Why nobody should care about Duke having the best recruiting class again
Four straight top classes. No Final Four appearances.
The Duke Blue Devils have done it again. With Monday’s commitment from four-star guard Cassius Stanley, Duke has locked up its fourth straight No. 1 recruiting class.
This year, every member of Duke’s class is ranked in 247Sports’ top 35. It’s been quite the recruiting run for Mike Krzyzewski who reinvented his roster-building strategy to embrace the one-and-done in 2014. Since winning the title in 2015, no coach has recruited better than Coach K — not John Calipari, not Bill Self, not Roy Williams.
But if last season taught us anything, it’s that Coach K’s recruiting dominance means nothing if his teams can’t win in March.
My Decision
pic.twitter.com/z9wl8byq7w
— Cassius Stanley (@cassius_stanley) April 22, 2019
See: Since Coach K turned himself into basketball’s version of Nick Saban on the recruiting trail, the Blue Devils have turned in some decidedly un-Sabian results. The first two classes of Duke’s recruiting streak saw their seasons end in the Sweet 16 and second round respectively.
The past two seasons ended in the Elite Eight with last year’s squad being easily the most disappointing. The 2018-19 Blue Devils sported three of the top 5 players in the class, including Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett. They still couldn’t make a Final Four.
Now, this isn’t to say that Coach K should stop going after the best talent available. Any coach would’ve loved to have Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett on roster, but Duke has increasingly loaded up its rosters with talented freshmen who can’t shoot. On paper, this class is stacked. It just won’t matter if the players aren’t utilized correctly.
Last season, in particular, Duke’s outside shooting fell off a cliff. No player in the rotation shot a 40 percent mark from 3-point range. Barrett, for example, shot six attempts from 3-point range a game at a 30-percent mark. The team as a whole shot 30 percent from range.
Talent is great, but there needs to be some sort of strategic direction here. And this current class could once again face the shooting same issues we saw with the 2018-19 Blue Devils. Only Matthew Hurt and Boogie Ellis are regarded as consistent shooters, and they won’t be able to rely on a generational athlete attacking the basket when outside shots don’t fall.
It’s great for Duke that Coach K is reloading with another top class, sure. We’re also around seven months away from the 2019-20 season. Just as nobody hangs banners for recruiting, nobody should care that Duke has the top class again if Coach K continues to have nothing to show for it.