Duke Recruiting: A Boozer Dilemma

Carlos Boozer has made it clear that, when it comes to his twin sons Cameron and Cayden, both highly regarded recruits, he’s not going to pressure them to go to Duke. And that’s admirable.

Still, he clearly treasures his time at Duke. We don’t know that he named Cameron after Duke’s legendary Indoor Stadium, but it would make sense if he did.

He may not pressure his children to go to Duke, but here’s an equally interesting question: what would he do if they wanted to go to UNC?

It’s not necessarily likely that they will, but everyone and their brother are going to offer the Boozer twins, and now that officially includes Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels.

And how would Carlos deal with that?

He is as marinated in the Duke-UNC rivalry as anyone. How would he react if his sons - one or both - said they were interested in being Tar Heels. What would he say? “You bet” or maybe “Anywhere else, son. I’m not signing that.” Who knows?

From all evidence, Carlos is an outstanding dad and, like Shavlik Randolph’s family, would surely adapt. Randolph’s family were partly UNC people but his grandfather was NC State great Ronnie Shavlik. When his grandmother was asked how the family felt about him choosing Duke, she memorably said: “well, we’re adjusting”.

At this point, it’s really not worth worrying about. First, the Boozers aren’t very far along in their process. Second, as Carlos’s sons, they surely grew up pulling against UNC. Third, UNC isn’t what it used to be and there are a lot of questions about Davis’s program at this point.

One more question: what happens if either or both brother were to choose UNC...and not live up to expectations? That might not be pretty.

At any rate, this is all a long ways away. Our advice is not to worry about this for a while.