Welcome to Duke, Dame Sarr!!

CDu said:
ESPN has Duke 8th in their power rankings. I don't think "somewhere behind [the teams tommy listed]" is unreasonable. There is a lot of uncertainty.

There is also uncertainty with lots of teams. But I think it's reasonable to apply a "preseason penalty" for youth plus uncertainty.

The reality is this: Duke has finished 15th, 8th, and 2nd in Torvik's rating system in 3 years. This past year was a fantastic season, and it's possible that Scheyer has figured out the magic formula. But it's also quite possible that this past year was a fairly unique combination of three uniquely impactful freshmen PLUS a terrific, proven junior PLUS a perfect fit of a grad transfer. Next year's team may or may not have a similarly great formula, and will definitely be a lot younger and less experienced. Total minutes of experience coming into the season this year: starters = 5,939; 10-man rotation = 11,033. At the moment going into next season, assuming Foster/Evans/Ngongba all start, it'd be starters = 2,028; 10-man rotation = 4,099. There'd be some definite continuity in terms of guys with experience in the Duke program, but it'll be an extremely green team in terms of college game experience.

So I think somewhere in the ~6-8 ranking range makes sense. We could certainly be a top-3 team. But we could also very easily be a team outside the top-10. There is a lot of uncertainty due to the lack of experience.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's that eternal debate of experience vs talent. Vegas has us #1. CBS/Parrish has us #9. Somewhere in the middle seems fair. 3-6.

I'm less concerned about CBB experience with this team. I think Cam Boozer is such a unique freshman talent with the maturity of his game - Kon-like in that way. He might not win NPOY, but I don't know who would be favored ahead of him at this point.

And Sarr has been practicing and competing for years against better talent than he'll face in CBB.

We will be the youngest top team. But we will also have the most top (NBA) talent. Of our top 10 guys, at least 6-7 should be future NBA picks. Same old song...
 
SkyBrickey said:
Yeah, it's that eternal debate of experience vs talent. Vegas has us #1. CBS/Parrish has us #9. Somewhere in the middle seems fair. 3-6.

I'm less concerned about CBB experience with this team. I think Cam Boozer is such a unique freshman talent with the maturity of his game - Kon-like in that way. He might not win NPOY, but I don't know who would be favored ahead of him at this point.

And Sarr has been practicing and competing for years against better talent than he'll face in CBB.

We will be the youngest top team. But we will also have the most top (NBA) talent. Of our top 10 guys, at least 6-7 should be future NBA picks. Same old song...
Click to expand...
I don’t know that we will have the most top NBA talent. We might. But as of now, there is only one surefire lottery pick on the roster, and he may or may not be the top pick. Another may work their way into the lottery, we will see.

It is certainly possible the team does really well. I think it is similarly possible that we slip out of the top-10. You tend to be one of the most optimistic guys on DBR, so I am not surprised that you are more bullish than average on this team. I just think there is a lot more uncertainty/risk that you are acknowledging.
 
SkyBrickey said:
There are two reasons why I'm maybe more bullish on this team's early season performance - and ranking - than last year's team.

We've got five returnees in the rotation who already understand all the finer points of playing Jon's offense and defense. Huge headstart. Jon can install more sets/actions in the early season.

And having a dominant frontcourt really raises the floor for a team. You're a little less likely to drop a game or two due to cold shooting from 3. I think with Cam and Pat, we should be very good out of the gate.

Does this team have the ceiling of last year's? Probably not but it may not need it to cut down the nets.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more.

Defense should be top 5-10 right off the bat and as you mention above, a dominant front court goes a long way towards having a consistent offense. Post offense wasn't really something we had this past season (excluding all the lobs) so it'll be interesting to see how the shot distribution eventually shakes out.

All in all, definitely a championship worthy roster if they stay healthy.
 
CDu said:
I don’t know that we will have the most top NBA talent. We might. But as of now, there is only one surefire lottery pick on the roster, and he may or may not be the top pick. Another may work their way into the lottery, we will see.

It is certainly possible the team does really well. I think it is similarly possible that we slip out of the top-10. You tend to be one of the most optimistic guys on DBR, so I am not surprised that you are more bullish than average on this team. I just think there is a lot more uncertainty/risk that you are acknowledging.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of uncertainty in our PG, SG, SF. But I also see 6 guys who were all top-30ish recruits (Darren #35) competing for those spots. No other team has that level of top raw talent depth. I'm confident Jon will sort out a very strong rotation.

But my bullishness comes from our frontcourt. Cam, Pat, Maliq. I think it will be clearly the best in the country. Scoring, rebounding, defense. I just can't see this team outside of the top-10 with that frontcourt.
 
Last edited:
SkyBrickey said:
I see a lot of uncertainty in our PG, SG, SF. But I also see 6 guys who were all top-30ish recruits (Darren #35) competing for those spots. No other team has that level of top talent depth. I'm confident Jon will sort out a very strong rotation.

But my bullishness comes from our frontcourt. Cam, Pat, Maliq. I think it will be clearly the best in the country. Scoring, rebounding, defense. I just can't see this team outside of the top-10 with that frontcourt.
Click to expand...
Time will tell. I agree that the frontcourt will be the team’s strength. If the team falls outside of the top-10, it will likely be because the perimeter play and ballhandling/shot creation weren’t good enough and/or the inexperience outweighed the talent. I certainly hope it plays out like your vision.
 
We need an official ruling on his name. It's muffled in his interview jk posted.

As Dildy introduced him in the interview, he very clearly said Dah-may.

The podcast guys seem convinced it's DAH-meh.
 
SkyBrickey said:
We need an official ruling on his name.
Click to expand...

You may have to wait until Duke MBB issues an official 2025-26 roster, and you click the pronunciation link where Dame Sarr says his name out loud.

Until then, it sounds like it's Dah-muh (as he seems to pronounce it in the above-linked interview video), and probably not Dah-may (as Coach Dildy pronounces it in the above-linked Brotherhood Podcast). I would just say it's like "drama" without the R, because I'm not obsessed with serial killers like @JasonEvans is.

One thing's for sure: don't pronounce it the Carolina Way, like "Dame Judi Dench".

 
brevity said:
You may have to wait until Duke MBB issues an official 2025-26 roster, and you click the pronunciation link where Dame Sarr says his name out loud.

Until then, it sounds like it's Dah-muh (as he seems to pronounce it in the above-linked interview video), and probably not Dah-may (as Coach Dildy pronounces it in the above-linked Brotherhood Podcast). I would just say it's like "drama" without the R, because I'm not obsessed with serial killers like @JasonEvans is.

One thing's for sure: don't pronounce it the Carolina Way, like "Dame Judi Dench".

Click to expand...

Dah-may

Kind of makes sense that the coach recruiting him would know his name. 😁

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top