Duke's Roster

Anon200440

Senior
Mar 28, 2026
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According to your previous posts, wins aren't as important as the "style" you play. You only want "stars" and high recruits. Among other things.
Osu literally won the natty 2 years ago and always competes while having a fun playstyle

I just wish Kentucky could do that again
 

Anon200440

Senior
Mar 28, 2026
440
798
93
Yall didn't have the best team last year fella
Didn't say that, but being a osu fb fan you see that the best team doesn't always win, but talent USUALLY wins in the end

games last year where we didnt have a ton of energy but end up winning by 40+
 

RunninRichie

Heisman
Sep 5, 2019
29,117
70,123
113
That’s all ANY duke fan does! Every.single.last.one! I’ve never witnessed a duke fan NOT use arbitrary timelines. Ever.
UNC fans also and UCONN. Unc fans love saying "since 2000 we have 3 titles to your 1". They back that up 5 years and they're tied with UK. So they slash off the 1995 and say "this century". It's funny.
 

BookofMormon

Senior
Mar 27, 2026
705
908
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Duke loves Cal. His tournament failure with top talent the last decade takes some of the spotlight off how badly Duke has choked the last ten years
This doc is fairly interesting. Not sure if it's AI narrating, but a really good storyteller. It walks through the entire saga of Duke and how the brand began and built over time.



The doc walks through how K made a conscious effort to move from the standard K multi year kid, to the OAD around 2011, which started with Kyrie. If you look at his classes, they changed drastically. They were bigger and featured the NBA profiles. Almost half of K's McD AA's came after 2011. This coincides almost exactly with a couple things:

Calipari swinging from Memphis to Kentucky. Calipari was always an amazing recruiter, but you wonder with the UK brand behind him, if it scared K a bit into realizing he needed to go after the NBA stuff, not just the Jon Scheyer's of the world.

Was also after UNC won their second title in 4 years. That's always a lot of pressure on Tobacco road.

Self also won his in 2008.

That juncture between 2005 and 2010 was an interesting one. Cal to UK, Roy winning title at UNC, KU winning it's first title in ages. The Blue Blood heat was on. Calhoun was trying to keep up and it sank him into suspension and parole.

Wild when you look at it - since 2004, there have been 21 National Champions, 17 of those amongst 6 schools. (Kansas 2, Duke 2, UNC 3, Nova 2, UConn 5, Florida 3). UK/Louisville have their one each and then a couple random one off's: Virginia and Baylor. It really isn't that easy to win these things and a pretty exclusive club.
 
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Neal Orac

Junior
Jan 22, 2014
109
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CRZ4UK

Heisman
Jun 6, 2008
5,182
10,321
103
You guys are starting to sound like Hoosier fans obsessing over the Watford shot game.

It was one game in f'n November and their 17-year-old superstar tightened up late.

I'll take the guy that has gone 35-4 and 35-3 his last two years coaching over whatever the **** you losers think Pope can magically turn out to be in year 12 as a head coach. It's clear as day who has been more successful unless you're brain dead.
Then you should go be a Duke fan. Kentucky doesn’t have their money, Kentucky doesn’t have their brand, Kentucky is not Nikes Flagship. Kentucky is not ESPNs and the National Media darling. Kentucky doesn’t have Judges and corporate CEOs all over this country. Kentucky doesn’t run USA under 18 basketball. Duke has all of those.
Kentucky isn’t Duke.
Their coach isn’t the person responsible for their success. It’s their administration, money and political connections.
We don’t have that. We had Mitch Barnhart. If you want to lay blame on our program being where it’s at start there. We had an AD for 25 years who cared more about diversity and money than winning. Mitch killed Kentucky basketball. He didn’t adapt.
The coaches could be switched and I’m willing to bet Pope would excel at Duke. Almost any decent coach would. Scheyer would lose 10 games a season here probably much worse. He wouldn’t even know where to begin recruiting here.
 

UKCowboys

All-American
Oct 14, 2019
4,907
9,288
113
Then you should go be a Duke fan. Kentucky doesn’t have their money, Kentucky doesn’t have their brand, Kentucky is not Nikes Flagship. Kentucky is not ESPNs and the National Media darling. Kentucky doesn’t have Judges and corporate CEOs all over this country. Kentucky doesn’t run USA under 18 basketball. Duke has all of those.
Kentucky isn’t Duke.
Their coach isn’t the person responsible for their success. It’s their administration, money and political connections.
We don’t have that. We had Mitch Barnhart. If you want to lay blame on our program being where it’s at start there. We had an AD for 25 years who cared more about diversity and money than winning. Mitch killed Kentucky basketball. He didn’t adapt.
The coaches could be switched and I’m willing to bet Pope would excel at Duke. Almost any decent coach would. Scheyer would lose 10 games a season here probably much worse. He wouldn’t even know where to begin recruiting here.
He is already a Duke fan, trolling on a UK site
 

BookofMormon

Senior
Mar 27, 2026
705
908
93
Then you should go be a Duke fan. Kentucky doesn’t have their money, Kentucky doesn’t have their brand, Kentucky is not Nikes Flagship. Kentucky is not ESPNs and the National Media darling. Kentucky doesn’t have Judges and corporate CEOs all over this country. Kentucky doesn’t run USA under 18 basketball. Duke has all of those.
Kentucky isn’t Duke.
Their coach isn’t the person responsible for their success. It’s their administration, money and political connections.
We don’t have that. We had Mitch Barnhart. If you want to lay blame on our program being where it’s at start there. We had an AD for 25 years who cared more about diversity and money than winning. Mitch killed Kentucky basketball. He didn’t adapt.
The coaches could be switched and I’m willing to bet Pope would excel at Duke. Almost any decent coach would. Scheyer would lose 10 games a season here probably much worse. He wouldn’t even know where to begin recruiting here.
Was given keys to a rolls royce - looking forward to watching him crash it again. He's a crap coach.
 
Jul 6, 2025
2,572
7,075
113
Calipari believed his reputation for putting guys in the league would carry him through without deep pockets. He was wrong just like Mitch was. Just look at Stoops as well.
NIL adopted 2021
Stoops records
SeasonOverallSECBowl Game
202110-25–3Won the Citrus Bowl
20227-63–5Lost the Music City Bowl
20237-63–5Lost the Gator Bowl
20244-81–7No bowl
2025572–6No bowl

No coach could have succeeded under Mitch’s NIL stance. It’s why he was forced out. Barnhart wasn’t going anywhere. He was removed. He got to say he retired.

For two years Mitch blocked even collectives at UK. It was insane and based solely on personal morality. Even after that, all he did was remove the restriction but the coaches had to raise their own money with ZERO support from the school.

You're right imo about that being the crack that eventually spread to end his career.

Also by the time Cal left, I was way over him too but its pretty crazy to think a living hall of famer left for a much lesser program citing no nil help from the ad. That didn't get nearly the attention it deserved. Yet we all know Mitch was Teflon as evidenced by his ability to just shrug off the swimming scandal.
 
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CRZ4UK

Heisman
Jun 6, 2008
5,182
10,321
103
For two years Mitch blocked even collectives at UK. It was insane and based solely on personal morality. Even after that, all he did was remove the restriction but the coaches had to raise their own money with ZERO support from the school.

You're right imo about that being the crack that eventually spread to end his career.

Also by the time Cal left, I was way over him too but its pretty crazy to think a living hall of famer left for a much lesser program citing no nil help from the ad. That didn't get nearly the attention it deserved. Yet we all know Mitch was Teflon as evidenced by his ability to just shrug off the swimming scandal.
Why don’t many others see this and blame Calipari, Stoops and Especially Pope is beyond me.
They use Stein as an example of great recruiting lol. Can’t be NIL. They say. Look at Stein.
Our Football team will end up barely top 20 maybe. We will end up 10th out of 14 teams in our league. While I credit Stein for doing that at Kentucky. Stoops also had 2 classes right outside the top 20. That’s not recruiting with the big boys. Pope hasn’t missed all these top players that have visited because he’s goofy or can’t coach. It’s money and the administration. Mitch is gone. Let’s see if we can turn this around. If I was the new AD. My first call would be to Nike. What can we do to win back your support.
 

LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
39,528
62,279
113
Calipari swinging from Memphis to Kentucky. Calipari was always an amazing recruiter, but you wonder with the UK brand behind him, if it scared K a bit into realizing he needed to go after the NBA stuff, not just the Jon Scheyer's of the world.

Was also after UNC won their second title in 4 years. That's always a lot of pressure on Tobacco road.

Oh he was absolutely shook by what Cal was doing at Kentucky. We were knocking on the door of becoming the "IT" program during the 2010's. Duke got it's share of white journeymen, but it was never any sort of powerhouse. K saw what was brewing at Kentucky and he made the right choice to start trying to stop Kentucky from getting all the freshman. The only thing I disagree with was he didn't REALLY start to lean into it until the mid 2010s, starting with the year they got Tatum and Giles.
This guy isn't even a real cowboy.

Gun to your head, if you could snap your fingers and swap out Scheyer for Pope, all of you all would do it with glee. Scheyer is clearly a more successful coach and recruiter.

I don't want really either. And Scheyer has yet to beat Mark Pope since getting to Kentucky, so there's that.

Also, Scheyer is being given FAR more money to complete his roster. You can say whatever you want but Scheyer has been given every advantage to win a title at Duke.. from endless NIL, to ESPN and NCAA help, to a joke conference.. and he not only hasn't done it, but he's had two of the BIGGEST collapses in the NCAAT over the last decade. Not only do I not want Scheyer here, what-so-ever.. but I hope he stays at Duke forever. He would never work at UK.
 

BookofMormon

Senior
Mar 27, 2026
705
908
93
Oh he was absolutely shook by what Cal was doing at Kentucky. We were knocking on the door of becoming the "IT" program during the 2010's. Duke got it's share of white journeymen, but it was never any sort of powerhouse. K saw what was brewing at Kentucky and he made the right choice to start trying to stop Kentucky from getting all the freshman. The only thing I disagree with was he didn't REALLY start to lean into it until the mid 2010s, starting with the year they got Tatum and Giles.


I don't want really either. And Scheyer has yet to beat Mark Pope since getting to Kentucky, so there's that.

Also, Scheyer is being given FAR more money to complete his roster. You can say whatever you want but Scheyer has been given every advantage to win a title at Duke.. from endless NIL, to ESPN and NCAA help, to a joke conference.. and he not only hasn't done it, but he's had two of the BIGGEST collapses in the NCAAT over the last decade. Not only do I not want Scheyer here, what-so-ever.. but I hope he stays at Duke forever. He would never work at UK.
Don't forget, his 2015 title with won with Jalil Okafor and 2 other OAD's. That may honestly be Exhibit A of winning with OAD's - their top 3 players that year were all freshmen. Once they tasted that nectar, it really changed things.

If UK had gotten past Wisky that year, it would have been a OAD Final.

Cal was crushing recruiting in the early 2010's.

Scheyer wouldn't work anywhere but Duke. He's a bit of a gump when he talks. I bet players like him, but he does little to inspire as a leader and shown his in-game ain't great. His presser after Mullins shot was lame. Some guys have that quality, some don't. Pitino has it in spades.

The IronDuke's don't feel like they were unloading the wallet until the Flagg class - I think they know they have to win with more talent as Scheyer isn't going to do it. Right now it's him/IronDuke's and Calipari/Chicken Money going at it for the top players.

Smart coaches won't bother competing with that and win in other ways. Underwood has a Euro thing going on.
 
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LineSkiCat14

Heisman
Aug 5, 2015
39,528
62,279
113
Don't forget, his 2015 title with won with Jalil Okafor and 2 other OAD's. That may honestly be Exhibit A of winning with OAD's - their top 3 players that year were all freshmen. Once they tasted that nectar, it really changed things.

If UK had gotten past Wisky that year, it would have been a OAD Final.

Cal was crushing recruiting in the early 2010's.

Scheyer wouldn't work anywhere but Duke. He's a bit of a gump when he talks. I bet players like him, but he does little to inspire as a leader and shown his in-game ain't great. His presser after Mullins shot was lame. Some guys have that quality, some don't. Pitino has it in spades.

The IronDuke's don't feel like they were unloading the wallet until the Flagg class - I think they know they have to win with more talent as Scheyer isn't going to do it. Right now it's him/IronDuke's and Calipari/Chicken Money going at it for the top players.

Smart coaches won't bother competing with that and win in other ways. Underwood has a Euro thing going on.

2012 Kentucky was Exhibit A. More minutes were played by freshman players, and Duke had i believe an extra key senior or two over Kentucky. That was the best example of OAD winning a title.
 

BookofMormon

Senior
Mar 27, 2026
705
908
93
2012 Kentucky was Exhibit A. More minutes were played by freshman players, and Duke had i believe an extra key senior or two over Kentucky. That was the best example of OAD winning a title.
Good point - 2015 was unique because it would have been two OAD squads on a collision coarse in the title if now for Wisconsin. That 2012 Kansas team was veteran.

Duke had Greyson Allen on the bench, but their big 3 starters were all frosh.
 
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