC.
This is something I've wondered about. Across the board size was one of the key reasons Duke was so good this year. That plus The Athletic article where Jon emphasized the advice he received from Brad Stevens, that there is no substitute for length, made me think positional size was going to be a constant watch word for Duke moving forward.
It wasn’t just smothering size though that made this year’s team great. It switchabilty 1-4 or 1-5. If we had slow guys at PF/C, our defense this year probably doesn’t work. Our advantage was elite length ANF the ability for our bigs to guard littles.
The size is part of what made the switchability work, though. You can't switch 1-5 if your bigs can't keep up with guards, but you also can't switch 1-5 if your 6'0" point guard ends up guarding a 6'10" big. You need mobile bigs AND big guards.
Yes, that was my point. It wasn’t just the size. Size was half of what made it work. You can’t switch 1-5 if either part of the equation is missing.
