Does it seem like the Carolina-Duke recruiting rivalry is back on?
For decades, say the 1960s through 2010, the juggernaut basketball programs were recruiting a lot of the same guys. To name a few, I remember the high-profile battles for Dick DeVenzio in the ‘60s, Dennis Wuycik and Gene Banks in the ‘70s, Danny Ferry in the ‘80s, Grant Hill and Vince Carter in the ‘90s and Tyler Hansbrough in the 2000s.
Then a couple of things happened to change that for a while.
Duke began signing kids that intended to stay only one year. And with Mike Krzyzewski’s too-long tenure as the U.S. Olympic coach, the Duke one and dones became NBA first-round draft picks. And with that pipeline to the pros, the Blue Devils started signing more five-stars with an immediate eye on the NBA. Soon it became entire classes of one-and-dones, one after another.
At the same time, Carolina was caught in the throes of an NCAA probe that lasted more than four years. Negative recruiting and the possibility of a probation put Roy Williams in a difficult situation. He could contradict the rival coaches who said the Tar Heels were dead (as in the no-longer-existent death penalty), but the bad publicity cost UNC in-state regulars like Brandon Ingram and Harry Giles.
Duke is still loading up on five-star classes, and most of those kids are indeed getting drafted in the first round. With the NCAA mess in their rear view mirror, the Heels are pulling even in recruiting and the NBA lure with four first-rounders of their own in the last three years. And in the new-age media crunch of constant geo-targeted posts coming our way, every day brings another story about a new stud who has narrowed his list to five or six schools.
Carolina and Duke are almost always among the finalists. I admit I don’t follow it very closely, waiting to see if the high school stars wind up in the ACC and if they are really that good. But I do look at where these kids are leaning, and the blue bloods are pretty much on every five-star’s final five or six.
Coach K still has the edge with kids who truly have no interest in going to college, only off to the league ASAP. But UNC offers the Carolina Family compared to the Durham Brotherhood of onesies. Both are on national TV weekly and Final 4 contenders, and while the rivalry has lost some of its ferocity off the court, the games remain great theater with the best ratings on network and cable television.
The latest is 7-foot phenom Walker Kessler, who caught my eye when he eliminated Georgia, his home-state school where his father and uncle played. So that tells me Kessler is looking to spend his one year in a much bigger blue pond.
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If you think that there is any difference in these two money making machines. These are 2 big businesses that take advantage of young athletes, they should go to the NBA as soon as humanly possible not play for free for your entertainment. If you believe “Family” or “Brotherhood” is anything other than a marketing ploy to help make more money you are really missing the point.
Maybe you should talk to some of the former Carolina players before you dismiss the Carolina Family concept. My son saw three members from the 2012 team having lunch together in Sutton’s this weekend. Many come back every summer to practice against each other and break in the new guys. They stay in touch, visit each other and are in each other’s weddings. Sorry you are so cynical AND uninformed.
what a crock. I’ve played for free all my life. Certainly these boys can, and should play for free for a while. And what the hell are you talking about, ” they’re being taken advantage of” ?
This is the best opportunity these boys have ever had in their lives-to play ball on such a big stage, in fantastic arenas, being on tv, having top-notch coaches and sports therapists on call whenever they need it, excellent physical training facilities to work out in and grow stronger and more flexible in, ( with trainers that help them develop exercise routines that maximize their physical capabilities), the finest healthiest meals, in abundance, to nourish all their growing muscles, the best atheletic gear to wear in practice, in games, or whenever they want to, speech coaches to help develop their interviewing skills so that when they’re talking to reporters on television or radio, they represent themselves and their universities by speaking intelligently and with class, and on, and on, and on. All this assistance that the average working person out in the real world never gets to take advantage of, and certainly not for free !
Then there’s the counsel and support from the head coaches and assistant coaches and guidance counselors that these “taken advantage of kids” receive on how to better handle every day life situations and relationships and money and school work and on and on and on. How many times have we heard on senior night how a player just can’t thank enough, Roy or Hubert or Steve or Mike or his staff for helping them emotionally through trying circumstances or family or girl friend troubles ?
But in addition to that, these “taken advantage of kids” get to attend world class educational institutions–for FREE !! They can, to the extent they apply themselves, achieve academic success and learn an incredible amount of knowledge about the world, about medicine, history, mathematics, language, science, etc., etc., etc,. Did I mention for FREE ? These are things that most of us will never have the opportunity to do in our whole lives ! Oh yeah, and these “taken advantage of kids” have their living quarters made available to them, right on campus if they want to–for FREE !! And what about the fact that even most of the best high school players benefit by learning how to play the game better by spending years playing at the college level-Michael Jordan did !
Fellow, what we don’t need any more of in this nation is people who have this attitude similar to what you’re expressing that suggests that just because somebody, or some business, or some institution benefits from somebody else’s hard work, well then, they’re owed money. We’re all entitled, just because we exist. BULL !
Wait till these kids have to go straight to the league and don’t have the year to grow under these programs and the leadership. Unless they are LeBron or Koby they need the year. Although I would prefer they stay 2 years this is as good for them as it is for us! I love how Chansky makes it sound as if the Holes don’t want the same players we do….lol. They just can’t get them! As always GO DUKE!!! GTHC
“Coach K still has the edge with kids who truly have no interest in going to college”
Ironic statement given the decades of sham classes and many tainted degrees doled in the name of the Carolina Way.
The Carolina Family has been in place for decades. It existed long before the days of the one-and-done. dook’s “Brotherhood” came into play over the past decade or so in response to the Family.