Why the "or"? Is playing undeveloped players cool with you? And why is it on K? Why is it so hard to accept that not everyone plays and not everyone is as capable as everyone else?
Marshall was a McDAA, 7 feet tall, and a 5th year senior before he averaged over 10 minutes per game. It wasn't that he always could have performed the way he did as a senior; he played b/c he had improved and b/c there was no one else ahead of him. Statistically, he improved in nearly every measurable category each year. He didn't "finally get PT," as if it was some arbitrary decision by K; he finally earned that PT.
Really? under developed? I can't tell if you haven't realized that both game time and practice time both help guys improve. Nobody is asking for 20-30 mpg but guys need minutes in games to help stay motivated, focused and in the program. We've got high 4 star and high 3 star guys on the bench doing nothing for the past couple of years. Let's not pretend like these guys don't have anything to contribute at all.
Marshall is one of the only guys we may ever see at duke that is willing to stay 5 years and really only play in one year.
Dukephysics I'm glad you posted about facts. Let's go over about how those "facts" are wrong. Marshall never averaged more than ten minutes a game before his red shirt senior year. he averaged 8.4 and 9.6 mpg. Close enough but still false. Here's the kicker... Marshal's stats didn't improve much when given more playing time... He stayed around the same numbers when you adjust it
Soph year 8.4 mpg 1.3 ppg 2.2rbds
Junior year 9.6 mpg 2.2 ppg 2.4 rbds
Senior year 30.5 mpg 8.3 ppg 8.6 rbds
so let's go ahead and adjust his minutes per year and round both his soph and junior years minutes up to 10 so it's easier to look at
With 30 mpg both his soph and junior years he'd average
Soph 3.9 ppg 6.6 rbds
Junior 6.8 ppg 7.2 rbds
So you're saying he improved so much that he "earned" his playing time? really? from his junior to his senior year he improved to score 2 more ppg and about 2 extra rebounds per game. Stastically he was about the same player those 3 years. You could tell though that he gained something that players at duke don't seem to gain in practice which was confidence. He was given a chance to play and he became a solid player when given an actual chance to contribute. The numbers don't reflect that there was some kind of huge difference of improvement from his soph to junior to senior comparison.
Now let's look at marshall's "mcdonalds all american" status. Let's be honest... him being a MCDAA was an absolute joke. Marshall definitely got the "Duke bump" that year and was always viewed as a huge project player. Dude was ranked 79 in the top 100 for rivals. That's not a true burger boy type player. Marshall averaged like 11 ppg and 11 rbds as a senior in high school as well (as a 7 footer). Those are ok stats but a burger boy is supposed to be an elite guy. I liked what marshall gave us his last year he's a great guy but he didn't deserve to be a MCDAA by far.
One more point to make have you looked at our bench this year? we have two upper classmen. Vrank, who can basically be looked at as an underclassman since he doesn't play, and allen. We may turn over a large part of our roster every season but we have no leadership/experience because we keep having a large amount of transfers and the ones that stay never play. Sorry but it's a problem that does need to be looked into.
