Wiithin minutes of Lively's commit to duke I got a call from my dukie buddy, he is pumped about it, I am not really concerned. Cool, win all the recruiting titles you want fans of duke or Ky, I want titles won in the first part of April more than those won ion sept. Yeah, I know, see folks say it all the time, you need big time talent to win big time? Really, is it that simple, just load up on the best available talents get those multiple 5stars in and go ahead and assume you are going to win the final college game played? Well history actually sees much more disappointment to those fan bases that get so excited about winning recruiting titles.
I actually really like the 22 class we have, to me it is a foundational class of multi year players that have really good potential, missing on Traudt IMO did hurt, he is the ONLY miss that to me hurt. I think Hubert actually quietly backed away from guys like Livingston, Lively, Walker, and a couple others. He didn't see them as the best fits, Filopowski would have been nice but we all know we got in that one to late.
A theme I particular chuckle at is this concern that we may not have enough or good enough big men after this coming season? I am a big man guy, said that more times than I can count but the big man role is changing, now big men want to be guards. Lively has to learn to pay inside the paint, at 7'1" he wants to shoot treys, frankly now with him being a dukie, I want him to shoot treys as well! Big men don't dominate the game 30ft from the basket unless your name is Durant and even he did win a natty ring, did he? IN Manic and Garcia, we have a couple big men that are good outside shooters but both those kids have college experience already, they know what it is to play against experienced college athletes, they have been in college S/C programs. Caleb Love for example will IMO be a absolute beast for us this season as a soph, Banchero would be a beast for duke as a soph as well, anyone want to take bets on the likelihood of Banchero playing as a soph for duke? LOL You tell me who you would rather see play for UNC this coming season a freshman Banchero or the junior version of Bacot? I will take Bacot !
I say, I will always say, the way to build a winning program is to yes bring in a few 5 stars but depend on developed upper classmen, build experience in to your program and that is hard to do if you depend to heavy on freshman 5 stars. I saw a LOT of duke and Ky fans saying just that last season but now, here they are again with big time 5 star classes where they believe they will win the natty easily? The key is finding guys that fit in to what you do, how you want to play rather than fitting what you do to the huge talent of a 5 star kid. You have your experienced players help teach your young kids, rather than banish them to the bench so the latest new shiny 5 star kid dominates PT.