The Goat Pen

Nassir Little is co-MVP of the Jordan Brand Classic, joining LeBron as the only guy to be MVP of McDonald's and Jordan Brand games.The kid going to LSU, Emmitt Williams, broke LeBron's scoring record with 44 points in the Jordan Brand and was Little's co-MVP. The other UNC recruit, Coby White, had 21 points.

I think Herro had 13 points in a game with the combined score of 282 points. Woohoo!

you mean the Nassir Little who is identified as player 12 in the FBI Adidas scandal targeted to receive $150K and whose AAU coach arrested ?

Trevon Duval declared for the NBA draft last week, but the Duke freshman’s decision was made for him back in January. That’s when Coach K completed a recruiting hat trick by signing Zion Williamson to what was already the top recruiting class in the country, which featured the potential top two picks in next year’s draft (R.J. Barrett and Cameron Reddish) as well as the best pure point guard (Tre Jones, the younger brother of former Duke standout Tyus Jones) in the class. Neither Duval or Gary Trent Jr., his backcourt partner, were able to build up their draft stock at Duke, but both have decided not to give it a second try. They are essentially being pushed out the door by a program that no longer needs them.

Duval and Trent knew the deal when they signed with Duke. Coach K has beaten John Calipari at his own game the last few seasons, turning his program into the premier destination for one-and-done players. He has had a freshman taken in the top three in each of the last four drafts (Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor, Brandon Ingram, and Jayson Tatum), and three more (Harry Giles, Justise Winslow, and Tyus Jones) taken in the first round. Marvin Bagley III and Wendell Carter Jr. will join that group this year. The top recruits sign with Duke expecting to stay only one year in Durham.

Duke, like Kentucky, deals with the opposite problem of just about every other program in college basketball: It has more NBA-caliber talent than it can use. Coach K has to convince players with the ability to be primary options to accept smaller roles on offense. That’s what happened with Trent and Duval, neither of whom were utilized in the way most consensus top-10 recruits are. They were the fourth and fifth options for the Blue Devils, spotting up off of Bagley and Carter and taking a backseat on the perimeter to Grayson Allen, a likely early-second-round pick.

Duval wasn’t able to showcase his game. At 6-foot-3 and 191 pounds, he’s an electric athlete with the ability to play way above the rim and get into the lane at will

The fit between Duval and his star big men wasn’t much better on defense, either. A guard with his physical tools should have been pressing up on opposing ball-handlers and forcing them into turnovers and poor decisions.

Playing that type of defensive style would also have improved his offense, since a more uptempo game would have allowed him to use his athleticism in transition, as opposed to playing in the half-court, which magnified his poor outside shooting. Instead, Duke sat in a zone to minimize the defensive weaknesses of Bagley and Carter. Duval, who has an only 6-foot-3.5 wingspan, didn’t have the length to be an impact defender when he was forced to guard an area instead of a man.

Playing at Duke was a worst-case scenario for Duval’s draft stock. He couldn’t do the things he did well, while his weaknesses were on full display. That’s how he went from a potential lottery pick before the start of the season to no. 50 overall on ESPN’s Top 100 prospects list. Freshmen in that range typically go back to school to work on their games. Most NCAA coaches would love to have a sophomore like Duval running their team and would have tried to sell him on returning by structuring their offense to emphasize his strengths. The situation is different at Duke.

Duval would have an even smaller role next season. Barrett is a 6-foot-7 point forward who needs the ball in his hands. A ball-dominant guard like Duval with a shaky outside jumper makes little sense next to him, especially in comparison to Jones. Like his older brother Tyus, Tre Jones is a playmaker with a high basketball IQ who can adapt himself to any role. He should be able to get the ball to Barrett, Reddish, and Williamson without getting in their way. Duval would likely have been forced to run the second unit for a coach who rarely goes deep into his bench. He would have been yesterday’s news on a program built around freshmen.

That’s what happened to Marques Bolden, a sophomore center who averaged 13 minutes per game this season behind Carter and Bagley. Bolden, the no. 11 overall recruit in the class of 2016, was seen as a likely one-and-done player coming out of high school. Instead, he got injured early in his freshman season and was never able to carve out a role for himself in a crowded frontcourt at Duke. He’s not even ranked in ESPN’s Top 100 anymore, and his role won’t be much different as a junior. He will have to fight for minutes with Javin DeLaurier, a more defensive-minded big man who better complements the trio of ball-dominant freshman wings that Duke is bringing in.

Frank Jackson, who was part of the same recruiting class as Bolden, stuck with the original plan of going pro despite an inconsistent freshman season. He didn’t want to come back to school and back up Duval. He was taken at no. 31 overall in last year’s draft by the Pelicans, who shut him down all season because of a foot injury. It’s unclear what will happen to him now. New Orleans is in win-now mode and trying to convince Anthony Davis to stay long term, and it can’t afford to let Jackson play through his mistakes. He will likely be pigeon-holed into a role as a bench shooter. If he can’t earn minutes on a veteran team, he could end up in the G League, where he will have to prove himself all over again.

Duval, like Jackson, would have been better going to a college program built around him.

..........

Duval and Trent are getting forced out of Duke, but they knew what they were getting into. Coach K is running a pro factory. He doesn’t need to develop players anymore. Future NBA stars are beating down his door to sign with him every season. If they wanted to take a slower route to the NBA, they could have signed somewhere else. No one is holding their hand at Duke, just like no one will hold their hand at the next level.

Duval and Trent will almost certainly end up spending a lot of time in the G League, where former McDonald’s All Americans are a dime a dozen. If they can refine their games and polish their skill sets, they have the talent to play in the NBA. However, talent is not enough once you get to the professional level. Just ask former Kentucky guards Marquis Teague, Archie Goodwin, and Aaron Harrison, who have spent most of their professional careers bouncing back-and-forth between the G League and the NBA after declaring for the draft as underclassmen. Teague and Goodwin were both late-first-round picks, but neither got the opportunity to grow as a primary ball handler in the NBA.

Malik Monk, who starred in his one season at Kentucky before being taken by the Hornets with the no. 11 overall pick in last year’s draft, told my Ringer colleague Jordan Ritter Conn that Calipari basically kicked him off the team to make room for his next blockbuster recruiting class. Monk, along with De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo, had an implicit understanding with Calipari when they signed with him. It worked out well for both sides: They starred for one season and then went pro, making themselves a lot of money and allowing Calipari to use their success to sell the next generation of recruits to follow them. Players who need longer to develop don’t fit that model.

Teague left and UK didn't have a replacement - matter of fact, we went to the NIT in no small part because Teague left. Archie Goodwin probably left because of the Harrison twins but Cal said he wasn't ready to leave and asked him to stay. I think the problem with Goodwin was the fans were ready for him to leave. Looking back he was treated unfairly, it was just a shitty season and he shouldered the blame for being a ball hog of Trae Young levels after Noel blew out his ACL.

Monk scored 41 points on national TV against North Carolina and then had several noticeable games showcasing his potential to be a scorer in the NBA. Fox and Adebayo are not G-League candidates in the near future playing significant roles on their respective teams.

So while its easy to compare what Duke and UK are doing, they are not taking the same path in how they handle players.

Diallo isn't ready but if he jumps, its because he won't listen to anyone. The kid tried to go pro without ever playing a minute for UK to begin with. Knox and SGA are being told they have guaranteed money waiting for them , and Montgomery/Hagan have held off their announcements until Know and SGA make their decision - pretty much the opposite of recruiting over them.

most of the ones I remember were on the cnn boards for football

lot of notredame/ohiostate/Nebraska fans
with wildcat00 and me being the only kstaters

talent used to run his pick 7 college and pro contests over there

the political boards had some real loonies on puters site--conspiracy nuts

8 posts no acronyms--couldn't be wiz

AA has a history of this and throws redherrings out there ie creighton

Nothing much has changed as far as puter's site goes...

I would not be surprised to see Sacha Killya Jones end up at UNC.

eCat wrote:

Duval and Trent will almost certainly end up spending a lot of time in the G League, where former McDonald’s All Americans are a dime a dozen. If they can refine their games and polish their skill sets, they have the talent to play in the NBA. However, talent is not enough once you get to the professional level. Just ask former Kentucky guards Marquis Teague, Archie Goodwin, and Aaron Harrison, who have spent most of their professional careers bouncing back-and-forth between the G League and the NBA after declaring for the draft as underclassmen. Teague and Goodwin were both late-first-round picks, but neither got the opportunity to grow as a primary ball handler in the NBA.

Malik Monk, who starred in his one season at Kentucky before being taken by the Hornets with the no. 11 overall pick in last year’s draft, told my Ringer colleague Jordan Ritter Conn that Calipari basically kicked him off the team to make room for his next blockbuster recruiting class. Monk, along with De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo, had an implicit understanding with Calipari when they signed with him. It worked out well for both sides: They starred for one season and then went pro, making themselves a lot of money and allowing Calipari to use their success to sell the next generation of recruits to follow them. Players who need longer to develop don’t fit that model.

Teague left and UK didn't have a replacement - matter of fact, we went to the NIT in no small part because Teague left. Archie Goodwin probably left because of the Harrison twins but Cal said he wasn't ready to leave and asked him to stay. I think the problem with Goodwin was the fans were ready for him to leave. Looking back he was treated unfairly, it was just a shitty season and he shouldered the blame for being a ball hog of Trae Young levels after Noel blew out his ACL.

Monk scored 41 points on national TV against North Carolina and then had several noticeable games showcasing his potential to be a scorer in the NBA. Fox and Adebayo are not G-League candidates in the near future playing significant roles on their respective teams.

So while its easy to compare what Duke and UK are doing, they are not taking the same path in how they handle players.

Diallo isn't ready but if he jumps, its because he won't listen to anyone. The kid tried to go pro without ever playing a minute for UK to begin with. Knox and SGA are being told they have guaranteed money waiting for them , and Montgomery/Hagan have held off their announcements until Know and SGA make their decision - pretty much the opposite of recruiting over them.

K has been forcing kids out for years. Look at the number of transfers they've had. And every year, there are stories about Duke's lack of depth that fail to note that depth scarcity comes from having 4-star players on the bench or having left the year before.

UK got EJ Montgomery today so they're not that far behind Duke now.

UK lands Ashton Hagan this morning too

now we have supposedly two real 3 point shooters on next years team.

Looking good so far for UK

well we need shooters. We may be projecting that on Hagan a bit. He is more of a John Wall PG

Hopefully UK will get the same results with him as they did with Wall...

[tweet]983819942490288128[/tweet]

Jackson at Kansas

I knew Mack was fully aware of the shit pile he was walking into but the money and his wifes family were to hard to pass up. X doesn't have a private jet. They'll be clean after this but how long (hopefully long) will they be on the sidelines because of penalties?

lot of people think de sosa is involved who still on the Jayhawk team==played significant minutes in the final 4

Finally, someone agrees with me on those hideous uniforms.

Get rid of those unis and that stupid broken K logo........ Fire Mitch!!

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketba ... are-awful/

the new wildcat sucks too - looks like Villanova's

eCat wrote:the new wildcat sucks too - looks like Villanova's

Indeed

Mitch must be goin to the local kindergarten class for design ideas.