NCAA Hoops 2025-26 Season Thread: MARCH SADNESS FOR DUKE

I've always thought that, but it is mainly the star type players that fail epically as coaches. Somebody should work up a list of successful and unsuccessful on that. I might do it. The limited physical talent but "heady" type player is probably the exception, but you know where that type of analysis leads.

But the hypothesis is kind of like this: if you got there on raw physical ability, you aren't a coaching candidate; if you got there on superior understanding, fundamentals and strategic aspects of the game, you are. It's very, very hard to have both to the same degree.

Wow ... having had no action necessary on any push bet over the decades, i.e. never betting cash over the counter, I was all set to throw out my UConn +4 1st half ticket, knowing full well it pushed. It crossed my mind three or four times before I realized I had the bet amount coming back. Jeez. I guess you live and learn.

Thank goodness. 🥳

I'm glad Duke has Scheyer. I've waited my whole life for Duke to be plagued by poor coaching. I'm gonna savor every second of the Scheyer era.

I played in intramural leagues myself. I could have been somebody. In fact, I was somebody in baseball. I hit my first home run in high school against a guy who later pitched a no-hitter in the major leagues.

Well he's had 3 pretty good years. He sucks?

Yea I think it's clear he ain't it. With all the advantages that Duke has, with the stacked rosters he's had to work with, to already be the author of two historical collapses (Houston and Uconn) tells me all I need to know about his coaching chops.

Duke's always gonna have elite players so they're still gonna be a force of nature no matter who's their coach. I think it's safe to say that Scheyer does suck, and I think it's great for college basketball that that's the case. Duke is basically locked into perpetually underachieving as long as he's there and we should all be rejoicing this fact. It's about goddamn time their program ran bad.

I'm gonna have to disagree on this one. He has some pretty solid years in his first four ... two Elite 8s and a Final Four. It looks like 11-4 in the NCAA tournament, two regular season ACC titles and three ACC tournament champs already. An overall win % of .832. I realize you know all that, but that is pretty damn good, and as to automatic success because of the brand, what about UNC, UK, Louisville, Indiana lately?

I agree there is a couple percent goofy in him, and they blew some leads, but I think he will live it down and overcome it. I think he's going to coach there for 30 more years and win 900 games. Two NCAA titles. Take a look at what Coach K did in his first three years. He was so, so shaky to get fired after that third year, 11-17 record. He had 38 wins his first three season, Scheyer 89.

He probably has a little bit of Jim Boeheim, Lute Olsen, even Dean Smith in him. But that's a whole, whole lot of wins and a few titles. Think of some of the legendary coaches who were followed by epic fails. Scheyer is way above a lot of that.

Scheyeratariat is parsecs & googleplexes ahead after three seasons of any other handpicked heir apparent to a legendary HOF NCAA or NBA coach in history including Izzo—the only one of the breed who’s been a longterm success—who drove Sparty off a cliff his first two seasons.

He’s no genius but he’ll keep the pipeline of Duke types open which is all that matters. Odd how Stanford football screwed that up.

Duke has the top recruiting class basically every year and often has the best high school player go there. They have the most number 1 draft picks in the last 25 years with Kentucky the only school hanging with them, and possibly could have one this year.

I don't know if Scheyer is good or not, but Duke is going to have success no matter the coach unless the elite of the elite suddenly stop going there. The ACC is also generally a weaker conference compared to the conferences those other schools play in.

Didn’t catch if Malone was wearing The Precious at the intro presser today.

Looking over Duke's recruiting classes rank recently, it is certainly awesome. Just as UK's was before that, UNC before that, UCLA before that, etc. I think it is cyclicle. Not exactly sure how they pull that off, as it seems other teams might have more street cred, at least in a sense. Regardless, the NIL and wide open portal factors seem a huge equilizer thrown into that. The point is that it isn't a guarantee to continue, never was, and if it does continue it will be Scheyer doing it.

All the top programs over the years wax and wane on recruiting. Scheyer has been #1 every years he's been there. He gets credit for that, not demerits. Especially in regard to how when monster coaches leave a program it often crashes and burns for a while.

I think I saw them listed as the favorites to win it all next year. Is Boozer staying? ... Oh, I see he is.

I don't see a definitive answer on him staying, just a consideration.

Lol

Tyran Stokes to KU over UK.

Means two things:

(1) Some Kentucky fans are going to be BIG MAD. Fire Mark Pope, burn it all down.

(2) Bill Self is going to have a stroke, a heart attack or both before March 1.

A lot of UK fans already have the flamethrowers going. Pope is getting another year one way or another.

So I don't see a reason to have the flamethrower ignited. But it is primed.

And it isn't just about missing out on Stokes. It is we set aside a significant amount of NIL hoping to get Stokes. Now, where does the money go to? All significant portal talent has found a spot.