Duhon himself says he's on the 3 year plan and thinking about going pro and that's extremely significant at this stage. History shows that players who eventually go pro almost never talk about it before they drop out, usually denying any plans to do so. Duhon isn't very scholastic or wealthy, 19 ACT which is like 900 SAT, most ballers don't come from money and we probably would have heard about it if his parents had it like Dunleavy or Shane or Grant, etc. The only top pick in recent years who didn't drop out was Tim Duncan who was a swimmer from the Caribbean where attitudes about money and education are probably much different than in the kinds of places where college ballers come from. Jason Williams left after 3 years, and his mother is a high school guidance counselor with two masters degrees who was extremely concerned about education, setting a good example, and Jay Will being a role model, and his father is one of ten siblings all of whom graduated college. Did Duhon's parents even go to college or did he even grow up in a suburb like Jay Will or Dunleavy, we keep hearing about his mother but does he even know his father? Seems like a similar situation as many Duke players who dropped out, except Brand had an 1100+. If Duhon can graduate in 3 years like JayWill or 3.5 years like Dunleavy or Boozer, and has far less money than Dunleavy and much higher pick than Boozer, why on earth should or would he stay? JayWill acted like it was a huge favor coming back for his 3rd year, what reason would Duhon have for coming back for an unnecessary fourth if he puts in 3 years, graduates, and is a top 4 pick?
Jacobsen led his team in assists as well as points and was third in rebounding playing SG and was Stanford's best player leading the team in minutes and scoring from day one. Dunleavy was terrible by comparison for 2 years, not even making third team all ACC as a sophomore even though that was much better than his lame freshman year, and in his third year finally climbed to third best on the team. Dunleavy had 2.1 apg to Jacobsen's 3.6, so Casey passed almost twice as much even though his teammates weren't nearly as talented as Mike's. Dunleavy had mediocre or terrible NCAA performances throughout his career, the one time he had a Jacobsen-like game was when he had 21 points on 8-17 FG, 0-1 FT, 3 reb, 0 ast, 3 fouls, against Arizona and that was only because AZ was totally ignoring him and leaving him wide open based on his proven tendency to brick wide open shots, as opposed to every Stanford opponent designing their whole defense around Jacobsen who nonetheless shot a far higher percentage. In the AZ game, Battier's 18 pts on 7-14 FG, 3-6 FT, 11 rebs, 6 asts, 2 blks, 1 foul, was far more valuble. Jacobsen dominated Dunleavy at every level, HS, college, pros, when matched up or overall. K turned down Jacobsen, ignored Bob Gibbons #1 national player Matt Bonner who had a 1400+ SAT and freakish stats, then offered Horvath who was 3rd team all Minneapolis and waited months for Dunleavy, when he could have had Jacobsen, Bonner, and Dunleavy. So he took Horvath who everyone knew would be a benchwarmer over Jacobsen and others. Since Duke narrowly lost to finalists Florida and Indiana with Dunleavy having horrible performances 4 pts on 1-4 FG, 0 asts, 4 TOs, against UF, and 5-16 FG and literally no defense whatsoever against IU, Jacobsen almost certainly would have won those games and probably 3 or 4 national titles for Duke.
How good would Duke have been in 99 with its only PG suspended for academics? Why did it lose to a far less talented UCONN team in the biggest final game upset ever? The fact that Avery and Langdon couldn't play defense was obviously one big reason. Duke needed another PG, and every team needs more than 9 scholarship players, K knew that yet he only recruited Maggette who took money from Piggie and may have wiped out that whole season before going pro as a freshman.
K has had only 1 PG in the past, and will probably have just 1 mediocre PG in the future, he doesn't care about the possibility of injury or academic troubles even though the latter is extremely likely. Why is this happening, why does he recruit 6 big men in 2 years and bench whoever doesn't work out, yet treats past, present, and future PGs like family, future assistants, players whose PT and future prospects must be jealously protected at the expense of the team and fans and university?
<small>[ August 21, 2002, 05:00 PM: Message edited by: Deep Blue ]</small>
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