Duke began the 2014-’15 season with 10 recruited players.
That’s not a lot. Remember the scholarship limit is 13.
Now Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t exactly known for going deep into his bench. But no battle plan survives contact with the enemy and the enemy frequently has been injuries, transfers, alien abduction, the sorts of things that whittle down a roster.
Four of those ten were freshmen, Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen. Duke did try to bring in a power forward with those four but missed on several targets, Kevon Looney and Reid Travis among them.
Then Duke lost Semi Ojeleye at the semester break. He had played 143 minutes in a season and a half and wanted more PT.
He found a soft place to land, being named 2017 AAC Player of the Year at SMU, getting a degree from a good school and playing several years in the NBA.
Of course, he missed a chance to win a national title and get a degree from a gooder school.
Still, hard to argue with his decision.
Rasheed Sulaimon made other decisions, bad ones by all accounts, and was dismissed from the program.
Leaving Duke with eight recruited players and predictions of impending doom.
But seven of those eight players would go on to play in the NBA, Matt Jones being the exception. Tyus Jones and Allen are NBA starters almost a decade later. Quinn Cook and Amile Jefferson provided veteran leadership and Okafor was 2015 ACC Player of the Year and a first team All-American.
Not a bad eight to have.
We all know how that season turned out.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JimSumnerSports to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.