Comments on: A Recruiting Whirlwind

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:16:02 +0000

Haha just re-read this. Catherine, you were absolutely right. Every single bench on West (and some from East apparently) was burned last year.

By: Amogh

Amogh — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:17:10 +0000

Funny how ridiculously spot on this piece was, Jake. It’s pretty awesome to say the least.

By: Crazie Talk » Blog Archive » The Kyrie Irving Effect

Crazie Talk » Blog Archive » The Kyrie Irving Effect — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:03:41 +0000

[...] recruiting misses of the past 5 years have been well-documented by this and other sites, and there’s no need to beat that dead [...]

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:02:16 +0000

Patrick–you’re right, the 2005 class was a disappointment. McRoberts and Paulus were solid complimentary players on the 2005-2006 squad with Redick and Williams, but they were ill-prepared to live up to Duke expectations the following year. They were talented players, and by most standards a 22-11 season is successful. But not at Duke. McRoberts was more disappointing because we feel that he could’ve been a huge player on the 2007-08 squad. It didn’t work out that way.

The idea of the article is that the staff has learned from the recruiting mistakes of the last 5 years and are in the process of adapting their strategy. Hopefully we’ll see better talent on the court as a product of that change.

By: Patrick Yates

Patrick Yates — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:09:06 +0000

You only touched on the real miss. The 2005 class was a complete disaster. It was rated No. 1 in the country by many outlets, and no lower than 3 by anybody. The two headliners were McBob and Paulus. Each one was the top player at his position. Both underachieved horribly in comparison to their ranking. McBob was never a go to scorer in the low post, and Paulus was an undersized, unathletic SG by the time he left. Boateng and Boykins were in no way, shape, or form high level Div 1 recruits capable of contributing on a national power team, such as Duke. Pocius had tons of potential, but he never embraced the concept of playing D.

So, overall, 2005 was a disaster. Quality coaches have been fired for recruiting classes that underperformed at the same level as Duke. That K was able to field even competitive teams with this albatross around his neck was amazing. Since he actually recruited said albatross, that accomplishment is somewhat mitigated.

Finally, I know that McBob is an easy target because of his defection and SUPPOSED attitude problems. That said, his soph year he had little quality talent arround him. LT was underwhelming, Zoubs, well, no comment, and Paulus was proving to be a disaster as a PG. And Gerald was struggling through a horrific frosh year, and Scheyer was having a quality, but not groundbreaking frosh year himself. McBob had no help. None. Especially at that most important position, PG.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:40:06 +0000

Duke is probably going to win something huge this year and the benches will be burned. I’m really sad I never got to see that during the aftermath of the fall from the top. Great post, Jake.