The Burgess example was very delicate. Was he ready? Coach K doghouse? All the above?
Transfer portal thread
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Folks, Duke did want a center who could rebound and defend but not require a lot of touches on offense. That's a narrow window. But this wasn't a media creation. And academics were a factor.
Connor and I were at Duke Tuesday for a Chris Pollard presser. Pollard was asked about roster construction. He answered that Duke baseball would rely on grad student transfers because it was so difficult to get undergraduate credits transferred to Duke. I strongly suspect that down the road Duke hoops also will rely on the grad-student route rather than the under-grad portal.
Connor and I were at Duke Tuesday for a Chris Pollard presser. Pollard was asked about roster construction. He answered that Duke baseball would rely on grad student transfers because it was so difficult to get undergraduate credits transferred to Duke. I strongly suspect that down the road Duke hoops also will rely on the grad-student route rather than the under-grad portal.
It's weird because he had around 18 rebounds in the Cinn. loss. But then he would disappear. I've rewatched some games from that season and down the stretch he wasn't getting a lot of minutes. You could see it in spurts, but he never seemed to put it all together. On paper he seemed to have it all, including a big frame. But he appeared to be pressing when he got in the game, and never seemed comfortable with his role. My impression was that he lost confidence. If memory serves he transferred to Utah and put up solid if unspectacular numbers. I remember his father not being happy about his role at Duke. Shame because we really needed him against UConn's big center. He played a bit in that game, but I refuse to watch that again lol.
Regarding our 5 discussion I don't want to be right; I want us to cut the nets down, as it's rare to get 4 starters back. Even 5 if you count Young who started a bunch of games.
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Ryan Young is a valuable piece who would start for a lot of power conference teams. The problem is his fit next to Flip is not a good one. Flip impressed me last year with his defensive intensity and his 1.3 steals per game were solid, feel like a lot of them came in big moments too. Flip has the talent to just “get by” on defense, but he plays hard. However, Flips weakness is lateral movement and staying in front of him man, he also doesn’t protect the rim as he had 26 total blocks on the season.
Ryan Young has the same weaknesses as Flip except to a much higher degree. He also clogs up the lane and going back and watching game film, it led to a lot of the Flip “put his head down and run everyone over for a charge” plays.
What Reeves projects out to be, is a perfect compliment to Flip. A la Lively. The million dollar question is will Reeves get there. I also think we will see the Stewart/Flip 4/5 combo a lot when the opposition doesn’t have a big bruising center. Stewart can protect the rim, so should compliment Flip nicely on defense.
Ryan Young has the same weaknesses as Flip except to a much higher degree. He also clogs up the lane and going back and watching game film, it led to a lot of the Flip “put his head down and run everyone over for a charge” plays.
What Reeves projects out to be, is a perfect compliment to Flip. A la Lively. The million dollar question is will Reeves get there. I also think we will see the Stewart/Flip 4/5 combo a lot when the opposition doesn’t have a big bruising center. Stewart can protect the rim, so should compliment Flip nicely on defense.
It's a bit of a quandary because Young may be way ahead of Stewart and Reeves at the beginning of the season. If Stewart or Reeves surpass Young that is good, but I'm not sure I'd bet on that. Maybe Stewart. I'd like to see Reeves in there for 10 minutes a game just to mix it up. Lively had so much upside that he was able to make a huge leap throughout the season; but that doesn't always happen.
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I’m really wondering if some of you have seen Stewart play? Rim protector? Wow. Now is he tough? Absolutely, but rim protector and shot blocker? 😳
He averaged 4.6 blocks per game in High School. Per Maxpreps, that was 35th in the nation. Oh, and he did it coming off the bench. He had 4 blocks in the McDonald’s all American game, all well above the rim.
Is he Lively? No. Will he lead our team in blocks and shots altered if he gets enough minutes? For sure.
Have you seen him play? Apparently not. Put him at the 5, watch him get beat up and in foul trouble. Big difference being the anchor a la lively and blocking shots (and dealing with the PnR) versus being the 4 and getting weak side blocks like Stewart.
Ps which team did he “come off the bench” for his sr year?
Meh - AJ had a terrible jump shot and Sean can step out and hit 3’s.
Amile was an awesome defender, but he also had long arms and could defend well without fouling.
Well..my original comment stated to play him at the 4/5 combo with Flip. Flip guards the big and Stewart cleans up the weak side with blocks and shots altered. I think eventually that will be our crunch time lineup. Or the 3 guards with Mitchell 4 Flip 5.
Flip at the 5……bad news for any extended stretch. That’s my point. Guess we are talking two different things. All good!
Stewart is a 4 and will play there when Flip plays the 5. And Young/Reeves will play the 5 when Flip goes back to the 4.
Bolden would be the perfect guy for this year's team. That is what we need. Bolden when he played well anyways. If Reeves can give us that great.
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Let's start a go fund me account to get Lively out of the draft and back for this year! Problem solved. Haha
It will be interesting to watch. We've had big guys like Lively and Williams make huge improvements, but we also have had Boldens, DeLauriers, Jeters, etc. who never seemed to put it all together. I remember hoping Bolden would have a Zoubek like senior year but then he went pro.
I'm curious about these Stewart/Jefferson comps people keep making. There's a big difference between the 185-pound freshman Jefferson, with an offensive game that could charitably be called "unrefined" and the 235-pound fifth-year Jefferson who had a pretty darn good low-post game, good enough to average 10.9 ppg for a loaded team that had nine future NBA players on its roster.
A 2013 Amile Jefferson analog would help this team. A 2017 Amile Jefferson analog would make this team even more of a powerhouse then it is now.
And, yes, athletic, 6-8, 230-pounders play center in college ball all the time Justyn Mutts at VT for one recent example. Matchups will be big but I can absolutely see Stewart playing some quality 5 for Duke next season.
A 2013 Amile Jefferson analog would help this team. A 2017 Amile Jefferson analog would make this team even more of a powerhouse then it is now.
And, yes, athletic, 6-8, 230-pounders play center in college ball all the time Justyn Mutts at VT for one recent example. Matchups will be big but I can absolutely see Stewart playing some quality 5 for Duke next season.
And there’s a reason why VT isn’t a tourney threat. I’m not hating on Stewart - he will be a solid player at Duke, but if we’re expecting more than a few minutes at the 5 each game (aside from a matchup of small ball), Dukes not going very far at the end of the year.
Well, more of the reason VT isn’t a tourney threat has more to do with not having a roster full of McDonalds All Americans, not that Mutts plays the 5.
Jon has options this season. He can go big, and go small. And be successful at both. Or at least on paper anyway.
Jon has options this season. He can go big, and go small. And be successful at both. Or at least on paper anyway.
My Stewart/Jefferson comparison was just that Stewart reminded me of upperclassman Jefferson; a small ball PF/C who could do a lot of dirty work and score around the basket. I wasn't suggesting he would put up senior year Jefferson numbers, at least not this year. Power is an intriguing guy who could give us some wing scoring if he is ready to contribute as a freshman. It's hard to tell how much the freshman class will contribute; but if they are all ready to go that really raises our ceiling.
Chill all. I am sure the guy who led the team without a true pg to a championship will be fine with a whole summer with the team and coaching staff with the GOAT in his cell phone contacts...
And I get the whole Tennessee thing, but get we need to get over it. We had more than enough to win a 'ship in 2004 until the refs stepped in a made a mockery. There is literally nothing we can do if the refs let some eastern european thug up the game with no repricussions. Add to that Jon could do next to nothing with a late game scratch. We may not have a rim protector. But my god, our defense was a hell of a lot more than lively plugging up the lane. We need a solid putback/dunker, can alter a few shots, and grab 10 rebounds a game from that position over multiple people. If we need more production than that, we are in trouble anyway. We have so much offensive power, we can just run big men the hell out of the gym. And Proctor and Roach did a hell of a job this year just denying the ball getting into the post. And I am pretty sure a school most people never heard of just made a mockery of what was considered the best big in the country.
I would rather roll with what we have then get a possible primadonna in here and disrupt chemistry...
And I get the whole Tennessee thing, but get we need to get over it. We had more than enough to win a 'ship in 2004 until the refs stepped in a made a mockery. There is literally nothing we can do if the refs let some eastern european thug up the game with no repricussions. Add to that Jon could do next to nothing with a late game scratch. We may not have a rim protector. But my god, our defense was a hell of a lot more than lively plugging up the lane. We need a solid putback/dunker, can alter a few shots, and grab 10 rebounds a game from that position over multiple people. If we need more production than that, we are in trouble anyway. We have so much offensive power, we can just run big men the hell out of the gym. And Proctor and Roach did a hell of a job this year just denying the ball getting into the post. And I am pretty sure a school most people never heard of just made a mockery of what was considered the best big in the country.
I would rather roll with what we have then get a possible primadonna in here and disrupt chemistry...
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Teams like Tennessee are always going to be out there. We can whine about the refs or we can hit the weights and do something about it. Arkansas and Texas Tech tried to bully us but we had guys like Theo and Mark and Banchero. Being a year older will really help as we will know what to expect.
There is letting teams play and there are embarrassments of officiated games. That was a pretty putrid display of officiating. That was other-worldly pathetic. There is not a lot any team can do. But all I know is, Barnes better be ready for some blowback. The Vols are on notice for dirtying it up...
And I agree with the sentiment. Weight room is a definate. Jon needs to go off on the first time someone cheap shots Flip....
Among elite teams, are we one of the most experienced?
I still think the game with Tennessee was one of those where anyone that’s been a Duke fan for years wished K had been the coach for that game. I don’t think he would have allowed it to be that way.
Or he would have been T’d up at least once.
Roach has perhaps the most experience of anyone. We have a great shot at a title.
44, you're correct. He certainly did start at times and played 5th most minutes on the team so even when he didn't start, he played starter minutes. It just happens he plays a position similar to Cooper Flagg who is considered the top HS prospect regardless of class. He or Boozer.
Mutts is one example. Anyone who follows college basketball can come up with numerous examples of successful centers with a comparable physical profile to Stewart's. Miami's starting center last season was 6-7 and they seemed to find a way to make it work.
No one is suggesting that Stewart is going to step into the starting lineup and play 30 mpg. But ir the roster is indeed finalized for next season Stewart definitely should fit into the mix with Young, Reeves and Filipowski at the center spot.
Miami is the rare exception. Even then, when it mattered most, they couldn’t shoot their way out of a physical NCAA tourney game.
The relevance of Miami's shooting woes to the subject at hand eludes me.
Miami was hardly a "rare exception." I'm not sure how many examples I need to supply but I'll go with one more.
Baylor went 28-2 and won the 2021 NCAA title. They did start a 6-10 player but he only played 16 minutes in the title game. The five players who played the most minutes were 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 and 6-3.
Miami was an effective shooting % team, through quality jump shooting and driving. I don’t see Duke going that route with Proctor and Roach. And those players that played the most minutes for Baylor spent a ton of time around, you guessed it, the two biggest guys, Thamba and Mayer. Hell, even Tchatchoua had big minutes in the Elite 8. Btw Purdue was 24th nationally in rebounding that year. Please don’t selectively use mpg stats to mislead it.
Who mentioned Purdue? And please don't go citing Matt Mayer has a big man and accuse others of misleading anyone. Mayer averaged 3.7 rebounds per game and took 76 3s. Perhaps you were fooled by those eight blocks he had all season.
Maybe we should include T.J. Power as a Duke big for next season.
And Baylor's only true big in 2021, Flo Thumba averaged 15 minutes per game over a 30-game season.
Sean Stewart is 6-8, 230 pounds, strong and a very good jumper. I think he can be part of an effective center rotation, depending on matchups. Duke isn't going to run their offense through him. College hoops is full of comparable examples. We were talking about his ability to help Duke at the 5 as a defender, rebounder and rim protector. Still not sure how Duke's offensive scheme impacts Stewart's defensive abilities.
Disagree? Fine. But please don't keep moving the goalposts.
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Hopefully they'll be able to team up again in the near future. (Stewart and Flagg)
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Moving the goalposts? You’re the one alluding that Baylor ran a 5 guard primary, and I exposed it as incorrect (and yes I cited Matt Mayer as a big as he played PF for them in a 4/5 set up). I do like though how you keep citing one big while they used 3.
Are you really using 3 pt attempts as a justification of playing in the post? You realize Flip shot 124 last year? Guess that means he’s a SF or wing. You just helped destroy your argument, thank you.
Now, again, if Duke relies on a bit of Stewart at the 5, Duke isn’t a title contender. You cited two examples that were promptly exposed as weak. Sean is a good kid, a tough athlete, but a college 5 he is not (especially in a smaller line up). He’ll be outmatched and in foul trouble, quickly. If Duke is that desperate, I bet Mitchell will be playing the 5 before Stewart is.
Duke Title Teams:
1991 Laettner 6’11 235
1992 Laettner 6’11 235
2001 Boozer 6’9 255, Sanders 6’11 230
2010 Zoubek 7’1 280, Plumlee 6’10 240
2015 Okafor 6’11 270, Plumee 7’0 250
Yea, they really depended on small ball like the teams in 09 and 14 who were wildly successful (sarcasm). Now in fairness the 15 team relied on a 6’9 225 Jefferson during a critical stretch against UW in the title game, but a Junior Amile is a different player than a freshman Stewart.
Ps -Baylor was 24th in rebounding but since it refuted your claims, and you’re grasping for straws, you made that obtuse comment like I was actually meaning to reference Purdue.
I’m out - it’s senseless talking through this as, while I enjoy a health debate or discussion, you’re not making a case here. Cheers.
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Duke has all the talent we need it's a matter of putting players in the right positions. This year hopefully we will have 5 players on the floor that can be a threat to score.
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