Irving, Barnes Have Tough Decisions to Make

It’s officially hand-wringing season for the majority of college basketball fans… the month-or-so between your favorite team’s last game and the deadline to declare for the NBA draft.  It’s the time of year that controls how a fan views the off-season.  Will you be in a deep depression, sitting silently by yourself looking down at the replica jersey of your favorite early-entry defection trying to remember the good times you had watching them play while not wanting to imagine how life can go on without them?  Or will you be celebrating the return of your team’s savior by saving a place on the wall to add one more framed national championship Sports Illustrated cover next April?  It’s the Groundhog Day of college basketball … if your superstar underclassman sees his NBA shadow and is frightened back into his dorm room for another year, it means two more weeks of car flags flying proudly around town.  Despite the fact that there are as many champions who lost key players to the draft the previous year as there are champions who returned all of their superstars, it’s one of the most intriguing times of year for all fans.

In this area, there are five key figures to keep an eye on … Kyrie Irving and Mason Plumlee from Duke, and Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller from UNC.  At this moment, the general consensus is that Kyrie has finished his collegiate career, Mason Plumlee is undecided, and the entire trio of Tarheels will return for 2011-12.  Also at this moment, no one outside of those five individuals, their families and their coaches have any idea what they’re going to do – and potentially they don’t know either.  The news on Irving stems from one person, ESPN’s Chad Ford.  Ford stated in an ESPN insider article that Irving was “one foot out of the door” while Mason Plumlee was “50/50”.  The context of the article was Ford’s opinion, and was not based on any conversations he’d had with the players themselves.  Since then, CBS, Yahoo, and numerous mainstream blogs have picked up the story with “ESPN reporting that Irving is going pro” as the backbone of their articles.  This, in a nutshell, is how journalists cover this time of year. 

On the UNC side of things, the story gets a little more humorous.  Apparently the rumors of Zeller, Barnes and Henson’s package decision to return stems from a report from a student who claims to have been at Tyler Zeller’s apartment when Barnes and Henson came over to hang out.  Allegedly, Henson said “It’s time to talk about this decision, bra” and the three retired to Zeller’s bedroom to talk things over.  Unfortunately, we don’t have any more information because the storyteller “couldn’t hear too well because they were in Tyler’s room”, which led to him lamenting over what could have been when he said “I could have been an IC (www.insidecarolina.com) legend.”  Unfortunately, we will not be getting any further information out of the Chi O’s this weekend as they’ve asked their sorority sisters not to ask Kendall Marshall, Harrison Barnes and John Henson about their NBA plans at their formal this weekend.  This leads to another bit of speculation to ponder … why was Tyler Zeller not invited to the party?

Having said all of that, it’s my OPINION that Kyrie Irving will declare for the NBA draft, and that Plumlee, Barnes, Zeller and Henson will all return next season.  I will further clarify by stating that my OPINION is based entirely on the OPINIONS of others.  Cue the Duke fans freaking out about having Kyrie Irving for 11 games while Roy Williams was able to swindle money from Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton by hotboxing them into staying for three seasons, and cue the rosterbation from UNC fans looking through a lineup of 11 NBA players and planning their celebration of their 6th or 7th title (depending on which Tarheel fan you talk to).  As the decisions start being made public, two more hilarious items from this silly-season rear their ugly heads: the overnight change in player evaluation from fans, and the onslaught of early entry rule ideas.

So here’s how this is going to play out … if you ask a UNC fan today to evaluate Harrison Barnes, he’s a poor man’s Sean Elliot who needs to stay in college to become more than just a jumpshooter.  Duke fans think he’s a dynamic talent who should be a top 3 pick and would be absolutely foolish not to go take his place as the next Kevin Durant.  UNC fans feel like Kyrie Irving is the next Derrick Rose, while Duke fans have concerns about how Kyrie will hold up over an NBA season being so small and so out of shape from not playing.  If Barnes comes back, UNC fans are already polishing his Naismith Trophy while Duke fans are taking bets to see who from Roy Williams’ deep bench will transfer first.  Likewise if Irving returns, UNC fans become immediately concerned about Austin Rivers being able to get enough touches to make him happy while Duke fans are writing blog posts about the greatest backcourts in basketball history (coming to this site soon should Kyrie come back to Duke).  It’s the hilarious dance that fans do during this time of year.

And don’t get me started on the early entry opinions that will be thrown around ad nauseam following the conclusion of the championship game.  From the “baseball model” to the “hockey model” to the LeBron/Howard/Garnett model … ideas will be thrown around left and right.  Most of them not even feasible, all of them entirely uninformed and extremely biased.  The only fact you need to know about the early entry debate is this … it’s the NBA’s decision to make, and the decision will ALWAYS be what’s in the best interest of the NBA.  Talk all you’d like about how one-and-dones kill college basketball, or how “high school straight to the NBA” detracts young athletes from pursuing education.  It doesn’t matter.

Personally, I want to see as many kids stay for four years as possible because I like college basketball.  Specifically this season when the NBA is facing a likely work-stoppage, this could be college basketball’s time to shine.  If every underclassmen returned to school for the 2011-12 college season, you’d likely see three of the best teams ever assembled with the talent that Kentucky, UNC and Duke would have on their rosters.  The depth of talent would be legendary.  The worst part about college basketball these days is that we know the above scenario would never play out with all of those players returning.  The best part about college basketball these days … if it DID happen, it wouldn’t be shocking in the slightest if the championship was won by someone other than those three powerhouses.  So while you’re sitting on the edge of your seats over the next few weeks, living and dying with every rumor that gets posted, just remember the games still have to be played next year.  And for every ‘super-team’ that’s ever won a championship, there are two or three champions who came from nowhere to win.

What Happened? Duke’s Season Ends Suddenly

Eyes will tell you all you need to know.  If you’re one who pays attention to the details of Coach K’s philosophy on communication, you already know his thoughts on how important the eyes are in telling a story.  Words are only a fraction of what makes up communication, but a person’s eyes can you tell you all you’d ever need to know about someone in one brief moment.  As the horn blew at the scorer’s table and Kyle and Nolan dropped their heads and slinked their way off of the court for the last time in a Duke uniform, I was screaming at the TV as the producers panned from Arizona fans celebrating in the crowd to Sean Miller trying to keep his team calm and then to Arizona players high fiving and chest bumping.  I needed to see them leave the court.  I wanted to see their eyes.  Selfishly, I needed some closure to this debacle of a season finale.  I got a brief glimpse of Coach K talking to his two seniors on the sidelines, but I couldn’t tell anything from that other than that none of the three seemed to know what to do or say.  Then another reaction shot from the court, and then finally … Nolan on the bench, looking out on the court, I saw his eyes.  There were a few tears, but nothing as memorably emotional as Chris Carrawell coming off of the court and draping himself on his coaches in exhaustion and in the bitter realization that he gave his best, but his best wasn’t quite good enough to win.  I didn’t expect Nolan to cry because he knows real loss and real pain, and this is just a basketball game.  But I did expect an answer.  I wanted to know what happened.  I wanted to know why the season was ending, why were we getting destroyed by Arizona, what the hell happened.  Nolan’s eyes told me that he was wondering the exact same thing.  I don’t think anyone knew what happened.  There’s only one thing we know for sure at this point … this season is over.

First, let’s start with the game itself.  The 2nd half that Arizona put together is the best half of basketball I’ve seen since UNLV ran Duke out of the gym in 1990.  I’m confident in saying there is not one team in America that would have beaten Arizona last night.  Sure, Duke’s defense contributed to the offensive performance of the Wildcats, but their offense made Duke’s defense take on uncomfortable challenges.  Classic man-to-man defense says to stay low, slightly off of one shoulder, and an arm’s length away from the player with the ball.  The way Arizona hit contested jump shots forced Duke’s defenders to defend too closely which led to blow-by opportunities for Arizona guards.  And when I say Arizona guards, I mean everyone on the court.  Help-side defense had to rotate over from such a great distance that it would leave a player open for a wide open three.  Usually you can hope a team misses enough of those looks to stay in the game, but Arizona was not missing anything.  You can blame slow feet or you can blame a lack of conditioning from Kyrie Irving as a culprit, but for anyone who has ever competed against a team who can do no wrong, it messes with your head to the point where your body doesn’t respond like it normally does.  My advice – do not waste a single minute breaking down the game film.  All you’d see would be a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes being caused by doubt, frustration, anxiety and exhaustion.  A bunch of guys, normally unflappable, looking around wondering what the hell happened.

And cut with the chemistry talk.  There was no chemistry issue against Hampton, there was no chemistry issue against Michigan.  Additionally, there was no chemistry issue against Arizona.  Putting blame on Kyrie’s return is just a contrived conclusion found while aimlessly seeking for an answer as to why we lost.  Nolan Smith had a bad game.  Nolan Smith hasn’t had a bad game in a really long time.  Kyrie Irving hasn’t played extended minutes for a really long time.  So by that, I concluded that Kyrie Irving playing extended minutes caused Nolan Smith to have a bad game.  Nolan had a bad game because he’s human.  It happens.  Just a few short months ago, I celebrated my San Francisco Giants destroying four of the most dominant starting pitchers in all of baseball.  Tom Brady didn’t win the Super Bowl.  Tiger Woods hasn’t won a major since 2008.  Sometimes the best athletes have bad performances.  So why are we so quick to blame this on Kyrie’s return?  Because Nolan Smith is one of the most beloved Duke players ever, and he laid an absolute egg in his last game ever as a Blue Devil.  Did Duke lose because of Nolan?  No, that’s not at all what I’m saying.  But Nolan had an awful game at the worst of times, and it was a direct result of nothing more than being mortal.  Don’t fall into the trap of somehow trying to use this Duke loss to undermine Coach K’s ability to lead championship teams, because that’s what “they’re” doing to you, Duke fans.  Within minutes of the final horn, I saw two memes spreading around Twitter … K’s declining success rate in the Sweet 16 round, and Kyrie’s impact on team chemistry and Nolan’s role.  I’m begging you, Duke fans, take a step back and see how transparent that is.  Nolan, and likely Kyrie, are gone after this year.  So let’s place the blame on the guy who will be at Duke for years to come and try to chip away at the respect and adoration Coach K’s players and fans have for him.  That’s not working on me, I’m sorry.  Nolan Smith, our leader, our player of the year candidate, one of my favorite players of all-time, played an extremely bad basketball game.  And it makes me feel for him even more.

It’s fitting that the team poster this year featured the motto “One”.  Thought it was used to demonstrate the bond between the players, this season will forever be remembered as Kyrie’s year.  Over the first 8 games, he electrified us with every aspect of his game.  After being stolen away from college basketball by a freak toe injury against Butler in early December, Duke fans followed along with one of the most frustrating rehab efforts in sports history.  Meanwhile, the team rolled on to a 21-4 record without him, and even while celebrating an ACC record 19th ACC championship, the big story was the enthusiastic proclamation of the freshman phenom that he might record for the NCAA tournament.  There were so many great moments for Duke this season.  A legendary 2nd half comeback win against rival UNC, career high after career high by Nolan Smith on his way to being named as a finalist for every post-season award in existence, a 2nd straight undefeated home record and the nation’s longest home-court winning streak, and Coach K passing legend Dean Smith in all time wins on his way to being the 2nd coach ever to win 900 games in a Division I career.  But to me, watching the season unfold felt like skimming through the pages of a book rushing to get to the end to see how it finishes.  Now’s the time of year to look back and reflect on the great moments this team provided us, but once you find out the hero dies at the end of the second act, the beautiful soliloquy a few scenes earlier just doesn’t have the same impact. 

So what now?  We have more Kyrie drama to look forward to.  Just moments after Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler slipped away from the podium for the last time and the floor was opened up for questions for Mike Krzyzewski, the Charlotte Observer asked Coach K about Kyrie’s plans regarding the NBA draft.  This certain reporter (who will remain unnamed) knew he wouldn’t get an answer, and he knew exactly what kind of reaction he’d get from Coach K.  And still he asked.  This from a member of the same media who writes daily columns laughing at athletic directors for having the audacity to hope to land that elite head coach for their open position.  What’s the difference?  What’s the difference in asking Mike Krzyzewski a question that you KNOW he won’t answer and, for argument’s sake, Debbie Yow thinking she has a shot at an elite basketball coach.  But this is what we have to look forward to this off-season … the “will he” or “won’t he” decision that Kyrie Irving has to make.  I’m not willing to say I feel strongly that he’ll go one way versus the other.  There’s a long list of pros and cons for both decisions.  There will be those who say he’s an idiot if he doesn’t take the money and run, and there will be those who will call him a sell-out if he hangs up that beautiful #1 jersey after 11 glorious performances.  There’s going to be a third group who will sit back without an opinion waiting to jump on whichever of the other two groups gets to have their voices heard.  Me?  I’m in my own group.  I don’t care what Kyrie Irving does as long as he ends up doing what he wants to do.  If he comes back, I’m not going to be in the ear of every Carolina fan telling them our lease on the rivalry has been extended.  If he goes, I’m not going to be looking down our roster next year trying to figure out how we’ll ever win a basketball game.  Kyrie Irving gave me two gifts this year.  The first was the gift of being able to tell my kids and eventually tell their kids that I saw Kyrie Irving play basketball in person.  The second gift, the understanding that expectations can suck the joy out of being a fan.

I remember back in October reading how NBA scouts were crowning Duke as the most complete college basketball team they’ve seen in years.  I remember walking into Cameron on October 23rd to see Duke taking on St. Augustines and looking up at the four National Championship banners picturing how it would look with the 5th hanging beside them.  I remember the feeling after the Kansas State game when my dad turned to me and said “I don’t think anyone can beat us.”  Now, looking back on the season where Duke won 32 games and an ACC Championship, it just seems like this year sucked.  Next year, this will not happen.  I’m going to enjoy the journey.  Next year, regardless of how Duke’s season ends, I refuse to be left wondering “what happened?”