boozer to sign with duke

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Boozer To Duke: The Alaskan Pipeline
Is Still Flowing To Durham--(April 4, 1999)

It's just not fair. Really, it's not.

Call the Justice Department Antitrust Division. Appoint a special prosecutor.

Bar Grant Hill from Pauley Pavilion. Permanently.

There's a conspiracy afoot, and someone has to investigate.

You see, this is about the rich get richer, the big getting bigger and the small. . . well, it's about the big guys making sure that the small guys stay small and can't compete on a level playing-field.

It's un-American, we say. Kinda like Microsoft taking over the world, the international Communist conspiracy (remember that?), like "Big Oil", like "Ma Bell" before the breakup, the Duke Blue Devil's keep on dominating the world of college basketball recruiting.

Something's got to be done about it. Really.

The feds ought to bust up the Alaska-North Carolina Pipeline, because it threatens to undermine the very fabric of American college basketball. In America, dynasties are meant to be broken up. Standard Oil, AT&T, the Chicago Bulls. Something's gotta be done about it.

Five days after one Alaskan, All-American Trajan Langdon played his last game as a Blue Devil, another Alaskan, Carlos Boozer Jr. (6'-9" Sr. PF) from Douglas High School in Juneau, announced that he would spurn both UCLA and St. John's for Durham, North Carolina.

Carlos made the announcement yesterday morning at the Magic Roundball Classic Game played at the Palace at Auburn Hills, Michigan (just north of Detroit). We understand that UCLA Coach Steve Lavin was planning to attend the adidas sponsored game. UCLA had just become an adidas sponsored school. Carlos was an adidas player. Lavin was looking forward nervously to Carlos' press conference. At least we heard Lavin had planned to attend, but that was before word leaked out from Boozer's high school coach on Friday that Boozer would announce he was going to sign with Duke over UCLA.

We have no real idea if Lavin actually did show up, but if he did, he probably hung around just long enough to throw up, and hopefully not all over himself. And probably also didn't stick around long enough after the press conference to see Boozer come into the game off the bench and score 16 points, eight rebounds, two steals and one block in 24 minutes of play as Boozer's West team defeated the East All-Stars 146-137. And Boozer told everyone afterward he played "a terrible" game. Sheesh. Every team needs someone who can play that badly, including UCLA. Especially UCLA.

By announcing for Duke, Boozer insured that the Blue Devils will have 10 McDonald's All-Stars on their roster next season. And the consensus among just about everyone who's got an opinion on the subject is that Duke will be a "lock" to win the National Championship next year, and possibly for many years thereafter. And why not? Boozer has been named Alaska Player of the Year, Gatorade Player of the Year and a Parade All-American. He was a top consensus pick for the McDonald's All-American team; he has led his high school team to back-to-back state titles and was team MVP three years in a row. And he's only one of five guys with similar resumes that Duke snagged this year. Ahh, it is true: The rich do just keep getting richer.

"Not that there's anything wrong with that."

The well-to-do becoming more well-to-do is the American way. Success breed success, winners want to be associated with other winners, and having seen Carlos play many times here on the West Coast, we can say (nothwithstanding anything to the contrary Bob Gibbons might have to say about Carlos being "soft") Duke has picked up a player who will be an instant and potential long-term impact player, that is if he stays long enough on his way to the NBA. We at SoCalHoops want to congratulate Carlos for making an excellent choice, picking a coach and a school where he'll get a great basketball experience and a good education, where he'll surround himself with players who have as good a chance as currently exists in college basketball to win the next national championship (even if they did get hammered by UConn this year).

But having said all that, we aren't as convinced as everyone else out there that Duke will absolutely, positively, win a title next year. Boozer is a very good player and he's been tearing it up in Alaska, and we don't want to make it sound like sour grapes that he won't be playing here in SoCal, but no single player is important enough to insure a national title. We've seen Boozer drift off in games, play "soft", and without much intensity. We've also seen him play phenomenally well, using his 245 pounds of pure muscle to just kill guys on the boards, pushing players around and shooting from inside and outside. Sure, none of those games we sqw him in really matter, and most of them were meaningless summer tournament games. But is Carlos the basketball Messiah? No way. Is he even the best player in the country among the senior class? Probably not, even at his position. He's one heck of a player, but he's got a ways to go before he'll be the most dominant player in the college ranks.

Is Duke as a team the odds-on favorite to win it all next season? Well, we don't see any other team being as deep at every position, and there's no doubt that Coach K has assembled the best recruiting class in the nation with Boozer, who will be joined by the smooth shooting and fluid Michael Dunleavy (6'-7" Sr. SG/SF), Jason Williams (6'-2" Sr. PG) possibly the No.1 point guard prospect in the country, blocking artist Casey Sanders (6'-11" Sr. C), and by the only non-McDonald's All-American Duke recruit this year, Nick Horvath (6'-9" Sr. PF) -- and of course, Horvath was selected to the US Men's Youth Team that played in Moscow last summer and won a gold medal, and he was a McDonald's All-American finalist--who's no slouch either. In fact, you could probably start these five freshmen and probably beat 98% of the teams in college basketball today.

But as UCLA discovered this season, a great freshman recruiting class doesn't always insure overall immediate success. Players need to mature, they need to grow, and sometimes, even the best recruits don't pan out. Even if Boozer is the single best recruit in the nation (and we don't make the claim that he is) there are still more great players out there who didn't sign with Duke than did. Really. There are about 1,000 Division I scholarship spots open this season; of the top 100 players, Duke got 5. Now that's a lot for any school to get, but a lot of other schools will also sign top players as well, some more than others. And who determines that a guy is "top 100" or "top 500" or "top 1000" anyway? Just a bunch of basketball writers, some of whom are just making educated guesses. Is past high school basketball success important in determining the likelihood of future success at the college level? Sure, but it's no guarantee. Boozer could be a star, or he could turn out to be a flop. The odds overwhelmingly favor the former, but if past successes were the only thing that counted, there'd be no explaining a Scottie Pippen, or even a Dennis Rodman. Remember to keep all the Boozer hubub in perspective: He's only 17 years old. And he's only one player. A very good player, but still just one player.

Do we think the UCLA coaching staff is miserably disappointed that they didn't get Carlos to sign as a Bruin? What do you think?

Is St. John's disappointed also (why should we care. . . this is SoCalHoops, after all)? Of course they are.

Will life go on? You bet it will. Just like it will for the rest of the other 300+ Division I schools who also didn't land Boozer either.

But one thing is certain. The pipeline is still flowing, and it completely bypassed SoCal.

This time.