Filed under: Duke basketball, Recruiting | Tags: Duke Recruiting, Roscoe Smith, Terrence Rosse
Word on the street is, Roscoe Smith has picked a college and it won’t be the Duke Blue Devils. According to Dave Telep at Scout, Smith has picked Connecticut. The news hasn’t come from Roscoe himself, but his father via text message.
While not landing Roscoe isn’t as bad as missing out on Harrison Barnes, it is yet another miss by the Duke coaching staff. Again, we’re assuming all this is true. Remember just days ago, word was Smith was opening back up his recruitment to seven schools (it was three before). It’s a bit odd that everything changes in just days, but this is recruiting and nothing really should be surprising me anymore.
Anyhow, back to Duke. Again, this has to be disappointing. At this point we still have no clue if Kyle Singler will come back for his senior season. If he decided to go to the NBA, Duke right now would be without a true SF. This would be truly shocking. Of course if Singler comes back, Duke would be just fine.
IF SINGLER CAME BACK:
PG – Irving
SG – N. Smith
SF – Singler
PF – Ma. Plumlee
SF – Mi. Plumlee
BN – Dawkins (SG)
BN – Curry (SG)
BN – Thornton (PG)
BN – Hairston (PF)
BN – Kelly (PF)
Obviously that’s a stacked team. However, if Singler doesn’t return, Duke would probably roll with three guards and the Plumlee brothers, with either Dawkins or Curry starting. This team is certainly good enough to compete next season, but without Singler, it would certainly be young.
If Duke decides it still wants to bring someone in next year, what are the options at SF?
Duke fans, meet Terrence Ross. He’s a 6’5 four-star athletic guard/forward combo, who committed to Maryland a while ago. However, it looks like Ross has officially pulled out of Maryland and is looking around again. His top four (according to Rivals) is Duke, Maryland, Kentucky and Kansas.
So what do we know about Ross? He’s a player….it’s that simple. He can shoot it from deep and take it to the hole. He still needs to work on his defense and develop a mid-range shot, but he loves to run the court and with Irving running the point, next year’s Duke squad would become an up-tempo ball club. Duke would be a perfect place to land, if that’s the decision he makes. He’d come off the bench for one year, especially if Singler stays, but he would start from there.
Of course Duke’s biggest advantage is the fact that Duke recruit, Josh Hairston is a teammate of Ross and word is, Josh is already working on him. Good luck, Josh.
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Recruiting is a game of domino’s. Players at similar positions basically watch until one commits and it moves from there. Within two weeks of Ross’s de-commit, Howard signs up at Maryland, And Roscoe moves to shut his recruitment down and latch on to UConn. That would indicate Duke is in very good position with Ross or else why would Maryland take Howard’s commit and why would Roscoe sign up without a longer look at Duke? Forget the rankings, Ross’ stock is on the rise and he would be a great fit at Duke. Plus, who doesn’t love a chance to stick it to Maryland? Losing Ross despite the fact that we have PT for him and a Duke commit is literally a current teammate, that would hurt. Losing Roscoe just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal right now.
Comment by jp January 9, 2010 @ 3:23 amI agree with the game of dominos comment. These recruits wait to see what each other are doing before they commit, rightfully so. Most of these young guys have one goal in mind, get to the Pros. They what to play immidiatly and they are going to go to schools that are going to get them there the fastest. For intance if Roscoe would have committed to Duke, would have played behing Singler (I dont see Kyle going to the NBA with the year he is having). MOST players dont want to take the time to develop skills and learn the game of Basketball. It also doesnt help with the fact that most of our players dont perform well on the professional level.
With Roscoe gone, it is imperetive that we land Terrance Ross, he is our last hope. I am hoping that his teammate and Duke signee Joshua Hairston can help with the cause. Being from the DC area, I know that Montrose Christian is a high school basketball powerhouse and with TWO players from that school would do wonders. This would add extreme depth, something we have almost never had, thats if Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler stay (which I see happening).
Comment by Edward Beard January 11, 2010 @ 11:49 amHow can we delude ourselves that playing four players as “big man-by-committee”, and being pleased when they as a group produce the output of one man, is going to get us past the Sweet 16!? I think we’ve seen all we’re going to get from the Plumlees already. We need good big men (and not Marshall Plumlee neither). Y’all saw how GA Tech’s bigs just pushed ours around. I hope Josh Hairston is good!
We don’t need Terrance Ross. He’d be just another guard on a team full of guards. We need good big men!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by PhillyDuke (formerly David) January 12, 2010 @ 8:34 am[...] then, many, include this blog, have speculated that Ross could end up in Durham. First, Duke was in need of a small forward, with [...]
Pingback by Random ACC Rant « Big Duke Balls February 19, 2010 @ 7:56 pm[...] then, many, include this blog, have speculated that Ross could end up in Durham. First, Duke was in need of a small forward, with [...]
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