No Soup For K!

07-08 Basketball General NCS Basketball71

Yes, we’re a few days late commenting on this…but it’s the “slow season.” Anyway, SFN knew more than a few Duke fans who were almost excited to have ultra-soft Josh McRoberts bolt for the NBA. “Trade McRoberts for Patrick Patterson – I’ll take that any day” was the hopeful rallying cry.

Well, Mr. Patterson will join Billy Gillispie at Kentucky instead – an early sign that the reclusive Texan is indeed ready for primetime and national recruiting wars. Side note – remember SFN has a history of noting the accomplishments and potential of Gillispie.

Just as notable – Duke is back to recruiting rather than “selecting,” it seems. It’s not like the Devils are hurting for talent – by our count, they will have 6 or 7 McDonald’s All-Americans on next year’s roster. But really – does their 2007-08 roster scare you? For the second straight year, Duke looks light years behind UNC, with the potential to be in the middle of the pack in conference play. Before ABD fans get too excited, the middle of the ACC looks much weaker than in past years. Duke may very well use their overall talent to rack up 10, 11, or even 12 ACC wins – if conference foes aren’t able to exploit Duke’s numerous weaknesses:

– Poor rebounding (here is where Duke will miss McBob the most)

– Possibly poor interior defense (Duke has always played good defense, but who can reasonably be expected to fill this void?)

– Lack of a “go to guy” late in close games (this killed Duke in conference play and in March last year)

– No low-post scoring threat (Zubek? That’s a good one!)

– Extremely vulnerable to fast PGs (thanks to VCU for providing the blueprint for 2007-08 foes)

Now tell us, does that sound like a team that’s built for March? We certainly don’t think so. Yes, Duke has lots of shooters and will be very tough to beat when hot from the perimeter. State fans have played that game before, without any ACC titles or Final Fours to show for it.

We still caution against overly aggressive expectations for next season (2008-09 is another story), but SFN thinks it’s safe to say that the only roster demonstrably better than the Wolfpack’s is Roy’s bunch in Chapel Hill (probably pre-season #1). And we know that Sid’s boys won’t back down from that fight, either – and can hold their own. This is a hell of alot of fun, isn’t it?

Sidebar – we hope our sensitive brethren at Duke Basketball Report take the “Soup Nazi” reference well, and don’t fly into another hysterical snit.

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07-08 Basketball General NCS Basketball

71 Responses to No Soup For K!

  1. Lunatic Fringe 05/20/2007 at 9:17 AM #

    Recruting….bah…

    Who has time for recruiting when you are spending a couple months traveling during the summer with the USA Basketball team, once a week on a XM-radio show, and finishing up yet another American Express commercial that will make watching March Maddess almost unbearable.

    I know I would be a bit concerned with my coach if he was “multi-tasking” this much especially given the recent drop-off of the team.

  2. burnbarn 05/20/2007 at 9:42 AM #

    Stevens at the N and O mentions Patterson not fitting in at Dook…

    http://www.newsobserver.com/826/story/575851.html

    Trying not to get too excited about next season.

  3. vtpackfan 05/20/2007 at 10:04 AM #

    Still a real solid recruiting class with three fresh burger boys. I expect guys like Henderson and Scheyer to improve their game some, just as I expect our fellas (McAuley, Fells, Costner) to take it up a notch. I think your right about your assesment that it will take perimeter shooting coupeled with their pressure D to make any real noise come tourney time.

    Honestly I never understood all the gripe over Mc Bob. He was expected to replace Sheldon Williams AND JJ Redick last season, as it was obvious that Nelson and Paulus developed 0% from one year to the next.

    The best thing for Dook would be for officials to call the hand checking on Paulus, have him in early foul trouble and finally realize that they are a better team with him sitting down. He’s slow and plays like he got one too many concussions as a prep All American QB.

  4. westwolf 05/20/2007 at 11:15 AM #

    ^If the officials ever start calling hand checks on Duke, coach K will have to retire.

  5. choppack1 05/20/2007 at 11:40 AM #

    Currently, Coach K is undergoing some type of transition. Either he’s not recruiting or not bagging the ultra-athletic types who helped him reach Final 4 after final 4.

    Whatever way you look at it, there haven’t been a lot of Elton Brand’s lately…Good big men who are solid/above average academically. Or at least, Coach K hasn’t signed these guys. In addition, most of the great PGs – haven’t been the Duke proto type either. Duke still has it’s share of prep-school burger boys – but they are missing the dominant forces that made them nearly unbeatable. No Danny Ferry’s, Laettner’s, Grant Hills, Jayson Williams, Elton Brand, or Boozer’s.

    Duke does get some more speed and athleticism in the backcourt – but they should be very vulnerable on the boards and the interior. I also don’t think they have enough overall team speed to outquick teams either.

    It would be foolish to count them out, but things probably haven’t looked gloomier for Coach K for an upcoming season since he had to take a year off. They are just a player or two away from being a Top 5 team – but you can say that about a lot of teams. Of course, most teams loaded w/ burger boys aren’t a player or two away either.

    As for us – we’ve got to play a little waiting game. I think Smith and Javi are both still in a pending status academically. If both of these guys make it and we make it thru the offseason w/out any further issues – it’s time to get excited about pack b’ball.

  6. McPete 05/20/2007 at 11:44 AM #

    This one was Dawkins’ fault all the way. K does the commercials, Collins bribes the officials, Dawkins runs the program, and Wojo handles dry cleaning and floor-slapping when he’s excited.

  7. vtpackfan 05/20/2007 at 12:06 PM #

    That was a bit harsh on my part regarding the type of player Paulus is/can be. A better, less childish way of expressing my point is to ask this question. At what point does K look to change directions in terms of the PG position, and to what extent? Maybe he’ll just let Paulus go it solo, or maybe he’ll keep adding “help” around him (Singler, Smith, King can all handle it ok). Point above was well put that there really aren’t alot of the types of PG’s out there that Duke was so used to having year after year.

    I still think they’ll put together some nice stretchs of BBall, enough to get by in a slightly weakened ACC. Which I don’t mind a bit, since our two titles 74, and 83 came at times when there were some very formidible trees in the forrest casting some big shadows on the rest of the conference. We came out from under the canopy and the result was that we got to cut down some nets. Those Terp squads in the 70’s, Cav’s and Hole’s teams in the 80’s didn’t shrink in stature. We just topped em’, and if we want to really return to the glory days then we need K and Deputy Dog to be at their best.

  8. BJD95 05/20/2007 at 1:44 PM #

    Who is going to be Duke’s “game changer”? I think they hoped it would be Nelson, but as someone else said, he hasn’t developed for squat. From what I’ve seen in the all-star games, none of their frosh is cut out to be that, either. Scheyer? Maybe, but he can get worn down physically.

    A solid team, sure. But not scary? Not one bit.

  9. vtpackfan 05/20/2007 at 3:18 PM #

    “but SFN thinks it’s safe to say that the only roster demonstrably better than the Wolfpack’s is Roy’s bunch in Chapel Hill (probably pre-season #1).”

    Pretty easy to say that Hewitt’s bunch really ought to contender. If they could even come close to sniffing .500 on the road in ACC then they’ll be fighting for one of the top spots.

  10. CaptainCraptacular 05/20/2007 at 4:21 PM #

    Look for Pocius to have a big impact this year. Every time he got a few minutes for Duke last year (that I saw), he gave them a spark.

  11. wufpack 05/20/2007 at 4:37 PM #

    GT’s chances hinge on the futures of Crittendon, Young, and Clinch. Unless something official has already happened with those guys and I didn’t hear about it. If 2 of those guys come back (Crittendon and Young withdrawing from the draft, and Clinch from his academic suspension), GT’s talent will be almost up there with UNC’s. If none of those 3 come back, well, let’s just say that Hewitt hasn’t impressed me enough with his coaching skills to believe that they’ll do much better than squeaking into the NCAA’s. When’s the deadline to withdraw from the draft?

  12. westwolf 05/20/2007 at 7:59 PM #

    I think that K is becoming increasingly focused on his legacy, and with that in mind, he doesn’t want to risk signing more players like Magette, Brand, etc. that are “1 and done”, or have questionable academics.

    Is it any coincidence that he is loaded with McD’s AA’s, but they ALL seem to come from wealthy families, and/or are very straight arrow types? He keeps hoping to find a combination like he had with Hurley, Laetner, Grant, etc. and that just may have a been a once in a lifetime thing. We’ll see.

    Unc may have the best approach…keep signing the thugs they need to win, but simply have their stooges in the media ignore the fact or spin it someway to look better than it really is.

  13. Pack92 05/20/2007 at 10:04 PM #

    ^Westwolf, could not have said it better about unx. Control the media and you control what some perceive as reality. The ones dumb enough to believe the “media” in the first place.

  14. RickJ 05/21/2007 at 7:30 AM #

    ^Who is going to be Duke’s “game changer”?

    Maybe Kyle Singler. In every Top 10 list I’ve seen but it was a quote from Steve Smith, coach at Oak Hill Academy that stood out to me. Smith said Singler was as good as any high school player he had seen in the last 5 years. This is from the guy that coached Kevin Durant. Hopefully he saw him on the best day of his life.

    “When’s the deadline to withdraw from the draft?”

    June 18th, a very big day for Ga. Tech. By then some of the qualification issues should be resolved and the look of the league should become clearer.

    Kentucky & UCLA are two old school powers that I think have the right coaches in place. UCLA has been to two straight Final Fours and has again become the dominate West Coast team in performance & recruiting. Kentucky now has an energetic recruiter that will fight for the very top players. I think he will land his share.

  15. Rick 05/21/2007 at 7:36 AM #

    “but SFN thinks it’s safe to say that the only roster demonstrably better than the Wolfpack’s is Roy’s bunch in Chapel Hill (probably pre-season #1). ”

    What really makes this interesting is we improved so much from a player persepctive and they went the other way. We have the potential to have a great year.

    As for K, I keep thinking back to Jimmy V when he let himself be sidelined by everything but coaching NCSU basketball and what problems it caused. K has lost focus on Duke basketball.

  16. noah 05/21/2007 at 8:45 AM #

    Rick, I agree. K’s schedule sounds an awful lot like the kind of workload Valvano was taking on during his final years.

    Also…*pedant alert*…Brand played two years at Dook.

  17. CedarGroveWolf 05/21/2007 at 10:22 AM #

    Duke will be a top team as long as K is there. They get the kids they want most of the time.

    Players usually make their biggest improvement jump between their frosh & soph seasons. If Ben, Brandon & Fells improve this off season even a little, this year should be nice.

  18. Trout 05/21/2007 at 10:35 AM #

    “GT’s chances hinge on the futures of Crittendon, Young, and Clinch. Unless something official has already happened with those guys and I didn’t hear about it. If 2 of those guys come back (Crittendon and Young withdrawing from the draft, and Clinch from his academic suspension),”

    Know nothing about Cinch, but according to Dave Glenn, he expects Crittendon to remain in the NBA draft and for Young to return to GT.

  19. BJD95 05/21/2007 at 10:56 AM #

    ^ If that holds true, I don’t see how GT’s roster is better than – or even as good as – NC State’s.

    Duke wasn’t a “top team” last year, and I don’t see it this year, either.

  20. JimValvano 05/21/2007 at 12:15 PM #

    Just so everyone knows…Javi has sent in his letter of intent:

    http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/commitlist.asp

    Now all we need is to get Tracy Smith’s.

  21. noah 05/21/2007 at 12:57 PM #

    Smith needs to get a qualifying SAT score.

  22. noah 05/21/2007 at 12:57 PM #

    (I’m working on my statements of the obvious….how is it coming?)

  23. packbackr04 05/21/2007 at 1:15 PM #

    very nice Noah… didnt smith sign his LOI as well, but as you aptly put it… he has some academic issues.

  24. packbackr04 05/21/2007 at 1:17 PM #

    i would personally like to get Smith, but will not cry if he doesnt qualify. it gives us another scholly for 08-09… who is Jarret Mann? Miles Plumlee? i heard Sid is interested in both of these juniors for his 08 class. anyone know anything about these guys?

  25. PapaJohn 05/21/2007 at 1:37 PM #

    I’m thinking that if Smith is ‘academically iffy’ that we don’t want him. We’ve got both talent and depth in the ‘bigs’, so let him go. We don’t want to be mentioned in the news when the inevitable stories return about diploma mills. Plus, that leaves Sid a scholarship to work with.

    Sorry to hear that Javi has issues with qualifying. Everything I’ve read about him looks very promising. I don’t know much about Degand, but according to the media Javi’s a winner.

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