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Brown 4th Tiger to enter draft


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11 hours ago, AU64 said:

True but making a team out of these kind of classes is turning out to be a tough job for Cal and Coach K....getting these kids who never learned how to play D in HS and have a couple months to transform them into a "team".  This year Duke had an experienced PG who helped keep things organized.  With all the talent, it will still be interesting to see how they play as a group.    

The rest of the college basketball world will have to make do with 3* and 4* players......and I'm wondering how many 5* players made it to the final 4....maybe none. We can do fine if we can just keep the same guys together for a two our three seasons.

Agree completely 

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On 4/16/2018 at 8:54 PM, AU64 said:

True but making a team out of these kind of classes is turning out to be a tough job for Cal and Coach K....getting these kids who never learned how to play D in HS and have a couple months to transform them into a "team".  This year Duke had an experienced PG who helped keep things organized.  With all the talent, it will still be interesting to see how they play as a group.   

Most of them are just doing their year in college before they go pro, anyway. I'd rather have a scrappy bunch of lower rated guys who want to play college ball over a team of 5*s who are annoyed that they can't just jump to the NBA.

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Kentucky and Duke need to sign a couple of solid 4*s every 2 years so that they have players who know the system to mix with the 1 and done players.  Luckily they don't usually so teams made up of top tier 3* and solid 4* players that stick together and learn to play as a team can still beat them. The problem there is many of these guys are playing 1 or 2 years at a program and then transferring if the rules change to make it easier to transfer as many are suggesting it will become increasingly hard to build a program out of talented but not super star juniors and seniors who have been together for 2-3 years.

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20 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Most of them are just doing their year in college before they go pro, anyway. I'd rather have a scrappy bunch of lower rated guys who want to play college ball over a team of 5*s who are annoyed that they can't just jump to the NBA.

Heard that the G league is likely to raise their minimum salary to about $35K plus living expenses....making total package about $50K for about 6 months.  

Thought is that it will give some HS kids the option of playing basketball for money in the US under the watchful eye of NBA owners ...and they could play overseas the rest of the year if they wished.   That might be enough to convince some kids who don't want to play college student....and just get on with their lives playing professional basketball of some kind.  

I'm in favor of doing this....though it might  cause some problems for the blue chip programs ....or not.  Maybe Coach K and Cal and a few others can convince some of the 5* kids that a year taking minimum level college courses and playing for "free" is in their best interest.   Time at Duke or Kentucky helps a kid build his "brand" which he would be unlikely to do in G league.....but that's hard to put a value on for most of these kids while they are still 18.   

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On 4/14/2018 at 9:38 PM, Mikey said:

Do you even understand what's going on? The are not "declaring". They are going to a session for evaluation and advice. All except Heron will probably be back.

I am so hoping that your comment turns out to be true. It would be great to have everyone except Heron back so that CBP has a full year to work on stabilizing recruiting without the FBI and NCAA hanging over his shoulders.

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2 hours ago, au701948 said:

I am so hoping that your comment turns out to be true. It would be great to have everyone except Heron back so that CBP has a full year to work on stabilizing recruiting without the FBI and NCAA hanging over his shoulders.

The plan was always to "skip" this class and focus on next year's class instead.  In comparing this year's class to next year's, next year's has better top tier talent as well as more overall talent.  The plan was always to sign 1 this year. After Montgomery decommitted, we went after and landed Akingbola.

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24 minutes ago, bigbird said:

The plan was always to "skip" this class and focus on next year's class instead.  In comparing this year's class to next year's, next year's has better top tier talent as well as more overall talent.  The plan was always to sign 1 this year. After Montgomery decommitted, we went after and landed Akingbola.

I accept that possibility.....but just hoping that we don't get a lot of excuses about no bench and no depth....although there is still some time to fill in with grad transfers I guess but signing players who will only be available for one season bothers me.  

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6 hours ago, AU64 said:

I accept that possibility.....but just hoping that we don't get a lot of excuses about no bench and no depth....although there is still some time to fill in with grad transfers I guess but signing players who will only be available for one season bothers me.  

I agree. A grad transfer is a band-aid and at some point, you'd like to think the program is getting past the point of needing band-aids.

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17 hours ago, Mikey said:

I agree. A grad transfer is a band-aid and at some point, you'd like to think the program is getting past the point of needing band-aids.

With the way kids transfer and try the NBA and leave teams even if they aren't drafted. It is almost impossible for a coach to know how many kids to sign every year. During recruiting season for the class that just signed we were only looking for one player because it was a weak class and we didn't have any seniors. So we pushed for Montgomery and he was ours until Person messed us up the we may have Akingbola in this class if he is able to re-classify.  Then transfers and NBA and we have 4 openings after the signing period is way past. GT and Juco is only option.  You are seeing that more and more because of the number of players moving around.  I was shocked by Mitchell leaving as I thought he had the potential to beat out Harper this year apparently he didn't see it that way.

I think the landscape is changing so much with the kids desire for instant gratification that building any team with 3 and 4 year players is becoming increasingly hard. That said I believe Harper and Brown will be back and after reading some articles recently on Wiley and his draft stock I now am leaning towards him returning as he is more of a thow back big center whereas today's game is looking for more athletic big men who can also shoot the three.

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I wouldn't be surprised to see at least 1 transfer player come to Auburn every year (either undergrad or grad) for the foreseeable future. That's just the nature of college basketball right now. Especially for non blue-bloods. I wouldn't consider it to be a sign of the program going in the wrong direction. Unless we're filling over half the roster (multiple starters) with juco and grad transfers like Pearls first couple seasons.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/16/2018 at 8:54 PM, AU64 said:

True but making a team out of these kind of classes is turning out to be a tough job for Cal and Coach K....getting these kids who never learned how to play D in HS and have a couple months to transform them into a "team".  This year Duke had an experienced PG who helped keep things organized.  With all the talent, it will still be interesting to see how they play as a group.    

The rest of the college basketball world will have to make do with 3* and 4* players......and I'm wondering how many 5* players made it to the final 4....maybe none. We can do fine if we can just keep the same guys together for a two our three seasons.

Meanwhile, Duke adds yet another 5* for next year. Unreal...

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/23388504/duke-blue-devils-commit-joey-baker-reclassifies-2018-class

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9 hours ago, fredst said:

Thanks....guess if I were a serious Duke fan I would be concerned about what happens when Coach K hangs it up.  He's had health problems off and on the past few years.... and for these kind of recruits it's more about the coach than the school.  I could see guys bailing out right and left...and his successor would have to learn to recruit kids who actually want to attend the university for more than a year or two.   .  

Even with all these 5* players at Duke there are many "Teams" in the ACC playing at their level without an army of 5* freshmen.   The Duke train is on the fast track but Coach  K has mystique not matched by any other college coach and JMO, but the end of their dominance is not that far ahead. 

Hoping AU is taking the long view. . 

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