Duke held its annual banquet Thursday night and while there was plenty of love to go around, no one got more than senior Marshall Plumlee.
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When Plumlee was being recruited there was a general sense of...well, let's call it skepticism.
He had two tough acts to follow in his older brothers Miles and Mason, and who knew how he would do?
Injuries early in his career also set him back.
As a freshman, he was kind of everyone's kid brother. It wasn't really until last year that the general public became aware that this guy had some steel to him. And we have to think that battling Jahlil Okafor every day for a year was a huge help to his development.
Still, who ever thought we'd see what we saw this year? Plumlee became an incredible leader, one of the best Duke's ever had. And he stepped up even more after Amile Jefferson's injury.
For our money, and we're not knocking his brothers, he's the best of the Plumlees.
It's hard to believe we're out of Plumlees.
It's worth mentioning that like Quinn Cook, he was asked to change his role depending on what the team needed. As an underclassman, he was strictly in development. As a junior, he willingly stepped back to let Okafor have a remarkable year which culminated in rings for everyone.
It's too bad that Derryck Thornton wasn't willing to follow that path, because he would've been in position to do great things later in his career, including possibly a ring of his own and a chance to be a major factor in that.
Despite that, he was at the banquet and treated warmly. He hugged many people and seemed to enjoy himself despite his impending departure.
Here's what coach K said about Plumlee: "There is nobody who has loved playing here more than this kid. Nobody. Nobody has improved and become as deep and as proud of a player as this kid. We have loved coaching you, son. We have absolutely loved coaching you. I’m proud of you."
We'd expect all Duke fans are.
Plumlee, not surprisingly, got emotional. Guys who don't play a lot often play roles behind the scenes and in his comments, Plumlee said some lovely things about Justin Robinson, who sounds like a wonderful friend and teammate. You can see the comments in the link at the top.
GoDuke.com has a list of awards but our favorite is the Dr. Deryl Hart Award for the best student. This year's winner: Grayson Allen.