RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Fighting Artichoke]

And perhaps Glen's tea leaves were accurate.

"Asia Durr, the top undeclared prospect in the 2015 class, has narrowed her college choices down to Baylor, Duke, Louisville, Maryland and Notre Dame."

"Among the schools Durr considered but has since eliminated from her list are Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia, Rutgers, South Carolina, Connecticut, Kentucky and LSU."

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/11306361/hoopgurlz-asia-durr-narrows-list-baylor-duke-louisville-maryland-notre-dame

[GlennMacGrady]

My primary cambric tea leaf is that, three months before the NLI signing period, top ranked recruits almost always know where they are going and it's usually to a school they have already visited. According to this early spring video, Durr had visited Rutgers, UTK, Duke and Maryland as of then.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HASOAluZehU?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Only Duke and Maryland have survived into her final five under the visit theory, unless she's made other visits we don't know about. Her other three final schools would seem to meet her stated criteria equally well.

My secondary cambric tea leaf was that Durr didn't seem to have shown much interest in UConn as of last month other than having them on her 13 school media decoy list, and that Geno's tweets could be interpreted as frustration at losing his real 2015 guard target, Ogumbowale.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/MagicBusBasketball

[Nixtreefan]

Glenn was definitely on to something. IMO both AO and AD are waiting to see where the other lands and Uconn was out for both after KLS went there.

[ArtBest23]

[GlennMacGrady]

[ArtBest23]

I'm generally skeptical that a player like Durr is remotely afraid of the competition.
She's going to play and play quickly regardless of where she goes and regardless of who else is on the roster.

[GlennMacGrady]

A few points.

It's not that Durr necessarily would be "afraid" of the competition at UConn. It's minutes. Players want to play and to play long minutes. Durr could see herself sitting a lot at UConn during big leads as Auriemma had to give time to six other guards.

Also, it's not incongruous that Durr would perceive Samuelson as competition at UConn. I don't see Durr as an instinctive or pure point guard; see seems to think shoot and drive before she thinks pass. Samuelson was played almost exclusively as a perimeter shooter on the U17 team and often brought the ball up. Therefore, one could consider both primarily to be perimeter shooters with the ability to bring the ball up court.

Finally, at UConn, Durr would see one year of Jefferson, two years of Chong, and three years of Nurse-Edwards ahead of her as point guards; and Chong, Edwards, Ekmark, Nurse . . . and the BIG GUN, Samuleson . . . as shooting guards/wings.

It's all a matter of perspective and probabilities. Durr would likely get more playing time over four years at each of her final five schools than at UConn.

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/MagicBusBasketball

[Nixtreefan]

These are basketball players. Who knows what they base choices on. But I will bet if AO goes to ND, AD won't.

[ArtBest23]

[Nixtreefan]

Why I am not surprised that you would assume that much.

But you are also assuming that she thinks the players ahead of her in the 2014 class are relevant!

[ArtBest23]

[GlennMacGrady]

[linkster]

"First, a player like Durr will happily let everyone else worry about the minutes they aren't going to get."

I'll disagree. It isn't necessarily about minutes. Diamond eliminated Tenn because she didn't want to share the ball with K Davis. Both would have gotten big minutes. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that a 17 year old has at least a little insecurity. Larry Bird threw up from nerves before every game. Notre Dame has some great guards ahead of her but they also have been playing a 3 guard offense for a number of years. JMO of course.



What is interesting is that a player from Georgia has no SEC teams on her final five list.

[ArtBest23]

[Nixtreefan]

Well according to my source Tenn was eliminated when Diamond chose them, so acc to Art thats an insult but not me, the kid can chose her school however she wants, her choice and no labels, like some people like to use.

[terpsforever]

I bet she goes to Louisville. Wish it was MD though but with Lexi Brown being the starting PG for the next 3 years, I say she goes to LSV

[LegoMyEggo]

[Fighting Artichoke]

[AAOK423]

[Fighting Artichoke]

[Oldfandepot2]

Duke. She will definitely start with Lambert considering the complete absence of elite guards with the departure of Jones. Coupled with the arrival this year of quality bigs, I think the talent level of the overall team rivals that of the only other contender with comparable talent, ND. I doubt she is afraid of the competition but rather I believe she welcomes it so when presented with a clear choice to compete right away like she has her entire young career then Duke presents a clear choice, the ability to start as she always has. Considering the differences between Duke and ND are so minute in the Program itself any perceived advantage could very well be the tipping point.

Plus four of her teams are in the South with ND being about equidistant from Douglasville as three of the other choices indicating to me anyway, that proximity to home is important to her. Duke of all the choices is the closest to home. Another tipping point.

As far as why not UCONN, to me unknown, maybe it as simple as she wants to be as close to home as possible while playing for an elite team. Considering her final five choices, one could make a strong argument for that but not the only argument as evident by the discussion in previous posts on this thread.

So Duke, been wrong before so not surprised if I am wrong again after all only a few weeks ago I thought it was ND upon cursory review. See me tomorrow.

_________________
Cave Canem!
We must listen to each other no matter how much it hurts. Bishop Desmond Tutu.

[AAOK423]