TruthBegins

With the NBA departure of Gerald Henderson and the unexpected transfer of Elliot Williams to Memphis, Duke was staring into a backcourt abyss with only two recruited guards, Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith, remaining on the roster for the upcoming season. While both players are undoubtedly talented, having only two legitimate options to play two positions is certainly an undesirable position for any program — surely one of the players will need a rest of at some point in the season!

Enter Andre Dawkins.

Dawkins is an acclaimed 5-star recruit that had already committed to Duke, expecting to matriculate for the 2010-2011 season. However, with a plethora of minutes available at the guard position, Andre Dawkins finds himself in position to capitalize on having already fulfilled his high school graduation recruitments.

This is an amazing turn of events for the Devils in the upcoming season.  While Duke is by no means deep in the backcourt now, the addition of a first-rate player at the guard position will go a long ways towards solidifying the backcourt rotation and helping Scheyer’s prognostications come true.

Admittedly, I was somewhat apprehensive to hear the news that Coach K elected to double down on his past Olympic success and will be returning to lead Team USA in the upcoming 2012 Games.  It’s no secret that Duke has underperformed (in relation to Duke standards only as nearly every other NCAA team would trade Duke’s perceived lack of success for their own results) over the last couple of seasons, and many people attribute the slump to K’s alleged lack of focus on Duke basketball as he guides Team USA to Olympic glory. Personally, I was not ready to accept that K’s Olympics duties were the culprit for Duke’s decline, but I wasn’t willing to rule it out either. Clearly, this situation required further research to reach a definitive conclusion, and I was chomping at the bit to review the historical data and write this article in order to finally put this issue to rest – one way or the other!

And then Al Featherston trumped me!  And frankly, I’m ecstatic that he did.  I couldn’t have produced a finer, more-researched article.  If you have any questions regarding the impact of the Olympics on Coach K and Duke basketball, this is the definitive article that you MUST READ: Featherston on Coach K, Team USA and Recruiting

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” – Coach K, speaking at the Duke Basketball Banquet, April 24, 2009.