MBB/WBB: Former Duke Players Now at Other Schools

kAzE said:
I think we can say at this point that Jon Scheyer has made almost every single correct decision in terms of roster construction and minutes distribution in his time as head coach. There are definitely some things we can criticize about his coaching from a tactical standpoint here or there, but I am personally very happy with how he has distributed minutes, and his talent evaluation.

I recall a TON of people were begging for more Sean Stewart last season. He's playing about twice as many minutes this year at Ohio St. and is playing worse than his per minute averages at Duke. The only thing he's noticeably doing more on a per minute basis is fouling and turnovers:
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TJ Power is averaging fewer points in twice as many minutes:
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Mark Mitchell would have been a rotation player, but he would have definitely come off the bench, and his lack of shooting ability would really hurt a team that desperately needs more spacing. His game has too much overlap with Coop's.

Minutes will always be a highly debated subject on DBR, and there have definitely been plenty of folks the past couple of seasons saying "player X should be playing more minutes," but it's looking like Scheyer has been right all along. He's already made the proper adjustments with this year's team in my opinion, and the performance of the players who transferred out are making him look pretty good. Really, the only slight miscalculation with this year's roster is maybe not keeping Jaylen Blakes. But I love that Blakes is going crazy at Stanford.
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Jaden Schutt has improved some at VT, and as you point out, Jaylen Blakes is almost averaging better than his career best games at Duke. Still, it's amazing to me how much worse Power is playing, and that Stewart is playing marginally worse with his increased role. It's almost like the coaching they received and playing them in the right spots made them look better than they are showing now.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I am extremely supportive of Scheyer and very happy with how he has coached and recruited. But, playing devil's advocate, though it seems like he was right to move on from Power and Stewart, could one also argue that he misjudged in recruiting them to begin with? Again - I know that recruiting HS players is a very inexact science, and his hit rate is really good, so I'm not knocking him, but it is worth considering.
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That's fair, but like you said, absolutely nobody is batting 1.000 with high school recruiting, including Coach K, who had plenty of misses in his final decade at Duke. There's just too much of a jump in competition from high school to college. Stewart's athletic profile definitely screams NBA player, but he just hasn't put it together yet. TJ Power had a month the summer after his senior year of HS where he looked completely unstoppable and jumped into the top 25 of the rankings. Not sure what happened with him. He's probably just having trouble dealing with D-1 athletes.

DukieInBrasil said:
Jaden Schutt has improved some at VT
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He started out pretty well, but he's down to 38% shooting (although 37% from deep is pretty good), and the defense is not great. He probably would have done similar things if he had gotten 30 minutes per game at Duke as well. V Tech overall has been pretty terrible. They lost 6 straight games, and are probably going to get destroyed when they come to Durham in a couple of weeks. I imagine Jaden will receive a warm welcome at Cameron, though.
 
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kAzE said:
That's fair, but like you said, absolutely nobody is batting 1.000 with high school recruiting, including Coach K, who had plenty of misses in his final decade at Duke. There's just too much of a jump in competition from high school to college. Stewart's athletic profile definitely screams NBA player, but he just hasn't put it together yet. TJ Power had a month the summer after his senior year of HS where he looked completely unstoppable and jumped into the top 25 of the rankings. Not sure what happened with him. He's probably just having trouble dealing with D-1 athletes.
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I watched Stewart in high school when he was on ESPN and he never looked like he deserved his ranking. He is an athlete trying to play basketball not a basketball player. At least not yet…
 
Jaylen Blakes with another big game for Stanford (against Merrimack -- will Stanford play the Monitor next?). 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists (4 turnovers tho), and 4-4 from three.
 
The podcast Locked on Blue Devils has a video on this very topic: host JJ Jackson and Kevin Connelly of Ball Durham take a look at the 7 players who transferred out of Duke MBB in the most recent offseason.


It's more of a general evaluation of their new situations, with an occasional comment on how they would (or, more likely, would not) have fit on the current Duke squad.

While I'm not providing regular updates for this thread, I did want to point out that Duke's two losses in November, to Kentucky and Kansas, have been avenged in December, in part by former Blue Devils.

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Mark Mitchell played 34 minutes as a starter and had 17 points (4-14 FG, 1-4 3PT, 8-12 FT), 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 3 blocks in Missouri's 76-67 home win over then #1 Kansas on December 8.

Then, on December 21, Sean Stewart and Ohio State beat Kentucky by 20 in Madison Square Garden. He started and played 15 minutes, providing 5 points (2-4 FG, 1-3 FT) and 4 boards in the 85-65 victory.

I should also point out that Kentucky's only other loss was to Christian Reeves and Clemson, 70-66, during the ACC-SEC Challenge on December 3. Reeves was scoreless (0-1 FG) in his 1 minute off the bench, but did contribute a rebound, a block, and 2 fouls. That must have been an action-packed minute.

Karma!
 
Sean Stewart had a good night for tOSU, with 14 points and 8 boards and only one foul. (Probably his best game since his big game in Raleigh last year.) Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as his team lost at home to Oregon by two points.
 
MChambers said:
Sean Stewart had a good night for tOSU, with 14 points and 8 boards and only one foul. (Probably his best game since his big game in Raleigh last year.) Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as his team lost at home to Oregon by two points.
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He even made 6 of 8 FTs.
 
ehdg said:
Huge win n winning shot by Jaylen Blakes as Stanford beats unc for first time! What a road win for Stanford n how awesome for Jaylen n how happy he must feel doing this against unc at unc!
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Jaylen is setting career highs in everything this year at Stanford (except 3FG% and FT%). In fact, he has scored more points this year at Stanford already than he scored his entire career at Duke. Amazing transformation!
 
The Mizzou Mark Mitchell's defeated the Calipari Razorbacks. Mitchell put up 17 pts, on 6/15 FGs (1/2 3FGs) and 4-7 FTs. All of his shooting %s are worse at Mizzou than as a So. at Duke, and his minutes are down, but his scoring is up to a shade under 14ppg. Apparently his usage rate has gone up quite a bit. I don't think he'd fit in well with this year's Duke squad, and he seems to be doing well at Mizzou, so good for him.
 
DukieInBrasil said:
The Mizzou Mark Mitchell's defeated the Calipari Razorbacks. Mitchell put up 17 pts, on 6/15 FGs (1/2 3FGs) and 4-7 FTs. All of his shooting %s are worse at Mizzou than as a So. at Duke, and his minutes are down, but his scoring is up to a shade under 14ppg. Apparently his usage rate has gone up quite a bit. I don't think he'd fit in well with this year's Duke squad, and he seems to be doing well at Mizzou, so good for him.
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Wouldn’t get off the bench for Duke this year.
 
JasonEvans said:
It will quite possibly be the loudest and longest ovation for a rival fan in Cameron history.

Crazies, if you don't give this dude a good 30+ second ovation, I will be extremely disappointed.
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Like many of you, I root for Duke first and whoever is playing UNC second. I don't know how much PT Blakes would have had this year. Maybe somewhere between Harris and Evans minutes, I suppose? He's talented, but maybe not enough on this year's Duke team to solidly be in the rotation (and I was always a Blakes fan because of his D). That being said, the universe works in mysterious ways. If it was in a higher power's plan for Flagg to come to Duke, then for Scheyer to rearrange his lineup, then for Blakes to realize his minutes would be down, but for him to graduate with a Duke degree and seek a solid school for grad work, which led him Stanford, which just started this season in the ACC, which led Stanford to play in the Dean Dome, which then led Blakes to nail that GW shot against the Heels... maybe I should really look into this religion thing!

9F
 
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