Duke Dark Age?
| 11
|
by user Dukeboy999
I have been a Duke fan for just about my whole life. And I can count on one hand the times I have been embarrassed to call myself a Duke fan. Actually, this is the first. The cracks are starting to show in this usually proud basketball program, and we may be entering a periodic dark period at Duke. Usually this happens once every decade or so, and it seems to be upon us now. Coming into the season, everything looked great, and there was no reason to believe Duke would not have another solid season under Coach K. Heck, even at the start of last weekend, coming into conference play, Duke looked poised to make a run this year. Top 5 in the nation, with a solid group of young players is about all a team can ask for coming off a summer in which they lost two first team All Americans.
But some leaks in the hull of this monster ship are starting to spring. And although it’s against anything and everything in Durham I have to say it. Most of it comes right back to Coach K and his whole philosophy. There are a couple problems he has created, and that for some reason only show up once every few years. The first is recruiting. Sure, Duke recruits some of the best high school players in the country, just not the right kind of players. Take Greg Paulus for instance, who looks like he would have been much better off playing football. (Paulus was one of the top Quarterback prospects in the nation, and received an offer to play at Notre Dame) Greg Paulus is exactly what is wrong with Duke Basketball. Duke’s problem is that they don’t recruit enough pure basketball players. All they do is go out and recruit a bunch of 6’ 3” white kids who are shooters, but don’t have any physical presence inside. On top of that none of them can create points on their own. This comes from these kids playing with a bunch of playmaking studs in high school. They are used to everyone else making plays around them. So when you put four or five of these guys on the floor at once, no one knows how to create, and no one can score points.
Now, before you read any further, make sure you are sitting down. Let me preface this by saying I am a very accepting person, and not in any way racist. As I said before, Duke’s problem is that they do not recruit enough pure basketball players. I don’t like to sound stereotypical, but will do it anyways. Duke needs to go out and recruit more 6’5”-6’8” black kids, who are just straight up athletes. Right now, when the game is on the line, Duke has no inside presence, and is getting beat up and down the floor. Duke needs guys like Alando Tucker at Wisconsin, or Thaddeus Young from Georgia Tech. Even getting another Chris Duhon would be fine. Four short white kids, and one who is 6’8” isn’t going to get it done. I have nothing wrong with recruiting white kids to play basketball, just not only white kids. Back when Duke used to have Sheldon Williams, JJ Reddick, Chris Duhon, Daniel Ewing, and Demarcus Nelson, they had the right formula. (I will stereotype right now for the last time) They had four black kids on the floor who were pure athletes and pure ball players. Add in the short skinny white kid who could shoot and you had something. Now, I know Demarcus Nelson is still at Duke, but he can’t produce when he is the only legit scoring threat on the floor.
The last thing I have to get off my back about Duke is Brian Zoubek. Most of the time, Duke plays with four guards and Josh McRoberts on the inside. (McRoberts is only 6’8”) Even though Zoubek is a freshman, he is 7’1” and should be playing as a second big man for most of the game. This would open things up for McRoberts on the inside, and force defenses to have an extra man in the paint. In turn, opening up more shots for those skinny white shooters on the outside. I don’t know why these little things aren’t getting done at Duke anymore but it is sad to see. Europe had only one Dark Ages, but Duke Basketball has many. And it seems as if another one has descended upon Durham.
And just in case anyone thinks I sound like a spoiled Duke fan, who is so used to winning he cries every time Duke loses two games in a row, I’m not crying. I’m not even that upset. I just think that there are a couple of very simple things the staff at Duke could do to fix this slight decline.
