Has the game passed Coach K by?

Here is the problem. He had two top inside recruits become total busts.

You recruit a McRoberts and a Randolph, two blue fucking chippers who did fuck all at Duke, and you are committing your program to them. How many other top inside players would commit to Duke knowing those two were already signed and probably taking a starting spot?

If he cannot bring in a top center in the next recruiting class, then I would worry. But I would only worry a little.

And from what I can tell, K has so far not signed anything for 2009 that resembles a post player.

 

Also very good points.

 

The fact that this team played as well as it did proves that he has not, as the question suggests, seen the game pass him by.

He used his time as Team USA coach to learn a new system, and then implemented it at Duke to great success. DeMarcus Nelson is average, Greg Paulus is below-average, Taylor King is a shooter who missed, Brian Zoubek has two left feet and Lance Thomas is a bum. Boykins, McRoberts and Boateng all bailed/didn't pan out.

He's absolutely having trouble recruiting big men. But he never got the Beasley/Mayo player. He never will. He's just not interested in recruiting those guys.

330 programs would take being Duke this season and be just fine with it.

 

The fact that Mike Krzyzewski had success with the team he did this year is proof that the game hasn't passed him by.

Better yet, ask USA Basketball how terrible he was last summer. The same guys who wouldn't do spit for Larry Brown - with Carmelo Anthony leading the list - were very happy with Krzyzewski running the show.

The fact that Duke was above .500 last year showed his coaching mettle.

 

I would ask this question about Gary Williams before I would about K.

 

Terps just haven't gotten as many quality players. Gary has never needed to stockpile talent ... his ability to draw it out of them and coach it up showed with guys like Juan Dixon.

But he hasn't had enough consistent players, and that's a shame. He and Mike Krzyzewski are the two best pure coaches in the conference, though Seth Greenberg is starting to draft off those two.

 

I agree. Greenburg has made March chicken salad out of November chicken shit on several occasions already. As for Williams, I think he'll get the Terps back to tournament quality, but it will be a while before Maryland gets back on a roll like it was on five years ago.

 

Everything else aside, I had to chuckle after Joe Alexander's "Duke's a great team, but they wouldn't dominate the Big East" quote.
True words right now.

 

It's so hard to figure this conference shit out by now, though. UCLA looks awful against Oklahoma last night, Stanford nearly falls to Marquette. USC. And on and on with the Pac-10, "the best conference in the country." And then Washington State comes out and absolutely kicks the ever-living shit out of Notre Dame, the second-place team in the Big East.

The Big Ten sucks. Everybody knows it. And then Michigan State beats Pittsburgh, the Big East's tournament champion and a darkhorse Final Four pick for a lot of people.

In the end, as always, it's all about matchups.

 

Damn. I thought Oklahoma sucked today against Louisville. I guess after reading your comments I can see why - they played two games in two days, the first disguised as A&M guys.

 

I abhor Duke and have done so for the past 25 years because of K's holier than thou persona that he's cultivated.

However, I give credit where credit is due and K is not watching the game pass him by. He's criticized here for being overly reliant upon a 3 shooting team with everyone on the perimeter? Well the offense that's been sweeping the nation, according to SI a month ago, was the basically drive and kick offense that's run by Memphis and others. That sounds exactly like what Duke's getting criticized for.

No big program runs the traditional inside outside game any longer except Stanford (because of 2 7 fters) because if you did you'd get nobody to come.

Duke won in NC this year. That's worth something.

As for talent? I read that of the 8 Dukies to play against WVU, all 8 were MacDonalds All-Americas. Don't think its recruiting either. There's talent there.