You couldn't blame them, really, if some folks at Stanford were a little irritated with Duke about now. First Joe Alleva leaves, and almost immediately hires Stanford's Trent Johnson. Then Stanford hires Johnny Dawkins, releases Miles Plumlee, and watches him immediately pick Duke, as in released in the afternoon and signed before dinner. Not exactly, but pretty much.
Someone will connect the dots and decide it was all pre-planned. It's not, but someone will make the argument.
Whatever.
Getting Plumlee is a big break for Duke. First, he's a quality big man who is improving rapidly. With Plumlee in the fold, Kyle Singler can really focus on his natural position and get out from under the basket.
Duke can now use Brian Zoubek, Plumlee, Lance Thomas, and Olek Czyz down low. If they can get ten minutes out of each guy, or from a different angle, 30 minutes collectively, Singler will be a very, very different player.
It changes a lot of things. With more big guys to rebound, Duke won't have to send everyone to the boards, which means they can get out on the break that much faster.
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