Indoor66
Well-known member
You caught the ONLY 5 or so year low point - the only one.
2026 Men's Basketball Recruiting
- Thread starter DavidBenAkiva
- Start date
NYBri
Member
T’74 here. Wasn’t there for any of the good stuff.
Mongoose.
ChillinDuke
Member
There are absolutely other ways to evaluate the greatness and accomplishments of a program. Championships still reign supreme, though.
That said, there was a time, albeit some time ago, where there wasn't enough parity that championships were a decent approximation of greatness. In my opinion, the women's game is a few years behind the men's game in that regard. Great teams have an easier time advancing through, and ultimately winning, the championship.
For some time now, the men's game has seen a huge uptick in parity across the sport. It has made the tournament, which is "gold" as Coach K said, much more of a dice roll. It's just a fact. Maybe I was slower to realize it and I held onto old logic too long. But it just is.
There is still, unendingly, talk of expanding the tournament. Those discussions always focus on more teams. I don't think that makes any sense. Basically, make it even more of a dice roll?
If they wanted to "expand" the tournament (read: $$$), why don't they make the championship or even the final four a best of three series? That would help the dice roll while giving us more (lucrative) games to show.
But I'm just a guy with a (great) screen name.
- Chillin
OZZIE4DUKE
Well-known member
E’76. The worst four years in Duke basketball history. Our only big wins were beating Maryland in ‘73 and again in ‘76, but they were great wins! And two of the five loudest games ever in CIS! See Jim Sumner’s latest article on which game was the loudest!
LGD GTHcGTH 9f DDMF! Beat carolina!
He didn't look like a rotation player this year (hence the redshirt), and I suspect he'd be at best on the fringe of the rotation next year. Obviously you never know with year-to-year development, but with Williams arriving and the possibility of Khamenia staying, it's hard to see Wilkins getting much run next year. Especially so if Ngongba returns or Duke adds a portal transfer at C (thus reducing the number of minutes Scheyer asks of Williams at C).
High valley for most b-ball teams.
E’77. I am in that same group (and we could get seats in Cameron after the game had begun!). And I remember the students behind Lefty…The first of the good years was the year after I graduated.
CDu is probably correct (the default setting), but I think "we don't know" is probably the better answer. If we see Seabass (everyone is an "if" these days) in a Duke uniform next season, it will be over a year since the public last saw him on the basketball court in a meaningful way.
There were some comments during his recruitment that the staff felt that he could be a top-10 recruit if he stayed in his class. No idea if that is malarkey or not. If it isn't malarkey, there could be more to Seabass than we're expecting.
AGDukesky
Member
I see Wilkins’ best path to playing time as a biggish body inside. Assuming Pat leaves, the remaining PF/C candidates are lean. If he can make open 3s and compete on the boards then I can see him in the rotation - unless we bring in a true ACC caliber center. Right now he seems like Nik’s backup. Assuming the worst in terms of players leaving who have NBA interest, my initial guess for a starting lineup without any portal additions is:
Williams
Nik
Foster
Rippey
Cayden
Bench: Howard, Harris, Wilkins, Meyer
Meyer is the only other one who would play upfront and might be a project. That lineup needs minutes from Wilkins unless the rotation is kept to only 6-7 players.
I think Scheyer has to be looking for post players this offseason…
Centers don't normally play more than 25 to 30 minutes a game, so there is room for 2. Ngongba may not stay. so I hope Jon explores the portal for a strong center. Meyer is looked on as a project but may get fill-in time at center Williams is lightly built and I would expect him to play as a PF despite his 6'!!" stature. Khameniaa has ball handling ability so can share time at the 2 but more likely the 3 and 4 roles. Wilkins is an unknown at this point but probably also fills a similar roll to Khamenia at the 3 and 4. Am I wrong to believe there is still a chance for Muurinen. At 6'10" and skilled he would be another candidate to start at the 3 or 4.
jipops
Member
That would be a rather thin group. Reminds me of the 07-08 roster which had Singler playing a lot of C.
Considering that Iffy wasn't playing anywhere close to rotation minutes even when he was been healthy, I don't think Iffy's injury would have changed the redshirt plan for Wilkins. As evidence of this theory, they haven't decided to discard the redshirt idea even after Iffy was hurt. It's not like they are forced to maintain a redshirt decision (see Joey Baker).
Khamenia won't be playing SG next year at all. For one, he's not suited for it. For another, we're likely to have a lot of guards/wings.
I expect we'll have a starting C (either Ngongba or a transfer), and I'd imagine that Williams would soak up most of the rest of those backup C minutes, with the rest of his time comfortably the majority of it) at PF. Then I'd expect Khamenia (if still here) to soak up the remaining PF minutes and some SF minutes. And Howard would soak up the rest of the SF minutes. Wilkins (if here) will I think have a hard time finding the floor unless the offseason transfer/draft market goes unexpectedly poorly for us or he vastly improves. And even if he vastly improves, it'll likely be tough for him to find minutes if Khamenia stays.
Scheyer has definitely recruited guys who weren't rotation players as sophomores. Schutt and Reeves, for example. And he's had some guys he recruited who were misses (Power and to a lesser degree Stewart). So I think there are many possibilities, including but not limited to the following:
1. He could have been thinking of Wilkins as a developmental recruit (a la Reeves perhaps), hoping he'd stick around for 3-4 years and eventually find a role like DeLaurier.
2. He could have been thinking that Wilkins would be a rotation player by his sophomore year. And within this possibility there are a 2a and 2b and 2c here, with 2a being "he was wrong", 2b being "he was right", and 2c being "he wasn't anticipating the positional depth at PF next year to be so deep".
3. He could have just been looking for another practice body for this year. We had a shortage of practice bodies, so it's quite possible that Scheyer recruited Wilkins fully expecting that Wilkins wouldn't be ready and would fill in as a practice body.
We'll never know for sure which of the many possibilities is correct. But just looking at the player we saw this year and the expected crowd at SF/PF next year, it's hard to see where Wilkins would find minutes.