If you haven't seen this story going around, it's one of
the first Duke-is-thin-but-don't-count-them-out stories. When Jason
Williams and Carlos Boozer were freshmen, they had the huge advantage of Mike
Dunleavy, who made the rotation of six players amazingly flexible. This
team won't have that, but they will some established players in Redick,
Williams, and more and more with Shavlik Randolph, and DeMarcus Nelson could
prove to be a revelation. We've only seen him play briefly, and he was injured
then, but he was still clearly a dominant player.
Oh, hey, what do you know, the Herald-Sun has a couple as well. Here's 1
and here's 2.
Here's
one more from the Winston-Salem paper.
Not surprisingly, Coach K is thinking outside the box a bit. His
familiar argument that coaches need more access to players to make better
decisions and to help them is modified somewhat to include helping strengthen
the brand of college basketball. It's a logical argument. Guys like
Krzyzewski, Ol' Roy Williams, Boeheim, and so on - they're celebrities.
Why not use that to market your brand? Fairness in recruiting is an issue,
but lots of things are. Getting guys thinking about college ball now is
probably a good idea.