Ok, we have checked around tonight and we think we understand what is going
on with Andre Sweet and the reports posted today. By and large, this is another
example of why we link to stories but rarely initiate them anymore. People
were posting things who weren't familiar with the rules and who didn't
understand the situation too well.
From what we understand, Sweet has not been offered. He may well
be, but he hasn't been yet. Coach K will go to visit but the visit will be in
school, which is permissible right now, but in-home is not.
Just as general information, Duke generally doesn't offer, as Mike
Sullivan notes, without having a prospect meet the team and
seeing how he fits in - much less without a visit. Things are done in a proper
order, and the time isn't there yet. It may well be, but it's not yet. Sullivan
understood the rules well enough to understand that an in-home was not possible.
Kurt
O' Neill had the sense to ask if it was in-home or in-school.
The other stories, including the one we linked to, were not carefully
researched, and we're sorry we linked to it. As we said earlier, we don't link to Recruiting Beat a lot, and
while we admire Patrick's passion, sometimes he gets stuff wrong. We're
not knocking him, not least of all because he's just a kid, but you have to be
careful about this kind of stuff.
From all accounts, Sweet is a nice kid, and well adjusted. His mom is a
special ed teacher who works with kids who have serious problems, like kids with
AIDS and so forth, so he's been in an environment which focused on other
people's needs, which is, we think healthy, particularly since athletes can
sometimes be seduced by the attention. Sweet may be an appropriate name
for his personality, but not for his game. He could be a very useful player next
year, and, as you know, sweetness is not a court attribute highly prized by
Coach K. Our bet is he'd prefer the harder elements of Sweet's game -
rebounding, defense, a willingness to do dirty work. Sounds like a guy
Duke fans could appreciate.