According to the Hoops Report, Duke sophomore forward Olek Czyz has decided to transfer. The 6-foot-7, 235-pound forward was a highly touted recruit from the class of 2008 who chose Duke over Florida and Louisville. He was ranked by Rivals as the 29th best power forward and 112th best player overall in the class of 2008.

http://thehoopsreport.com/article.aspx?id=394

I can't blame the guy. He, like most player, wants to play and that is not happening for him at Duke. It will be interesting to see where he ends up. The Duke fans liked him when he signed, I hope he goes to a program that is on TV , so I can see what kind of game he has.

Just read this a few minutes ago, I don't blame him one bit, he hardly played after Nolan came back. Good luck to him

dont let the door hit ya on the way out. dont get in trouble with all that time on your hands. lol

Duke bothers with the 112th best player? He should have known better than to sign with Duke.

This is just further indication that K did little of his own recruiting for the past three years.

This is the 5th? transfer in the last 4 years. No coincidence these teams have done less in the NCAA tournament than in years past.

Good luck to OC, he was a crowd favorite.

This is just further indication that K did little of his own recruiting for the past three years.

How so???

When you go on Rivals or Scout and look at recruiting pages, and see lists of recruits and who they are recruited by.

Since 2005

Johnny Dawkins- Gerald Henderson, Lance Thomas, Nolan Smith, Elliot Williams

Steve Wojo- Eric Boateng, Jamal Boykin, Taylor King, Olek Czyz, Brian Zoubek

Chris Collins- Jon Scheyer, Mason Plumlee, Miles Plumlee,

Look at the guys who have transferred (Boateng, Boykin, King, Czyz, and Williams) all but E.Williams were Wojo recruits.

As one would suspect, Coach K has returned to doing his own recruiting over the last two years.
He is responsible for Ryan Kelly, Andre Dawkins, Thornton, Hariston, and Irving. If a few of those guys transfer, then we will talk.

Are you saying that coach k had nothing to do with the recruitment of the players that signed at duke in 2005,2006,2007 and 2008???

nope, just that he wasn't the one scouting them for weeks on end before they arrived

trust had to be given to Wojo, Collins, Dawkins to determine whether they had the skills set necessary to be a success. Obviously in the case of Wojo his ability to evaluate talent is not where it needs to be.

Olek Czyz

That's great hangman game answer!

trust had to be given to Wojo, Collins, Dawkins to determine whether they had the skills set necessary to be a success. Obviously in the case of Wojo his ability to evaluate talent is not where it needs to be.

Please. Coach k knew exactly what he was getting. It is shared blame. Nobody gets a pass when players fail to develop.

All your list shows is that the top recruiters go after the top recruits. That is the way it works.

Prescott wrote:

trust had to be given to Wojo, Collins, Dawkins to determine whether they had the skills set necessary to be a success. Obviously in the case of Wojo his ability to evaluate talent is not where it needs to be.

Please. Coach k knew exactly what he was getting. It is shared blame. Nobody gets a pass when players fail to develop.

All your list shows is that the top recruiters go after the top recruits. That is the way it works.

I am not absolving Coach K of blame, never made that statement. Simply saying that over the past three years he has not been scouting recruits as he has been in years passed. This has required him to trust his assistants ability to evaluate, and in the case of Wojo, it is not worthy.

It is irregardless as it seems you stare blindly into the face of facts, ignore them, and then assert your own assumptions.

I kind of agree with prescott here. Just because K isn't the guy actively scouting certain players, that doesn't mean he's not responsible for overall recruiting. If Wojo can't evaluate talent, I don't know what he's doing there. Also, if USA basketball forces K to not watch the guys he's offering scholarships to, then he needs to get away from it. I'm all for USA basketball having success, and I appreciate the fact that K has devoted time to that, but he also has responsibilities at Duke. He can't just lay all the blame for players transferring/not developing on his assistants, and then take credit for the ones who are successful.

Coach K isn't accepting any accolades for the recruiting, and he isn't laying blame on anyone. It is a non issue to the program.
No one is blaming, I simply pointed out that the players who have transferred are virtually all Wojo recruits, and it is something that as of late has caught the attention of those in the triangle media. Since the departure of Dawkins there were concerns regarding the program's ability to recruit top talent.

When a coach takes a leave and gives lots of responsibility to his assistants, certain concessions must be made. The concessions made in 2006-2008 have had an adverse affect on the program and coupled with the loss of Johnny Dawkins, there was a noticeable loss in recruiting power.

As for why Wojo is there, we all know the reason why that is, the only question is what Duke is really getting out of it.

Of course Coach K has to approve the signing. I would compare this to going in on an investment with your brother. If you trust your brother's judgment, know he has done the research, you sign it and hope it works. You didn't do the majority of the leg work because you weren't there to see it from the start, but you sign because you trust their judgment.

in the case of Wojo and his ability to evaluate talent, it seems the trust is a bit misplaced.

I guess I probably worded part of my post poorly. I didn't mean to imply that K, himself, is actually laying blame on Wojo. The media and many Duke fans (not saying you do, swami) tend to give K a pass on Duke's recruiting issues. There's a sentiment that he's dealing with USA basketball, so the assistants have to pick up the slack, which is very true. However, at the same time, it's K's responsibility to make the final call on these things. I'm sure he still watches these guys play in person and on film quite a bit, even though it may not be as much as he would like. I know he puts trust in his assistants to give a reliable evaluation, but it's his call too. They ARE his players. I think that's essentially what we're all saying, maybe just saying it in a different way.

yeah, and I stated earlier that the affect of his having to delegate more recruiting responsibilities to assistants (specifically the unproven Wojo) has resulted in an abnormal amount of transfers.

It was then that Prescott jumped on and made allusions about K being blameless for the transfers.

Fair enough. I guess I misunderstood the original intent of your comments about scouting by the assistants.

It is irregardless as it seems you stare blindly into the face of facts, ignore them, and then assert your own assumptions.

The fact is that the top recruiter recruits the top players. Obviously, Wojo was lower in the pecking than Dawkins, which is why Dawkins was the main recruiter for the Burger Boys and Wojo wasn't.

This really wasn't a surprise to me. Olek Czyz was never "highly touted," so I'm not sure if the author of the article is on cocaine or what.

He was an extremely gifted athlete with an extremely unrefined basketball game. At Duke and in the ACC, that's not good enough. You must also be able to adapt to the fundamentals of the game and be able to execute them to see the floor. Olek was still a long ways a way from becoming anything more than just a "leaper." He was a damn good leaper, and could probably dunk with anyone in the entire country (he was by far the best on Duke's roster), but that's not enough.

I like the kid, though. He seemed like a hard worker and I wish him well.

another recruiting miss for the dookies...seriously not trying to flame, but can anyone name a top 25 program that has recently experienced this much recent turnover (past 5 years or so) with players transferring out of the program?