prescott wrote:As a former duke hater I can give you my perspective. I didn't have any feelings either way about duke until I came across a poster on another message board. He went by the name of dukefan and then Trinity-something. His arrogance about duke and his unwillingness to admit that duke was not perfect fueled my hatred.My hatred for duke had nothing to do with race, it had everything to do with their fan base and their lack of respect for anything not duke, especially the god-like worship given to coach k.

BTW, why would anyone hate Cherokee Parks? The guy was a stiff.

Paulus averaged 8.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists during four seasons at Duke. Hardly, a great offensive player. He was disliked because he was the
"King of Floppers". Come to think of it maybe that is why you think it is a race thing. duke has had many white players who turned flopping into accepted defensive practice.Their motto must of been "If you can't guard----FLOP".

"Good" offensive player would probably have sufficed re Greg Paulus. That I can live with, if great is too audacious a word. Anyone who shoots 42% from beyond the arc with 80+ triples is an outstanding shooter and consequently offensive player IMO. A guy like Diebler certainly fits that bill as well.

As for Duke's flopping, I can't deny that certain Blue Devils have used that device to their advantage. As Reggie Miller artfully described in his book I Love Being The Enemy, "They call it a flop and I call it gamesmanship." With that said, the myth that Coach K runs flopping drills in practice is perpetuated mostly by the fact that Duke has historically ranked among the best defensive teams in the country and as a result its players are well-instructed on the art of proper defensive positioning and footwork, which in turn leads to a higher volume of legally-drawn charges. Guys like Shane Battier, Chris Duhon, Sean Dockery, Lance Thomas and Ryan Kelly were highly-skilled defenders with superlative footwork and defensive positioning.

Different opinions on great going on here, clearly. Lol.

I think I can only name a handful of GREAT offensive players this past decade. Paulus isn't one of them. Rec just has a looser definition.

I'd hope that any scholarship guard that got as many minutes as Paulus did, could post close to those stats. Not every player is a good offensive player. Connect the dots. IMO, rec is wrong on this one.

God, I miss JJ Redick. Everyone hated him and he played the villain role perfectly. My favorite Dukie and IMO college basketballs best shooter that I've seen.

Go watch his College Gameday piece on YouTube from his junior year, I believe, the stuff that was said to him and he went through was crazy. The only thing he never managed to get was a national championship. Had he done that, he very well may have been the best Duke player ever.

Just my opinion, but to me a great shooter isn't a great offensive player unless they're the focal point of the offense (such as McDermott). Diebler was a great shooter his junior and senior years, but he was just one cog in their offense at that time. Same with Paulus (probably to a slightly lesser scale going from the stats that have been thrown out here). A lot of times, a big part of the reason why guys like those two got their "great shooter" rep is because of the ability of their teammates was sufficient to prevent defenses to do anything special to gameplan to stop the shooter.

Heretic;1599861 wrote:Just my opinion, but to me a great shooter isn't a great offensive player unless they're the focal point of the offense (such as McDermott). Diebler was a great shooter his junior and senior years, but he was just one cog in their offense at that time. Same with Paulus (probably to a slightly lesser scale going from the stats that have been thrown out here). A lot of times, a big part of the reason why guys like those two got their "great shooter" rep is because of the ability of their teammates was sufficient to prevent defenses to do anything special to gameplan to stop the shooter.

JJ was great then. Yes! got someone to agree with me!

Talking about Greg Paulus and no brings this up, come on man!!!

Azubuike24;1599859 wrote:I'd hope that any scholarship guard that got as many minutes as Paulus did, could post close to those stats. Not every player is a good offensive player. Connect the dots. IMO, rec is wrong on this one.

Not sure what that even means. How does minutes per game translate into being a great outside shooter? Aaron Craft is a scholarship guard that shot 30% from beyond the arc this year with 16 makes, despite playing 35 minutes per game. Greg Paulus' line as a junior of 83 triples on 42% 3-PT shooting (45% as a sophomore) was not just run of the mill.

As Laley pointed out, my definition of what constitutes a good/great offensive player might be more liberal than that of others. Take a guy like Taylor King, for example. In spite of his many faults, when on, the kid was a dynamite shooter with range that rendered him virtually indefensible. He averaged just 5 points per game in his lone season at Duke, but dropped 27 on Eastern Kentucky, 18 on Michigan, 15 on Wisconsin (five threes) and 15 at Temple, to name a few notable performances. When on the court, he was a threat to explode at any moment. I would've classified him as a good offensive player. He just didn't get the minutes that other guys got.

The McDonald's All-American game is tonight at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN.

Should be an entertaining night for Duke fans with four future Blue Devils in action in Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen. Excited to see Allen do his thing in the United Center. Read great things about his athleticism and shooting being on full display at the practice session on Monday.

Also looking forward to watching Myles Turner, possibly a fifth Mickey D for Duke in 2014. He is yet to sign, with Duke, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and SMU still in the mix.

Houston hires Kelvin Sampson.

If you look past what happened at Indiana, he returned Oklahoma to national prominence in the early 2000s. This could turn out an excellent hire for a once proud program that has fallen on hard times over the past two decades. Houston went to three Final Fours under Guy Lewis in the '80s, with a pair of national runner-up finishes in '83 and '84. Now in the American Athletic Conference, alongside UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis, Southern Methodist and Temple, Houston is in a power league and located in a great city. Should be interesting to see what Sampson can do.

In hindsight, the stuff Sampson got busted for is small potatoes, IMO. He'll do fine at Houston. Wouldn't be shocked if they win an NCAA game before Indiana wins their next one...

Also, I believe all the stuff Sampson was "busted" for -- namely sending text messages to recruits -- is now legal and common practice among coaches. So, in a sense, he was simply ahead of the curve.

Mostly, yes. His biggest violations were directly ignoring previous warnings from the NCAA. I think that's why he got it as bad as he did. He basically gave them the middle finger and they didn't want to be shown up in that manner.

Azubuike24;1600073 wrote:Mostly, yes. His biggest violations were directly ignoring previous warnings from the NCAA. I think that's why he got it as bad as he did. He basically gave them the middle finger and they didn't want to be shown up in that manner.

Yeah, what Sampson was doing wasn't that bad. He was just incredibly stupid about it. I read something where on one day he was warned by the NCAA that if he continue to send texts during a black out period he would get the hammer thrown down on him, then literally next day he would send an illegal text and the NCAA knew about it lol.

If SMU lands Myles Turner, he and Emmanuel Mudiay could propel the Mustangs into the Top Ten. It'd have been interesting to see what Larry Brown could have done in Dallas if he had arrived 10 years earlier.

Turner probably ends up at Kansas or Texas, though, no matter what Turner says.

reclegend22;1600120 wrote:If SMU lands Myles Turner, he and Emmanuel Mudiay could propel the Mustangs into the Top Ten. It'd have been interesting to see what Larry Brown could have done in Dallas if he had arrived 10 years earlier.

Turner probably ends up at Kansas or Texas, though, no matter what Turner says.

Turner should take one look at Keith Frazier's playing time this year and immediately cross off SMU from his list.

Azubuike24;1600066 wrote:In hindsight, the stuff Sampson got busted for is small potatoes, IMO. He'll do fine at Houston. Wouldn't be shocked if they win an NCAA game before Indiana wins their next one...

It's sad that this is even a possibility.

i disagree, as I think IU is solid next year since they bring in 2 really good/great shooters and will have a more "Crean style" team (4 guards and a big). But you get the point. Just sad lol

Russell is going to help OSU so much next year. Smooth ball player.

SportsAndLady;1600125 wrote:Turner should take one look at Keith Frazier's playing time this year and immediately cross off SMU from his list.

My guess is he already has. Turner is waiting on Joel Embiid to make it official. There are no other centers his size at any of the other schools on his list who are still on the fence. That's my guess, anyway.

I read an article the other day discussing how Bill Self straight up told Turner, if Embiid returns, he'd be welcomed with open arms (obviously) but should also look into other schools. That tells me Turner is waiting on that decision. Not sure what else he'd be waiting on at this point.

reclegend22;1600146 wrote:
My guess is he already has. Turner is waiting on Joel Embiid to make it official. There are no other centers his size at any of the other schools on his list who are still on the fence. That's my guess, anyway.

I read an article the other day discussing how Bill Self straight up told Turner, if Embiid returns, he'd be welcomed with open arms (obviously) but should also look into other schools. That tells me Turner is waiting on that decision. Not sure what else he'd be waiting on at this point.

Obviously nothing in articles is 100% trustworthy, but I hope/wish all coaches would do that for kids. Just be fucking honest. It helps everyone in the end.

Laley23;1600155 wrote:Obviously nothing in articles is 100% trustworthy, but I hope/wish all coaches would do that for kids. Just be fucking honest. It helps everyone in the end.

Yeah, I actually thought it was a pretty cool move.

Here's the quote from Turner, so this is pretty trustworthy.

It wouldn’t rule them out initially [Embiid returning to Kansas]. But I’ve had talks with coach Self; he feels that if Jo comes back — he didn’t say (I would) ‘waste my time’, but he said I should really look other places. He still feels like if I come in, the more the merrier. The fact he was upfront with me shows a lot about his character.

[LEFT]
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/04/01/4930416/top-uncommitted-prep-player-coolly.html#storylink=cpy[/LEFT]

I didn't add the "read more here" part lol. I was pretty sure you could figure that out. Ha. Copyright protocol apparently.

Every time I see Okafor play, im extremely underwhelmed by his performance.

KB0938;1600187 wrote:Every time I see Okafor play, im extremely underwhelmed by his performance.

Vastly overrated.

Watching this game, other than a few guys with one or two great skills, the class is not that good. It's much like 2012...

IMO, the favorites going into next year aren't going to necessarily be the teams bringing in the top players like it was this year. Returning players is going to be big...

Azubuike24;1600208 wrote:Vastly overrated.

Watching this game, other than a few guys with one or two great skills, the class is not that good. It's much like 2012...

IMO, the favorites going into next year aren't going to necessarily be the teams bringing in the top players like it was this year. Returning players is going to be big...

Agree with this. I don't see many impact Freshmen next year. I think Russell at OSU will be good, mainly because he has no pressure from anyone behind him. He'll be the best player on the team the minute he gets to C-Bus. I really like Pinson, and think he and Jackson will really help Carolina.