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Okay, so Skiz asked what I thought of the Duke season and if they should have lasted longer.

I would say it didn't end as desired, obviously; the team should have made the sweet 16. They would not have gone much further I don't think; I had us going out in the sweet 16 in most of my pools.

Duke had two problems at the end of the year that most of us saw...

First, the complete lack of a big man of consequence really did us in. Combined with the fact that that required Kyle Singler to play against really big boys on D for large chunks of the year and thus get worn out, it was certain to spell disaster.

Second, the broken hand for Henderson and the pretty bad flu for Nelson really torched Duke. Without Henderson able to shoot at all he was reduced to a layup or a dunk... and not having a midrange jump shot anymore makes it very easy to guard him. Nelson was unable to use his physical power to get to the basket as he should have either. Not having these two guys to slash to the basket and create open 3s was a serious, serious problem.

I am not sure where you got that info from scout, but...

Paulus = PG
Henderson, Nelson, Scheyer = SG
Thomas, Singler = PF

They may play out of position a bit, but that doesn't change the fact of what position they are effective in. You could stick a PG at C and try to say he is a C, but at the end of the day he should be playing a PF.

So a disappointing end for sure, although not unexpected with how things were going near the end. The team WILDLY overachieved during the year; with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores doing the majority of the heavy lifting (Singler, Smith, King, Scheyer, Henderson, Thomas, Zoubek) and a bunch of injuries (I don't think Zoubek ever really got on track, and Henderson was most definately derailed at the worst possible time... a derailment that neatly coincides with Dukes slide post-the-first-UNC-game) they really did pretty well in the regular season, being in the hunt for the ACC title until the end.

Of course, it was a HUGE improvement over last year.

Then again, next year has some question marks too. Losing Nelson isn't that big a deal; to be honest, I've never really loved Demarcus as a player. He has been injured almost his entire career, and even when he wasn't injured he had a very flat shot and never seemed to have that killer instinct. Gaining Elliot Williams, who is a real slasher, will help, and hopefully O.C. will add a little brawn down low. But there is still a lack of a serious big man, so I wonder how far Duke will go. If all of the guys improve as players usually do between season, Duke should be pretty good, but hopefully that good will show up in March rather than just the regular season, which hasn't happened a lot since the 04 Final Four. Shooting past the Final Four is highly unlikely; a Great Eight appearence would be nice. K doesn't make teams the way I personally would (I always think it is better to build inside-out) but then again the man has had some success, so I'll continue to trust him.

Heh, you know expectations are high when a Final Four four years ago signifies a huge blow to the program.

First, I don't think Duke should be that upset by this year. They had a solid season overall.

Second, I don't buy this excuse in college basketball in and of itself:

They may play out of position a bit, but that doesn't change the fact of what position they are effective in. You could stick a PG at C and try to say he is a C, but at the end of the day he should be playing a PF.

Look at the 2005 teams, for example.

North Carolina had Sean May, a guy too small to play PF in the NBA, at center and had a SF, Marvin Williams or Jawad Williams, at their power forward spot. They won the championship over a team that started 3 guards, a SF and a PF. You can win with a lot of different lineups and systems in college basketball.

In college basketball, you can play 3 guards, 2 forwards and no centers and win a LOT of games.

Duke definitely had an overload of talented small players and few bruisers (partly by design of recruiting). They did pretty darn well this year and had every opportunity to do very well in the NCAA tournament, IMO.

I'm a big Duke fan too. Hopefully we can still a decent big man here late in this years recruiting.

I agree that Duke fans shouldn't be too upset, but the tournament performance was definately subpar. Some great regular season wins tho... Wisconsin, the whole Maui thing, a bunch of good OOC wins early on, some good ACC wins (tho Carolina without Lawson isn't really Carolina.) Shame it went downhill at the end, which has seemed to be a bit of a trend in the last two years. Then again, that might be a little short sighted... from 2006-1999 Duke won all the conference tournaments except one. The biggest shame, of course, is Redick not winning it all.

As for the position argument... well, I wasn't so much thinking NBA positions. Sean May was a BIG boy, with an even bigger armspan; very Elton Brandish. Duke this year had a single center on the roster and two power forwards, neither of which have much in the way of "power." In NBA terms (or, to be honest, on some NCAA teams) it was a single center and two small forwards... 6'8 and 220 pounds isn't a big boy.

Eh, right now there is no one coming next year. EWill will be a real good slasher, and Czyz seems to be rather athletic and physical (and did real well at the exhibition in DC) but... best hopes are for 2009. Plumlee has gone up in the rankings, and is a tall, tall kid with some very nice skills apparently; however, he plays like a European finesse guy more than a banger. Of course, in the Duke system that should work just fine. But personally, I really like the Dejuan Blair types.

*crosses fingers, toes, and everything else that can be crossed, because without a big a basketball team can't win it all*

Johnny Dawkins heading to Stanford. Yeah, Snyder and Ammaker cheated and flopped. But this was a job Dawkins had to take, unless he just wanted to be Bill Guthridge. Anyway, I wonder which Dukie now comes back into the fold as a K assistant?

Some Dukies would like it if we went outside the family... but within the family Nate James and Chris Carrawell are already on the staff. Jason Williams would be a great get too in regards to recruiting, because a lot of the current age of guys didn't see Laettner and Hurley play; they saw JWill play. However, none of these guys would really address what "seems" to be a glaring hole; a big man coach. Now as an outsider I might be missing the big picture, or missing the details, but it seems like a good big man coach would be great... I would LOVE to see him bring on Mike Jarvis (despite some shady events in his coaching past), as they are friends, with an understanding that the big men are his responsibility, but I doubt Jarvis would take an assistant job.

Just hope it ISN'T K's son in law. While I admire his dedication and that he was a captain on Army, I am very nervous about the feeling of nepotism in that appointment.

Hope JD does well at Stanford. That is a place with some tough, tough admissions standards, even harder than Duke... and really, he has to excel there. Flopping obviously destroys his chance at taking over at Duke when K retires. Even performing ehhhhh hurts his chances of taking over at Duke. Thankfully the league is a little on the weak side.

I know people are bringing up the Gut comparison, but two final fours in three years ain't bad at ALL. Plus, JD would have been a LOT younger than Gut when he took over.

DUCK FOOK

Hm hm.

In other news, Duke picked up Miles Plumlee a few days ago... 6'10, and up to 230 now. A tall, athletic kid with good instincts and who can block and has a few moves in the post, who also can clear six and a half feet on the high jump and is pretty bright. He wasn't a very highly ranked recruit (ranging from 50ish on some recruiting radars up to 20th) but has been VERY impressive in the AAU circut this summer, with some writers speculating he will be a top 10 recruit by the end of the summer. He is also expected to continue growing, as insane as that sounds. Certainly not a "banger," but Duke doesn't use lots of those... more a finese guy who they say does have some post moves and is very good with the ball. Thank god, we needed a big guy soon, and to get a real quality one this late in the process is a real blessing.

Next year his brother, 6'11 top 20 recruit Mason Plumlee joins him. Both brothers were guards for many years, and are said to have guard-like skills with the ball. And behind them is another brother, who is, I think, 6'8 as a high school freshman. This is a good thing for Duke.