After watching the McDonald AA game and the Nike Hoops Summit, I'm convinced that this kid will be the best PG in college in a couple of years and will have a chance to be the next Chris Paul. He has a great combination of speed, playmaking and scoring ability. Irving, along with Harrison Barnes, brought the US back from a 10 point deficit and beat the World team in a span of few minutes. There was one play where he was double-teamed in the corner of the court, dribbled around his defender with little space, got into the lane, took a foul and still made the shot. That play made me think he will be the next great PG in the line of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and John Wall.
whats ever crazier is he was considering between A&M and Duke, dude could brought the program do an even bigger level
It gives them NCAA championships? Seriously, Duke has the most alumni in the NBA now. I don't know how blind people have to be to still make this argument.
Duke alumni are cursed. The only one to have a successful NBA career not hampered down by injuries is Shane Battier.
I forgot about Boozer. He has somewhat injury problems, given the Duke-NBA curse, he will probably get worse over the next few years.
Revisiting this thread from 8 months ago. Kyrie Irving is now tearing it up in the NCAA. He looked unguardable vs two of the best guards in the NCAA - KSU's Jacob Pullen and MSU's Kalin Lucas. On the season, he's averaging 17/6/4/2 type of numbers while on a team with two AA seniors. Those aren't selfish numbers either. He played within control and made his team better. Watching him last night seriously reminded me of Chris Paul. People are already saying he's the best freshman ever at Duke. If he keeps playing like this, he will be a top 3 pick. I don't know what are our chances of landing him, but I'm salivating over the possibilities.
Duke has no "superstars" but by most accounts, the players they've put into the NBA have overachieved. The only other one-and-dones Duke's had are Luol Deng and Corey Maggette. Elton Brand, Josh McRoberts left after two years; Dunleavy and Jason Williams after three. The problem with saying that Duke players burn out early is that you could say that for every school. There isn't a single college out there that hasn't had high profile players not pan out as NBA players, or not perform to expectations, but then every school has also had unheralded players or players who underperformed in college and went on to be good to great NBA players. Just off the top of my head, Kentucky had a guy in Rajon Rondo who did much better in the NBA than he did as a college player, and then guys like Scott Padgett and Jodie Meeks who were college stars and marginal NBA players. So you can perpetuate this idea that Duke players are "cursed". But for every Bobby Hurley/Jason Williams, there's a Carlos Boozer/Dahntay Jones who have outperformed their draft stocks, and you can add to that guys like Josh McRoberts, JJ Redick, and Shelden Williams who have carved out nice niches in their respective team rotations through hard work and perseverance (they certainly didn't have the athleticism to stick around). Name a school and I'll show you the exact same track record. Finally, why the hell are we even talking about other Duke players when mentioning Irving? The dude's a beast, I don't think Duke's EVER had a freshman as good as this kid, he's the best player on a reigning championship squad, he's humble despite the attention, he's got the size and speed to be a great NBA point guard, he's great on defense to boot, and he's just about as safe a pick as you can think up when it comes to prospects in the NBA. The kid's a doozy and I've had just as much if not more fun watching him as watching John Wall or Kevin Durant in college in the past.
Very impressive start of his career, at Duke no less. He gets to the free throw line and an ungodly rate. Really enjoyed his interview after last Michigan State game. Gave himself a Grade of B for the game because he "missed a couple free throws and forced a couple shots". Pretty cool stuff.
Irving deserves to be number 1 right now, IMHO. Esp. when you consider the track record of pgs in the draft recently (Wall, Rose, WB, Stephen Curry).
Kyrie Irving is completely ridiculous at driving, on the college level at least. So much poise for a freshmen PG playing for national contender. Other freshmen like Harrison Barnes are crumbling under pressure. I doubt Barnes falls out of the top 3 in the draft even if he shoots 35% the whole year with 10/5/2 line.
Shelden Williams and JJ Redick have outperformed their draft stock? HAHAHAHHAGAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Thanks for that one. That was a great one. Name me another school which has seen EVERY "big prospect" be a bust or fall to some horrible injury. Duke has too many to count: -Danny Ferry (bust) -Christain Lattener (bust) -Trajan Langdon (bust) -Bobby Hurley (car accident) -Grant Hill (looked like a future HOF-er before his injury) -Elton Brand (constantly injured and way overpaid) -Mike Dunleavy (mediocre role player) -Jay Williams (motorcycle accident) -Shane Battier (love his game but not lived up to top 6 material) -Luol Deng (constantly injured and way overpaid) -Shelden Williams (mediocre this year, still was a top 5 pick not having lived up) Clearly they have had superstar-caliber talent (Grant Hill/Elton Brand/Luol Deng/Jay Williams) but its always some injury that hampers them from reaching levels of greatness.
BTW expect Boozer to fall to some injury sometime in the near future. Its a curse. We have no control over it. It is the way it is.
With this rate, Harrison Barnes looks to be the most overrated high school player ever, rivaling Felipe Lopez, Sebastian Telfair and OJ Mayo. He will be a very good player given enough time, but he's no where near the Kobe, LBJ, Melo and Durant type of hype he received. With that said, I really hope he does well. He looks like a good and level-headed kid. It sucks to be anointed to be the next one, have all the pressure to perform and not live up to the expectation. He needs to figure it out.
too bad they rarely produce STAR prospects i mean, mcroberts? dunleavy? duhon? battier? only grant hill was meaningful, and even freakin' laetner may have been the better college player. singler is going to be mediocre in the pros too duke's system overrates players
Exactly. The only ones with star potential are either busts or suffer some career altering injury. You can't deny that there is a curse. No other school has a list of busts that long.