Why does Duke, who is near the top of the rankings every year in NCAA basketball and has some of the best players in NCAA, never produce quality NBA players? They produced Grant Hill and yes he was a perennial all-star his first several years but now has virtually disappeared due to injury. They also have Elton Brand who is doing great in the league but that's about it. What happened to Jay Williams, Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner, Trajon Langdon, etc, etc, etc? Yeah, some of them still play in the NBA but are they go-to guys? Why do these guy rarely succeed in the NBA?
Forgot Carlos Boozer...and Mike Dunleavy Jr... Maybe they're used to playing more team-oriented ball than just having one "go-to guy"? Honestly have no idea.
The same thing happened with UCLA. They had a couple of superstars: Alcindor/Jabbar and Walton. Then you get Keith Wlkes, Swen Nater and Gail Goodrich. Sidney Wicks. Curtis Rowe. Marques Johnson. Lucious Allen. Two stars, three studs and a bunch of journeymen. Whatever happened to Richard Petruska?! Damn, they won something like 9 out of 10 championships and put relatively few high-iimpact players in the NBA. The college game is more of a team game.
Do you think the top college team could beat the worse NBA team? That would be pretty interesting to watch. J
For the 32094324098324th time... Duke's typical player has changed dramatically. Coach K does not recruit the non-athletic, but fundamentally-solid white kid from the East anymore. His recruiting philosophy is more in line with that NBA scouts look for in players. Guys who are quick, athletic, can shoot off the dribble, etc. JJ Redick is more of a throwback though, he reminds me of Chris Collins a bit. You also forgot add Maggette to that list. The myth of Duke players sucking in the NBA held true 5 years ago. Shane Battier is not horrible himself eitiher. Currently, Duke has Luol Deng, Shavlik Randolph, and Sheldon Williams who all would have a shot at being Top 10 in this year's draft. Moreover, it's just funny that people expect Duke players to be NBA stars. Name me a school that has all these star players. UNC used to.
That is because we wanted to win championships. His teams were only threats for championships with the inclusions of your Grant Hill's, Maggette's, and Battier's, etc. Turth is his earlier "good teams" were pretty athletic too. Johnny Dawkins, Amaker, Bill King (or something like that) were fine athletes, Dawkins had a pretty good NBA career as an athletic combo type of guard. I think Coach K has often fills half his team with primarily rich white stiffs, and still does (look at the Dukie bench), but just not in most of the 7-8 guys he really plans to count on to win games.
I think some of it has to do with the kids he used to recruit and some of it has to do with his coaching. Coach K coached under Bobby Knight and I see a lot of similarity in their styles. Both guys recruit for their system. So it doesn't matter to them about getting the best kids as much as it matters about kids for their system. Coach K always recruits point guards who are college basketball ready when they come in for example. It doesn't matter whether they're athletic are not. He also doesn't focus on improving a kid individually more than he focuses on implementing them into his system I believe. That's not to say that kids don't improve under him, because I think there are plenty of examples of kids who do, but Coach K, I think he relies on his system more for wins than individual kids.
Those are for the most part, walk-ons. The only white guys who play for Duke at least have some semblance of game, in Reddick, Randolph, and I guess Melchionni.
Who in the last 10 years? Crawford and who? Is there a thread asking why Mich players in the last 10 years can't cut the mustard? Jimmy King and Ray Jackson sure did well in the NBA... Tractor Traylor... I'm not really a Duke fan, but I think it's funny how Duke is singled out.
Who since 99... Ed Cota? No. Shammond Williams? Point is that Duke isn't really below any other school, yet people are quick to say that Duke produces stiffs. Can someone tell me a great Michigan State player since Magic? Kevin Willis? Don't tell me Mo Pete. Arizona? They had the biggest rep of having good to great college players turn out to be avg to below avg in the NBA. Point is that people are erroneous to think that being good in the NCAA means success in the NBA.
yeah, can you believe the only dukie to win a ring was danny ferry on the spurs last year? however, looks like boozer and lebron might have something going in the future.
I think that used to be true, until Duke's recruiting class of 97. He let William Avery run and gun as much as he wanted, which definitely continued under Jay Williams, and will under Sean Dockery. Duke has become much more uptempo in the last 5 years than ever before. Part of that has to do, obviously, because Coach K has done a better job of recruiting athletes and having 30983240983 McD's AA on his roster for depth.
I forgot about him, but does that alleviate people from wondering why Mich State players don't do much in the NBA? I think you get my point about people picking on Duke for a "problem" that is evident at every college program.
I get your point, with the success of High School athletes, very few schools if any are going to be a factory for the NBA.
To me, what's ironic is that I feel like Arizona and Duke are the closest things to NBA factories now, despite being known for having busts in the past. Anyone who follows recruiting can recognize the difference between those two schools now and then. The days of a Jed Buechler at Arizona are long gone. Luke Walton might be the last unathletic wing player Lute Olsen will have.
