I like our chances with Ross and Felix. Only fly in the ointment is Kansas with Ross. If KU makes a run and sees mass defections, the situation might be too good to pass up in Laurence.

As for Zeigler, who knows. I feel like we have lasered in on Ross (and Felix) more. Like the author, I feel MSU might be a real darkhorse here, but you can never count them out.

My real quible is with the Austin Rivers recruitment. I feel the staff should back off him until he officially decommitts from Florida. When we first started recruiting him, I was all for it. Doc wanted him to look around, and he came to Duke, and then visited. It seemed to really impress him.

I was primed for his decommitment from Florida, opening up his recruitment to Duke and a few others, along with Florida.

But he remains committed to Duke and is still looking arround, or whatever.

My fear is that there is a real chance that Duke will look like a Douchebag Chump. If he remains committed to Florida, then Duke will be percieved as having bird dogged a committed player. It isn’t a rule violation, but K’s refusal to pursue committed players is another example of his sterling character, which is a real selling point for the program.

If Austin opens it up, lets go all in to get him. But right now we are pursuing a committed player. At best the kid is waffling, trying to have his cake and eat it too. At worst, Duke, via K, is being set up to be left holding the bag. Austin gets the pub of being pursued by Duke, which will help his profile. Austin will be a folk hero in Fl for resisting Duke’s evil wiles, and K will look like a jerk for pursuing him.

After all, no one knows for sure what the sequence of events WAS. We are all pretty sure, but barring an email or recorded phone message it will be hard to prove that Austin came to Duke, and not vice versa. The basketball world will believe the worst of Duke.

I urge caution, and would love for K to bow out while AR is committed. K would get huge points for not meddling with a committed player. It would all be on Rivers at that point.