(AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
Has Duke become a shameless basketball factory?
Note two very interesting occurrences at Duke within the last week or so. Both of them do not reflect well on the college juggernaut Mike Krzyzewski has built at Duke, the same juggernaut that now feels like a revolving door turning for his own benefit.
That revolving door serves to usher one-year players like Trevon Duval and Gary Trent Jr. out of town, hopefully not hitting them in the backside as they leave. Duval was always going pro after one year for several reasons that reportedly range from academics to a purer point guard named Tré Jones coming in to take his place.
The media has said that Duval and Trent became bad fits for the Blue Devils, who played two big men and a zone that cut down on their transition game, which would have better showcased Duval and Trent. Now they’re being treated like there is no room for them with another top-rated recruiting class coming in.
Problem is that over the course of the season, it developed that Duval and Trent are no longer projected as first-round NBA draft picks.
The other news is that Wendell Carter Jr., who manned the double post with one-and-done Marvin Bagley III, is now reconsidering turning pro when his mother said right after Duke’s season ended that her son was gone. This smells a lot like Coach K trying to get him to stay so he’ll have an experienced big man.
Krzyzewski has done this before when he wanted five-star recruit Marquise Bolden to return this past season so he could play more than he did as a freshman. That was before Bagley jumped right from his junior year in high school to Duke. Is Bolden now being bypassed again in favor of Carter? Frankly, this is all very un-Duke-like.
After once having a model program that balanced great academics and great basketball, Duke now has had 14 or 15 one-and-dones since 2011, depending on whether Carter goes. This has rankled faculty members and Duke fans alike.
Krzyzewski might have his reasons, but he has had one Final Four team since 2010, while Carolina has had two and won more NCAA games by developing players. Now another 5-star class is coming in and all of them think it was in their best interest to pick Duke. For some, that’s true. For others, lately that choice has hurt their NBA chances more than it has helped them.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The only “shame” in this article is your bias getting in the way of even decent thought. As a Duke fan I enjoy reading articles and opinions from the perspectives of rivals. Occasionally I come across articles that deliver really good insight and interesting takes. However, this ain’t one
Trent no longer a first round projection? Wrong.
Bolden has been riddled with injuries and inconsistency. Without Carter, Duke would have turn to Bolden and DeLaurier as the only returning big men to pair with Zion (who at 6’6 may be a monster but a bit undersized). You fail to mention Duke’s pursuit of big man EJ Montgomery to fill out the recruiting class before Carter had his 2nd thoughts about turning pro. Duke backed off of Montgomery seemingly at the same time Carter started wavering. If anything you can surmise that K didn’t want a logjam in the frontcourt that would’ve featured Zion, Carter, Montgomery, Bolden and DeLaurier.
Your reasoning that carolina has been developing guys instead of using one and done’s is a bit flawed. Carolina had the umbrella of possible ncaa sanctions hanging over their head for years. Do you honestly think Roy just stopped recruiting the best kids in favor of development? Don’t be naive. He was essentially forced to recruit guys outside of the top tier as far as rankings were concerned. Granted, it’s worked out extremely well for him.
Going to Duke hurt the chances of some guys? Seriously? How pathetic is that argument? A number of top ranked freshmen under-perform every year no matter which school they go to. Last time I checked Luke Kennard and Frank Jackson didn’t seem to mind hearing their name called in the first round of the draft even though at the beginning of their last college season they weren’t projected to be there.
Bias is inevitable, especially when we root for Duke and Carolina respectively. however, if you’re going to write hit pieces on your rival at least make it worth reading to someone with an IQ higher than a potato chip
This is one of the laziest and dumbest hit pieces I’ve seen on Duke, and that’s saying something. Let’s go over the idiocy in this piece:
– Trent & Duval not projected 1st round? – False. You can’t make a blanket statement like this when there are dozens of projections out there, some of which do have them in the 1st. You also can’t speak to pre-draft workouts yet where a guy like Duval (an outstanding athlete) has a good shot of upping his stock. Frank Jackson bumped himself up significantly in pre-draft workouts last year, for instance.
– Roy “developing guys” – This is not always the same as having players who age. Roy has actually recruited plenty of guys who were viewed as likely one-and-done players who massively underwhelmed at UNC in their freshman seasons. Harrison Barnes, James Michael McAdoo, Justin Jackson – even Theo Pinson was ranked high enough in his class to be one-and-done by modern standards. Meanwhile guys like Seventh Woods and Jalek Felton, while not at all surefire one-and-dones, went from touted prospects to useless bench guys under Roy. I’m not saying this can’t happen at Duke also (Chase Jeter comes to mind), but it’s certainly happening at UNC. Roy has done some great team coaching the last few years (frankly better than I thought he was capable of), but let’s not act like he’s running a talent academy over there. One thing that’s kept him from having one-and-dones is that he hasn’t helped these guys thrive early – at least insofar as any of us can tell from the outside.
– The other thing that’s kept UNC from having one-and-dones is, as mentioned in another comment here, the massive academic scandal that the school was entirely let off the hook for (but by all means continue to act like your rival down the road lacks integrity). Go back and look at UNC’s recruiting efforts. Roy offered scholarships to: Zion Williamson (likely one-and-done), Collin Sexton, Kevin Knox, Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Markelle Fultz, Skal Labissiere, Brandon Ingram, Jaylen Brown, D’Angelo Russell, Andrew Wiggins, Noah Vonleh, and Marcus Smart (a 2-year guy who passed up a sure lottery pick) – to say nothing of showing interest in guys (like Karl-Anthony Towns) he didn’t wind up offering. Getting your ass kicked on the recruiting trail because you’re embroiled in scandal isn’t the same as taking some kind of strategic/moral high road. He’s wanted these guys. Every year. He’s missed them.
– Marques Bolden (at least spell it right if you’re going to make baseless assertions about him) was NOWHERE near ready to go pro after one season at Duke. He was injured much of his freshman year and struggled when active. Had Coach K encouraged him to go pro, he would have been doing Bolden a disservice. And, I’m willing to bet, you would have still written this piece and talked about how the soulless Coach K shoved Bolden out the door so he could bring in Bagley and Carter and maintain his one-and-done factory. Honestly, how is it you’re bitching about a guy coming back to get better and suggesting Coach K ushers players out the door on an annual basis at the same time?
I feel you dude. It’s easy to hate on your rival, it’s fun to post an article online, and there are things to criticize about the one-and-done era at Duke. But this is just absolute nonsense. You’re making assumptions, stating inaccuracies, contradicting yourself, and screaming your bias in the space of a few short paragraphs. Take shots at Duke all you want but at least pretend you know what you’re talking about.
Damn that comment was better than the article
LOL,
Art can’t decide whether Duke is forcing its NBA-ready players to stay or go. But he does know for sure that Duke is terrible either way.
That’s just the kind of paper that Debbie Crowder gives an A!
This article is ridiculous…..to play at Duke almost solidifies a first round pick, and longevity as a pro. The numbers don’t lie
What a disgrace of an article. Here’s an idea: get a life and a better team so that you can stop your futile attempts to demean other programs, rival or not.