Duke’s Recruiting Strategy Not Following Kentucky’s One-and-Done Model
By Chris Brown
Right after Duke won it’s 5th National Championship, many labelled Duke as the newest school collegiate program to recruit one-and-done players to win. Bo Ryan made “rent-a-player” comments during the championship postgame, a Missouri senator set out a controversial tweet, Coach K is reportedly adapting to use one-and-done players and ending the one-and-done criticism, the Blue Devils have lost 8 first-year players and 6 in the last 5 years after one season, “Won and Done” is the slogan associated with this year’s Duke team, and more.
Mike Krzyzewski is now the 2nd coach to win an NCAA Championship with three one-and-done players, and this 2015 Duke team will always be compared to the 2012 Kentucky National Championship led by freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Marquis Teague who left for the NBA after one season with the Wildcats. Even though both teams had three freshmen that left school early after one year, the recruiting strategies still differ between Krzyzewski and John Calipari and Duke is not the new “one-and-done” destination.
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Although freshmen Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor, and Justise Winslow all left Duke for the NBA after one season, Okafor was the only Blue Devil recruit truly considered to be NBA-ready coming out of high school. Meanwhile, Wildcat freshman Karl Anthony-Towns, Trey Lyles, and in some cases Devin Booker were all considered NBA talent from their senior years of high school.
T. Jones was one of the top college PG prospects in his class, but the most talked about point guards NBA-wise were Emmanuel Mudiay (China) and D’Angelo Russell (Ohio St.). Winslow was largely overshadowed by the potential of SFs Stanley Johnson (Arizona) and Kelly Oubre (Kansas), while Okafor and Towns dominated NBA center prospects.
Grayson Allen, the first freshman to commit to Duke in April 2014 and the only one returning, was originally supposed to be the star freshman for the Blue Devils this season, before the Jones-Okafor package deal decided to attend Duke in the fall of 2014. Then, Okafor and Jones convinced Winslow to join them to bring in the #1 ranked freshman class last year.
Even though Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow were 5-star recruits, neither was really expected to be NBA talent after just one year but saw their stock skyrocket near the end of the season and in the NCAA Tournament. Jones was a great point guard in high school but has always been considered too small to be an NBA point guard at 6-1 but elevated his pro potential at Duke this season with his ability to make big plays despite his size and earning the Most Outstanding Player in the 2015 March Madness Tournament.
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Winslow jumped onto draft boards early in the season and rose to be a potential lottery pick towards the end, but there was a stretch of games in the middle where he shot a horrible percentage from the field and played poorly overall, including the two back-to-back losses to NC State and Miami. Winslow’s effort was being questioned and occasionally he was benched for long periods of time by Coach K. Credit both of the players’ hard work and the coaching staff for helping develop their talent over time to win a National Championship for Duke and become potential NBA first round draft picks.
Another difference is that no incoming freshman player currently in the class to join the roster (Chase Jeter, Luke Kennard, Antonio Vrankovic, and preferred walk-on Justin Robinson) is expected to be ready for the NBA after next season, but incoming Wildcats Isaiah Briscoe and Skal Labissiere are already projected to be first round picks in the 2016 NBA Draft (Note: Both schools are in contention to land potential one-and-done recruit Brandon Ingram).
Additionally, UK has had multiple freshmen players leave early for the NBA Draft every year since 2010, while this is the first year the Blue Devils will have multiple one-and-done players. Only one freshman left for the NBA in 2011 (Kyrie Irving), 2012 (Austin Rivers), and 2014 (Jabari Parker), with no players leaving early in 2013.
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Coach K is not the next coach trying to recruit or rent NBA-caliber players each year to replace talent leaving for the NBA every season in the same sense as John Calipari is at Kentucky, which is a valid strategy and will be allowed as long as the NBA keeps the age-limit restriction. However, Kryzyzewski is not going to turn down talented players just because they are going to leave after one season.
Ultimately, this is what Coach K had to say about how he recruits, “We have one of the great schools in the world, and when we recruit a young man, we recruit a young man because of three things: One, he has the academic potential to do well at Duke; two, he has the talent to do well; and three, he has great character. All the guys on my team fit that description 100 percent”. As long as each recruit meets that criteria then the number of years which they stay is irrelevant.