It was said before our season started that Brake might not see much playing time this year. He has surpassed everyone's expectations. Man, he has surprised everyone!! He is becoming a very important piece of our team!!!
OFC
Baldwin Jr. "75% sure"
- Thread starter bullettoothtony
- Start date
OFC
Just look at the Fr... the prize was Johnson, but the starting Fr are Roach, Steward, and now Williams with Brakefield having a solid impact. Not bad when again the prize was Johnson.
Can’t imagine to how good this team will be if they all return but Johnson & Hurt (Tape’ too) and adding the incoming
Can’t imagine to how good this team will be if they all return but Johnson & Hurt (Tape’ too) and adding the incoming
LOVED THIS. Love Brake too. Been calling for him since before the season.
I posted earlier that he seemed to be trending towards being buried on the bench a few weeks ago, and we all know where that can lead. So glad he's back in the rotation, and he's become one of our best guys. I don't think you can keep him out of the starting line up next year.
He was the freshman this season that I attached to right out the gate!
brakefield was definitely the most ready from the get go. He was not backing down from anyone.
Remember he is also a year older than most Fr... much like Cassius was last season
uh oh
I'm pretty sure Brakefield will be back but if he continues this hot streak he's gonna show up on some 2nd round mock drafts. He reminds me of Battier a bit. (for perspective freshman Battier was very different from senior Battier)
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That argument makes zero sense. It is all unsubstantiated speculation and flies in the face of facts. “Recruit differently for years?” Lol.
Even if Williams did go pro after his sophomore year that would mean he was playing a lot at center and not getting recruited over top as has happened so many times. The fact is you’re ignoring the facts of how Duke has recruited over players and lost their development.
Its absurd to say that Duke has to do what you say it would have to do.
* Duke has gotten transfers many times. They have a transfer sitting on a bench, lol!
* Duke is perfectly capable of recruiting players between the 30s and 70s in ranking and letting those guys develop. They’ve had tons of them. 39 Recruits below the top 15 the last 15 years.The problem has been they’ve never developed them because they’ve recruited over them and either the player didn’t develop or they transferred because of zero playing time.
* plenty of players on unknown teams have been drafted well ahead of highly touted Duke players who never made it in the NBA or were just marginal players.
* The players that do leave early for the draft from Duke are players that were highly touted out of high school not guys who are rated 40th and developed over two or three years.
It’s absurd to argue Duke has to change its recruiting for years. One player ranked below 20th in recruiting in the past 15 years for Duke went pro after year one. Many in the 10-20 range have stayed more than one year.
In the past 15 years Duke has recruited 39 players outside the top 15 in the nation. Some of those in the top fifteen have stayed longer like Plumlee, Singler , Hurt, Tre Jones, etc. many of those never had a chance to develop, or transferred to another college because they didn’t get any PT.
It’s a simple proposition: recruit one or at most 2 OAD players. Once they have signed on make sure you have a group of players in the 20s-30s-40s-50s - which Duke can already get and does; and if K gives them PT as they progress they won’t transfer. And you’ll keep several of them for two or three or maybe four years. Nothing needs to change. Once they land a couple top 10 recruits as they have this year already, stop recruiting the top 10 players.
A stunning development for a freshman who is not a top 20 recruit on a coach K coached team. But a lot of that is probably a result of Covid as well. Though Brakefield is a pretty good player. But he is the exact kind of player that Duke needs to recruit more and stay around for a year or two. As I noted in another post, only one player in the past 15 years who is ranked below 25th in the country and went to Duke left after year one. Stanley. That’s not the norm but the exception.
And that lone exception was more about Stanley’s age than anything.
Okay this is probably a mistake - or definitely one - but man did usa b need to check work before publishing
It appears to be a mistake.
Or does it explain Brakefield leaving?
I'd rather have 2-3 more years of Brake than one year of Baldwin. But I'd rather have one year of Baldwin than one more year of Brake. Realize I'm speculating here.
Or does it explain Brakefield leaving?
I'd rather have 2-3 more years of Brake than one year of Baldwin. But I'd rather have one year of Baldwin than one more year of Brake. Realize I'm speculating here.
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What I found weird was that Baldwin was a teammate of both Brakefield and Johnson.
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