As Duke rents Itself out for yet another one and done. Nothing like a supposed elite institution putting all those standards aside to field a better sports team.
He'll also wear a retired jersey number (35 Danny ferry). Because apparently that was one of his demands to come play in Durham (along with jewelry and other benefits)
I don't blame the kid. I'd pick Duke over Kentucky 100 times out of a hundred. And he'd be wise to stay and get his degree as a Duke degree is golden. A Kentucky or UNC degree, not so much
Pretty much anything he used to preach in the 90's has been reversed and shit on from his previous assertions about athletes staying in school to the choirboy image his players never even used to demonstrate but somehow the media ran with.
And sometime around 2001, the number of "Gee Willikers" responses were finally overcome with a string of profanities at refs, fans and opposing players.
I still love the college game. I'm a die hard SU fan and they are always a thrill to watch. We get excited when a top 50 recruit puts on the Orange. However, they are often flying under the radar and discover they can drop out early and get into the NBA and that is frustrating.
Ideally, a team hauls in recruits that are good, but not the ones who are looking to be a 1-year-n-out type. That way, they stay for the full 4 years, grow together as a team, and suddenly a team like Villanova has 4 22-yr old seniors who have added weight, muscle, and progressed to the point that they slap down the 18 yr old sensations that could care less about the school and fans and only looking for a stepping stone to the pros.
I'll root for a group of juniors and seniors every time over a program like UK with a thug coach who signs 4 players a year who are ranked in the top 10, but have no use for the school or their fans.
Unless Bagley is pining for a job with Goldman Sachs (which probably prefers to recruit from Columbia/Harvard/Yale/Princeton over Duke anyway), safe to say his choice of school matters little from an academic standpoint. Especially since there's a roughly 0% chance of him graduating anyway.
In comment 13561451 Jim in Hoboken said:
4 of the last 15 champions were one of those schools. Substantial, but it's not some runaway for them year in & year out.
Unless Bagley is pining for a job with Goldman Sachs (which probably prefers to recruit from Columbia/Harvard/Yale/Princeton over Duke anyway), safe to say his choice of school matters little from an academic standpoint. Especially since there's a roughly 0% chance of him graduating anyway.
In comment 13561451 Jim in Hoboken said:
Quote:
College basketball is hard to stomach nowadays when half the top 25 recruits go to either UK or Duke, with a few leftovers for Arizona and KU.
4 of the last 15 champions were one of those schools. Substantial, but it's not some runaway for them year in & year out.
Yeah, the degree is basically a non-issue when a future NBA player is checking out schools.
I remember well when Carmelo left Syracuse. He loved the school, was doing well academically, and already led the team to a national championship as a freshman. He actually toyed with the idea of staying in school. He told Boeheim he would stay if coach wanted him to. Boeheim told him, "you are a basketball star...you were born to play basketball. You are not going to be an accountant....go to your future place in NBA history" (or something to that account). I actually gave Boeheim credit for making a decision to benefit his player rather than himself.
Still, there are a lot of kids that would never stay a second year to play for a coach and work towards a degree. And they usually go to UK.