Tyus Jones to Duke.

[scher215]

Great point. Playing for the winningest coach in college basketball history? No challenge there. Packaging yourself with the nation's number one recruit who's a one and done to win a national title against the likes of Kansas and Kentucky? No challenge there. It's not like every opponent treats your game like their national championship. No challenge there. Just look at Jabari Parker...instead of playing in front of every NBA GM on national tv at the united center against Kansas he could've been playing Montana in front of a 3/4 filled Williams Arena with the game being streamed online. Now that's a challenge (to stay interested)! I just don't understand why these kids wouldn't want to play for some of the Gopher "fans" on this message board?

That must be why Steve Jobs worked his whole career at Microsoft instead of starting his own company.

Look, different people are wired differently. Both ways are more than okay. But no need to mock the Gopher program because someone suggests an elite recruit may want the challenge of building his own legacy as opposed to joining an already established one. Those people certainly exist. Here is to hoping Rashad Vaughn feels that way.

 

[BOUNDOUTPASSDUNK]

Not many people like to turn down the perceived safe bet if given the opportunity.

Best of luck to Tyus.

I went to college out east and my roommate grew up an ACC fan from Maryland. He taught me the meaning of Duke = Smug. He opined that you earn a B.S. in smugness when you're a member of the basketball program.

 

[Maximus]

That must be why Steve Jobs worked his whole career at Microsoft instead of starting his own company.

Look, different people are wired differently. Both ways are more than okay. But no need to mock the Gopher program because someone suggests an elite recruit may want the challenge of building his own legacy as opposed to joining an already established one. Those people certainly exist. Here is to hoping Rashad Vaughn feels that way.

Thus implying playing for Duke is less of a challenge. Well played. If Jabari Parker leads Duke to a national title, he has established his own legacy while adding to Duke's legacy.

 

[Maximus]

Not many people like to turn down the perceived safe bet if given the opportunity.

Best of luck to Tyus.

I went to college out east and my roommate grew up an ACC fan from Maryland. He taught me the meaning of Duke = Smug. He opined that you earn a B.S. in smugness when you're a member of the basketball program.

And if you're players like JJ Reddick you get constant FU JJ chants, death threats, threats against your sister....yep, sounds like an unchallenging safe bet.

 

[tinyarch]

You just made a great argument for an NBA farm system.

The under-the-table recruiting that Duke got by having Coach K working with the U.S.A. basketball team is patently unfair and should not be allowed. The connections made within the system allowed Coach K to have a much bigger voice than any other coach in D1 basketball was allowed to have.

I personally prefer seeing the Larry Bird-type player who tells the elites to suck on his middle finger while he goes and lifts another team to a national championship game. That's a challenge. I would have prefered that Tyus had chosen the road less traveled. I give Reid Travis a nod for choosing both an academic and athletic challenge at Stanford. Good for him for picking a place where he can be stretched and has to become much better than a small cog in a big engine.

Great point. Playing for the winningest coach in college basketball history? No challenge there. Packaging yourself with the nation's number one recruit who's a one and done to win a national title against the likes of Kansas and Kentucky? No challenge there. It's not like every opponent treats your game like their national championship. No challenge there.

Just look at Jabari Parker...instead of playing in front of every NBA GM on national tv at the united center against Kansas he could've been playing Montana in front of a 3/4 filled Williams Arena with the game being streamed online. Now that's a challenge (to stay interested)!

I just don't understand why these kids wouldn't want to play for some of the Gopher "fans" on this message board?

 

[scher215]

Thus implying playing for Duke is less of a challenge. Well played. If Jabari Parker leads Duke to a national title, he has established his own legacy while adding to Duke's legacy.

I can't speak for others, but my goal wasn't to say there are no challenges at Duke. They are just different challenges.

My issue is that you seem to be mocking the Gopher program and any elite recruit that would ever dare choose a school over Duke. My only point is that different recruits are wired differently and select different schools accordingly. If they weren't, they'd all beg to go to the same place. Your response to someone knocking the challenges at Duke was mocking and insulting Minnesota.

 

[Gopherguy0723]

You just made a great argument for an NBA farm system.

The under-the-table recruiting that Duke got by having Coach K working with the U.S.A. basketball team is patently unfair and should not be allowed. The connections made within the system allowed Coach K to have a much bigger voice than any other coach in D1 basketball was allowed to have.

I personally prefer seeing the Larry Bird-type player who tells the elites to suck on his middle finger while he goes and lifts another team to a national championship game. That's a challenge. I would have prefered that Tyus had chosen the road less traveled. I give Reid Travis a nod for choosing both an academic and athletic challenge at Stanford. Good for him for picking a place where he can be stretched and has to become much better than a small cog in a big engine.

Sorry, your example of Larry Bird fails. Bird was a Bob Knight kid. He transferred out, but he originally went with The General. He left Indiana because he was lonely and didn't know how to cope from being a small-town kid to a huge university. Bird didn't take a mythical "right way" to do it route that you subscribe to. If anything, staying at Indiana would have been the hard thing to do.

 

[station19]

So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde
And that's it hanging on the shed

Altogether now

 

[GophersInIowa]

And if you're players like JJ Reddick you get constant FU JJ chants, death threats, threats against your sister....yep, sounds like an unchallenging safe bet.

Not condoning the actions of some of the idiots, but JJ certainly didn't help himself. He was an arrogant doosh.

And trust me, the Duke program and their fans are far from innocent regardless of what BS the media will feed you.