Post about Duke here. If you don't like Duke, then you will probably never come back. We appreciate your visit.

We've had a Duke specific thread here before, as Duke is generally pretty polarizing and has been one of the more popular subjects on the Huddle and here in the past, so just wanted to open a forum to speak to that rather than flood the main college basketball thread with things certain people might not want to see or read.

prescott wrote:"To phrase it differently, you have no idea at all."
Let us see what we know.

1. Thomas bought 100k worth of jewelry while a student/ athlete at duke.

2. Thomas paid 30k, but was sued for 67k by the jeweler for non-payment.

3.Thomas satisfied his debt, but with a confidentiality clause.

4. Wonder what he is hiding?

1. While that is what the jeweler claimed in the original suit, we don't actually know the whole story behind everything that happened because we do not know what was reached by the settlement agreement. How do we know that Thomas, while still foolish for purchasing any amount jewelry over a few thousand dollars; $30,000 is just lunacy -- wasn't the victim of some sort of untoward contract manipulation aimed to eventually shake him down (i.e. the jewelry was actually never worth $100,000). That might explain why Thomas refused to ever pay the difference, even after making hundreds of thousands last year alone with the New Orleans Hornets and in a position to certainly do so. The point being really that we do not know what happened.

2. See above.

3. This proves nothing since we don't even know what the settlement was.

4. At the moment, he isn't hiding anything. Terms of confidentiality are customary practice. But perhaps he just wants to keep his private matters private. Whether Thomas was involved in any illicit activity or not, the fact that he was ever even in this predicament is highly embarrassing and I am sure he doesn't want any more attention for it. He has said that he will talk with the NCAA as soon as the settlement is finalized. He's not running from it.

prescott wrote:BTW, why would Maggette get shafted by Piggie? Piggie admitted to dispersing 36k.He admitted giving that money to five players.Why should we believe that Maggette got less than the others? Take Maggette's word? C'mon.

We aren't taking Maggette's word. Piggie claimed he gave Maggette $2,000. And that's all we can go on.

In terms of actual Duke news, the Blue Devils will have their team practice at the Fort Bragg military base on Monday, October 15, televised live from 1 to 2:30 p.m. by ESPN. Jimmy Dykes will commentate.

Pretty cool.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205709031&DB_OEM_ID=4200

Duke had open clinic this am. I know a few coaches who went by this am and said the Duke first five looked like this

Cook
Suilamon
Murphy
Kelly
Plum 2

Seth Curry and Marshall Plumlee were both nursing some lower body injuries.

I think Duke will be a far better team than most realize simply because Quinn Cook will be at the controls. Tyler Thornton is a great defensive player but he is a huge liability offensively. Cook can push the tempo and get Kelly and Plumlee in better positions to score. I looked at times like Duke was running a junior high flex offense at times with Thornton out there because he couldn't penetrate at all.

Have a wedding to go to this Saturday but am going to try to sneak out and go to CTC and the Carolina game at Wade. Fingers crossed the football team gets win #6 and the Crazies put on a show for the new guys.

It sounds as if Marhsall is going to be out for quite some time, according to comments Coach K apparently made at the clinic. While I didn't anticipate Marshall playing a large role in the rotation late in the season, it will definitely be interesting to see how his absence early on will affect the amount of minutes Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly will have to share at the four and five spots.

Enjoy CTC if you get to go, swami. Have always wanted to go, but over the years school and now work just hasn't allowed me to fit it in. Extremely jealous.

As a reminder for any Duke fans here that may be reading, the Blue Devils are currently practicing live from Fort Bragg on ESPNU until 2:30 today.

Great exposure for Duke -- not that Duke really needs any more of it, having had 28 games nationally televised in 2011-12, four more than any other program in the country -- and a wonderful window into how Coach K runs a practice and gives instruction to his players.

I've noticed what I seem to think is a large number of foot injuries at Duke over the years. It seems to be the injury of choice at Duke.

What's the deal with Dawkins?

Manhattan Buckeye;1296211 wrote:What's the deal with Dawkins?

In the spring, Andre informed the Duke staff that he needed time away from the game in order to deal with personal issues that stem from the death of his sister, who was killed in a car crash after encountering a severe snowstorm on the way to see her brother play for the first time at Duke as a freshman. He remains on scholarship but will not be connected to the team in any capacity this year. Andre’s father has been vocal that Andre will return to the team next season after he has been able to finally deal with his emotions and better himself personally, but that remains to be seen. He is set to graduate from Duke in the spring and, at that point, his college hoops career could also very well be over. As a graduate student, he would also be free to transfer anywhere in the country without penalty.

The whole tragic set of circumstances is even more saddening when you consider the notion that Andre, no matter how misguided, has probably, at one point or another, blamed his sister’s passing on himself. Had he not reclassified and left high school a year ahead of schedule to go play at Duke as a 17-year-old, she’d likely still be alive. That’s certainly not the kid’s fault, but it’d be hard not to think of it in those terms if you were him. That’d be hell. I think his sister’s death also, at least partially, helps to explain why he has been such an enigma while at Duke, the kind of rollercoaster of a player who can drop 30 one night and sit the bench for 40 minutes the next. The moments of brilliance are simply dwarfed by the burden that he perpetually carries.

Image removed, didn't realize I was going to see water works over a pic.

ccrunner609;1296902 wrote:quality post.......not.

Quality poster...... Not

It's funny, but they did start a Duke-specific thread. A Lehigh image really necessary?

It's just a joke, I forgot interwebz = serious bidness......besides it's just rec talking to himself lol

Just take the image down. Its funny, and Im sure most Duke fans will get a kick out of it. But its not worth ruining a thread with a pissing match this early.

Life can continue now.

Heelz;1296861 wrote:

I raise you:



A year after a national championship, no less, in the year 2010, with a hall-of-fame head coach at the helm, six McDonald's All-Americans and three 2010 NBA first round draft picks. Now, which is more embarrassing?

As for the Lehigh loss, it was a f****** nightmare. I will give you that.

Touché

Not sure if swami made it to Countdown to Craziness or not, but from the reports I have read, redshirt sophomore Rodney Hood was the best player on the floor for Duke during the annual Blue-White game. A 6-8 wing with the ability to beat you off the dribble and finish at the rim or catch and pop from 20', he's the ideal multifaceted wing for the spacing-intensive, motion-based attack that has accounted for many of Coach K's greatest teams. Compared to last year's disappointing, Iversonian game plan, Duke is once again getting the kind of long and versatile guys in the middle of the lineup that should allow the Devils to return to their early 2000s roots and play more fluid, quicker-paced, team-oriented basketball.

While Hood will not be available until next fall, 6-8 small forward Alex Murphy and 6-4 shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon, both as effective defensively as they are on the offensive end of the floor, will serve as excellent additions to the Duke roster this year.

did make it to the scrimmage was a good time. No dunk contest though, not sure why they didn't have one? I think they wore it out last year with the plumlees each dunking 25 times.

my thoughts

1. This team will go as Quinn Cook goes. He is a true point guard, can make great passes but at the same time makes some real questionable plays. As he grows more comfortable I think the Duke O will run more effectively.

2. A good point guard makes Plumlee and Kelly that much better. Ryan Kelly did all his work on his own last year, didn't get much help by way of assist makers. That really hampers his game. This year the kid will really flourish with some quickness in the backcourt. Mace will be more like the Mace against Marquette two years ago than last year. Duke is going to run and the bigs are better suited for that game.

3. Rodney Hood is Duke's most versatile player, would love to have him now but that must wait.

4. Rasheed Suilamon reminds me a ton of Daniel Ewing, not sure why, maybe its the Texas thing but he can slash, score, and shoot the deep three. He will be a good one. Granted I saw the same from Dawkins in scrimmages years ago.

5. Duke will start 3 seniors (Plum 1, Kelly, Curry) along with Murphy and Cook. I know no one thinks that is a big deal but when the landscape is full of frosh, having experience is a big deal. Duke will storm out of the gates I think. Tough OOC will be great prep for the tournament.

6. Tyler Thornton will be a good backup to Cook defensively but offensively he is so limited I don't see how he could be a factor down the stretch.

7. Alex Murphy could be a Singler type player but right now he needs to bulk up a bit. I know its passé to compare him to Singler just because he is white but he has a game that is very much like Kyle's. I would say DeMarcus Nelson could be a comparison but Demarcus was a better defender but worse shooter.

Excited for the season to start, injuries hampering now, but they are to players that have defined roles and that may be a blessing for some of the younger players as they will get more PT and will develop quicker.

Thanks for the rundown of your CTC experience, swami. Nice to get that type of info from somebody who has actually seen these frosh play. I think Rasheed is going to have a monster year relative to the amount of ink he's getting. The kid is a beast on the defensive end of the floor, and a kid with fearless range on the other. As history has shown, that's the prototype of the perfect Duke player.

As for the missing dunk contest, yeah I imagine you can only watch Mason Plumlee perform his tree dunk so many times before it starts seeming unimpressive. Haha. If he were playing, I would have loved to have seen Andre Dawkins get another shot at it, though. Kid has trampolines for legs. A genuine leaper. Still get chills thinking about his "runway" dunk against Georgia Tech in the 2010 ACC Tournament, when he left from the top of the key at the three-point line, took one dribble and then threw one down so hard they felt it in Georgia. It's a damn shame he doesn't know how to dribble.

One cautionary point for Rasheed Suilamon. He can be a great player don't get me wrong, however he is going to have to take time from a Senior (probably Curry) to get pt. That isn't going to be an easy task. I could see him developing an Elliot Williams type role this year. Not quite a player you diagram a gameplan for, but one that could come off the bench and put up 10-14 points. Curry's early injury is allowing he and Murphy to play more key roles in the offense, but rest assured when Seth heals, his spot will be there because he has earned it (as much as that sucks for me to say because I really despise the idea of playing him, thornton, and plumlee on the floor at the same time. Couldn't guard a kid in a wheelchair between the three of them)

I agree that Rasheed will have to work doubly hard to breakout as a staple in the lineup with the presence of a veteran like Curry already manning Rasheed's primary spot. With that said, Rasheed has great length and speed as a perimeter defender with the potential to be a juggernaut on that side of the ball right out of the gate, facets that Coach K as a defensive-first coach cannot not ignore and tools that Curry does not have. This is especially true considering how poor of an outside defending team Duke was a season ago. Watching C.J. McCollum dissect Seth Curry and Austin Rivers last year was a waste of time. I should have just popped in Hannibal.

While K appears to really have a fondness for Curry, I could see things turn the other way by mid-season for Curry if he continues to get assaulted like Nancy Kerrigan defensively. He better be careful, because as good a shooter as he is, Seth could start getting the Greg Paulus treatment. By January of 2009, Greg Paulus was no longer even listed as a student at Duke. And Paulus was a better shooter than Curry.

Duke defeated Western Washington, who took the Washington Huskies to the wire the other night, in its exhibition opener today, 105-87, led by 20 points from Blue Devil freshman Rasheed Sulaimon. He hit two triples, dished out three assists and picked up a pair of steals as a starter for Duke in place of the injured Seth Curry. Curry was seen in the second half wearing a yellow U.S. postal jersey and frantically riding an exercise bike. I am very excited to see Sulaimon so aggressive offensively in his debut. This kid has the potential to be special and a difference maker this year.

Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly each added 22 points.

Updated: I posted stats from an unofficial source earlier. They are now official.

NBA Blue Devil Update: Former Duke standout J.J. Redick scored 21 points, dished six assists and grabbed four rebounds for the Orlando Magic in a 102-89 over the Denver Nuggets on Friday. He was also 3-of-4 from 3-point range.

NBA Bulldog Update: Adam Morrison, the 2006 Chevrolet National Player of the Year, was waived by the Portland Trail Blazers on October 27 and is currently a homeless basketball player.

Jimmy Dykes on the ESPNU Podcast. Stated he watched UK and Duke practice, 2 weeks before their game in Atlanta. He basically said the who approach and feeling was different. He said Duke was flowing very well and looked like a team ready already in midseason form and business-like. He then said UK looked like a team on the first day of a basketball camp...still trying to learn what plays to run.