Duke finds a guard

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Very interesting indeed. I wonder what Pat Reusse would say if the school was Minnesota and not Duke? Duke finds themselves short a guard, so they just get a kid to enroll a year early at one of the toughest academic schools in the nation.
 

You know another interesting thing about Duke? When Seth Curry left Liberty, it took him less than a week to select Duke as his transfer destination. Now, perhaps it was Curry's dream destination and perhaps they spoke to Duke the day after the transfer was announced, but the transfer happened so quickly and without any other teams mentioned, it makes one wonder if a conversation had occurred between the Currys and Coach K while Seth was still at Liberty-which of course is illegal.

I read a little snippet from Jason Whitlock on this matter, but otherwise I didn't see any questions from the national media on this smooth transfer. Imagine the outcry if the top freshman scorer from a smaller college had ended up at Kentucky or UConn or Minnesota so rapidly after the transfer was announced. Duke might be cleaner than most, but they aren't squeaky clean, yet they continue to garner a free pass from the national media and it's perhaps the reason I hate the Dukies so much. (well, that and about 50 other reasons :) )
 

coolhandgopher said:
You know another interesting thing about Duke? When Seth Curry left Liberty, it took him less than a week to select Duke as his transfer destination. Now, perhaps it was Curry's dream destination and perhaps they spoke to Duke the day after the transfer was announced, but the transfer happened so quickly and without any other teams mentioned, it makes one wonder if a conversation had occurred between the Currys and Coach K while Seth was still at Liberty-which of course is illegal.

I read a little snippet from Jason Whitlock on this matter, but otherwise I didn't see any questions from the national media on this smooth transfer. Imagine the outcry if the top freshman scorer from a smaller college had ended up at Kentucky or UConn or Minnesota so rapidly after the transfer was announced. Duke might be cleaner than most, but they aren't squeaky clean, yet they continue to garner a free pass from the national media and it's perhaps the reason I hate the Dukies so much. (well, that and about 50 other reasons :) )
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Coolhand, I'm curious as to why you think they "might be cleaner than most" - that just plays right in to the stereotype that has been created. Sure, they are cleaner than we were under Haskins, cleaner than whereever Calipari coaches and cleaner than USC under Floyd, but I have no reason to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are cleaner than the masses. Situations like you pointed out with this guard and Curry would suggest otherwise, as they aren't normal circumstances in college hoops.

Go Gophers!!
 

I was being very generous in that statement, Bleed. When you consider these two situations, past jobs lined up for the parents of Duhon and Boozer, the admission of big academic question marks like William Avery and Sean Dockery and the whole mess with Corey Maggette, which Duke may not have known about but lesser basketball programs received punishment that Duke eluded, I think you're closer to the truth than I was with my statement.
 


Hard to say if they are cleaner than most. Despite the fact that I would prefer to see Duke lose every game, I suspect it's a lot easier to be clean when half of the kids in America want to play for you if they can. It has to be a lot easier to select from the cream than solicit from the remains.
 

Why?

Why would the NCAA allow this? It seems like a very bad idea to me. Is this going to become a trend?
 

"Is this going to become a trend?"

It already is. We're hearing more & more about HS students finishing a year early, and let's not be fooled, that doesn't necessarily mean the kid is a stellar student. With online courses seemingly becoming available at every corner, early graduates (for athletic purposes) will become more & more common. "McDiploma", if you will.

I can't rip Duke in this instance. It's simply a trend among major universities already in place, so they're using it, just as I'm sure Minnesota would use it if a similar situation cropped up where it would be advantageous to get a kid to come in early.
 

How the heck did a kid who had to repeat a year of high school make it into Duke (academically)?

I guess we can throw out all of that hot air from Duke fans about their high academic standards, etc.
 



Move along, nothing to see here.

WanderingGopher said:
How the heck did a kid who had to repeat a year of high school make it into Duke (academically)?

I guess we can throw out all of that hot air from Duke fans about their high academic standards, etc.
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Dawkins repeated 9th grade upon transferring from a public school to a more academically challenging private school. He's a very good student, with a 3.2 GPA and has taken numerous AP courses.

That's how.
 

GopherBlue,

Have you seen the transcript?

This, to me, is what happens when a formerly uber-elite program starts to slip and the school nine miles down 15-501 really gets things going.
 

Back in the day Mike Giminski skipped what would have been his senior year of HS and enrolled at Duke.
 

The two biggest academic risks Coach K has taken on during his tenure were Dockery and Carrawell. He had to fight hard to get them admitted and they repaid him by graduating and working hard despite their academic shortcommings. That is it. Avery had a low gpa but tested well. should have been an indication of his work ethic. As for Dawkins...I read he has the scores to get into Va Tech which means he's a pretty good student regardless of bb talent. I've mentioned a couple of times over the years about the Duhon and Boozer cases and i don't feel like repeating myself but the only thing I've seen that gave me pause was the Maggette situation and the lack of homework done on it by the coaching staff. guilty of ignorance to a problem not too well hidden.
 



I've heard soem really nasty stories about Magette and Duke that would destroy Coach K's clean reputation and I know some funny businees went on with Humphries and Duke although it was smaller infractions, but overall I think they are cleaner than most but they do bend alot of the smaller rules, like most schools do and I'm sure they have there share of misconduct among the players that is kept quiet liek all schools do. I think this is big part of why so many people can't stand them, is ESPN and the Vitales and Bilas's and other talking heads who make them out to be saints when we all know thats not true.
 

Question:

How do you stop a booster from hiring a parent? Assuming there is no dialogue between program and booster I don't see how you can limit this. In fact given the publicity given to the businesses that hired Boozer's Dad/ Duhon's Mom, this might have been a good business move.
 

Winnipegopher said:
Question:

How do you stop a booster from hiring a parent? Assuming there is no dialogue between program and booster I don't see how you can limit this. In fact given the publicity given to the businesses that hired Boozer's Dad/ Duhon's Mom, this might have been a good business move.
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Things that Duke does are not worse than other programs like UNC, Kentucky (under Cal), Uconn, .... The part that gets me the most is their games. Every time I watch a Duke game, I get sick for days thinking about the no-calls. Those rich Duke graduates must pay these referees very well.
 

anonymous said:
GopherBlue,

Have you seen the transcript?
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Of course I have not, but it has been widely reported by multiple sources, as have his SAT scores of 1200+. This is not a marginal student.

The recent departure of 2 players (Henderson, Williams) that Dawkins would have been sitting behind changes things, and recognizing this as an opportunity and possible solution, the family initiated the process. No, I was not sitting in their living room to witness this relevation, but it's all here.

It really get's to me when people with little to no knowledge of a situation jump to the worst conclusions at the expense of an 18 year old kid that is by all accounts, a great kid and good student.

As a Gopher alum and lifelong fan, I'd like to think that Gopher nation has a bit more class.
 

GopherBlue said:
Of course I have not, but it has been widely reported by multiple sources, as have his SAT scores of 1200+. This is not a marginal student.

The recent departure of 2 players (Henderson, Williams) that Dawkins would have been sitting behind changes things, and recognizing this as an opportunity and possible solution, the family initiated the process. No, I was not sitting in their living room to witness this relevation, but it's all here.

It really get's to me when people with little to no knowledge of a situation jump to the worst conclusions at the expense of an 18 year old kid that is by all accounts, a great kid and good student.

As a Gopher alum and lifelong fan, I'd like to think that Gopher nation has a bit more class.
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Personally, I don't think it really has anything to do with Gopher fans being classy or not classy. It has to do with folks having heard over and over again how kids that get exceptions at power programs are "great kids" and so on and so forth before, low and behold, they turned out not to be. Having said that, I'm not going to jump the gun and assume there is some kind of funny business going on here.

But at the same time, I don't fault people who are questioning moves like this. If the kid makes it, then good for Duke. If he doesn't, people have the right to question the motivation for such an action.
 

"His SAT scores of 1200+."

To play the devil's advocate, how do we know this reported 1200 score doesn't include all 3 components (math, verbal & writing) of the SAT? If it does, 1200 is a poor score. If it only includes the 2 primary components, than it is indeed a pretty solid score.

A request, and I understand if you don't honor it. ... please no references to "Gopher Nation", unless talking about football.
 

SelectionSunday said:
To play the devil's advocate, how do we know this reported 1200 score doesn't include all 3 components (math, verbal & writing) of the SAT? If it does, 1200 is a poor score. If it only includes the 2 primary components, than it is indeed a pretty solid score.
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I don't, though I believe 1200+ to be the combined of 2 primary exams (I'm sure that carries a lot of cred). Even so, the NCAA clearinghouse requires player with a 3.0+ core GPA to score a 620 on the SAT. Duke admission standards are significantly more stringent, unless an exception is made (see above re: Dockery, Carrawell). If an exception to Duke admissions standards is made for Dawkins, under these unusual circumstances, that is the point I would cry foul.

This seems to be a case of an 18 year old kid with 4 years of HS under his belt and a single summer course away from meeting graduation requirements (already taken and done sufficiently well on SAT) deciding to seize an opportunity and enroll early. It's not unprecedented, and it's actually quite common for HS students to graduate early and enroll in college in Jan, after only 3.5 years HS.

Duke, or any college athletics program for that matter, is not above the law or immune questions and criticism, but conspiracies theories about Duke and K based upon this bit of news are silly.

SelectionSunday said:
A request, and I understand if you don't honor it. ... please no references to "Gopher Nation", unless talking about football.
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Point taken.
 

MRJ said:
Personally, I don't think it really has anything to do with Gopher fans being classy or not classy. It has to do with folks having heard over and over again how kids that get exceptions at power programs are "great kids" and so on and so forth before, low and behold, they turned out not to be. Having said that, I'm not going to jump the gun and assume there is some kind of funny business going on here.
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Who's getting an exception? All indications are that the kid has exceeded (or will soon) not only NCAA standards for freshman eligibility, but also Duke's more stringent admission standards.

I certainly wouldn't lump all Gopher fans into this category (to the contrary, relative to many fan forums), but posts like the one quoted below aren't exactly oozing with class. All I ask is that people give a kid a break, or try to support their accusations with a tad of foundation.

WanderingGopher said:
How the heck did a kid who had to repeat a year of high school make it into Duke (academically)?

I guess we can throw out all of that hot air from Duke fans about their high academic standards, etc.
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GopherBlue said:
Who's getting an exception? All indications are that the kid has exceeded (or will soon) not only NCAA standards for freshman eligibility, but also Duke's more stringent admission standards.

I certainly wouldn't lump all Gopher fans into this category (to the contrary, relative to many fan forums), but posts like the one quoted below aren't exactly oozing with class. All I ask is that people give a kid a break, or try to support their accusations with a tad of foundation.
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You may very well be correct about everything being on the up-and-up. And if that is truly the case and it ultimately works out for both Dawkins and Duke, then great. People just tend to be a little suspicious in situations like this one, and with good reason. In cases where other programs have taken similar steps, it has often been found out later that everything was NOT on the up-and-up despite notions to the contrary, hence the suspicion in this case.

I for one don't really have an opinion one way or another in this case. But with how rampantly corrupt big-time athletics is becoming, it's not surprising people are a little wary of a situation such as this.

In any case, I'll simply wish both Dawkins and Duke good luck in the future and just leave it at that.
 

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