Here we go again. The Duke Blue Devils are hogging all the nation’s best high school basketball players. They are about to kick everybody’s butt. Again. Is any other university going to get in the way? What happened to all that fight you teach your players in practice every day? Where is the work from the assistant coaches and recruiters on the staff of other so-called Power 5 schools? Don’t make me call you by name. Are you just going to let the “Brotherhood” run away with all the basketball talent again?
I know what’s going to happen. My Clubhouse kinfolk, musical genius, Duke basketball fanatic and Wake Forest apologist 9th Wonder along with basketball savant, historian and serial curse word user Ian Powers, will continue to push the narrative that some universities can’t get impactful players because of stringent academic requirements and other adverse factors that could be considered gate keeping tactics for basketball players of color and/or challenged backgrounds. While the last statement is more than true, I’m still not buying any of the small violins they’re selling. Every college basketball program has its challenges recruiting. Most of it comes down to building and working relationships at the grassroots level, and working with services (like the RUN Sports) to alert coaches to players that could possibly impact winning.
Hey 9th Wonder, the music is loud and there will be beats by the pound next season my boy. I know you proud of the Blue Devils but some of those teams just up the road did an awful job of recruiting this year though. Just flat out embarrassing. Duke continues to “kick in the door, wavin’ the 4-4″ (B.I.G. 1:23).
We all know that Coach K is retiring. That means the recruits of 2022 were garnered by the head coach in waiting Jon Scheyer and his staff of assistant coaches. The Coach K charisma had no bearing on Dereck Lively (C 7-2 c/o 2022), Dariq Whitehead (G/F 6-6 c/o 2022), Kyle “Flip” Filipowski (F/C 6-10 c/o 2022), Jaden Schutt (C c/o 2022), Mark Mitchell (F 6-8 c/o 2022) and Christen Reeves (C 7-1 c/o 2022) choosing Duke. I guess some of us thought that others basketball power houses would fight the good fight and steal a highly touted player in the 2022 class. I guess not.
