What Duke offered Jabari--SI Article

1) No position--play them all

2) Goal of National POTY as freshman

3) Goal of National Championship as freshman

4) Goal of #1 overall pick after a one-and-done



It's hard to see BYU in the WCC offering Jabari a legitimate chance of attaining his goals--I don't know we'll ever see a freshman POTY or #1 overall out of a "mid-major"--and I don't know that Rose is big on item #1. Not a criticism of Rose, but rather a frank look at why it is that BYU will always have an uphill battle for the top-tier recruits.



Article:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20140219/jabari-parker/?eref=sihp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very ambitious goals for Mr. Parker - however he does need a lesson in goal setting.



Of those four goals, Jabari only really controls about 2 of them. Both of which Jabari would have had a shot at here.



1) No position - Jabari can work with his coach on this. Given Rose's use of KC all over the court, I see no reason why Rose would have had an issue with moving Jabari around.



2) Goal of National POTY as a freshman - Yes, Jabari would have to play at a certain level to warrant consideration, which is up to Jabari but the final voting isn't up to Jabari. He has no control over the vote nor any control over how well other players play across the country. What if some Senior was chipping in 30+ points a game and winning all sorts of games for a "mid-major"? Votes likely would have gone to the Senior, not a freshman on a team filled with NBA talent.



3)Goal of National Championship as a freshman - This is something he can control...to an extent. He doesn't know what defenses are going to be thrown at him or how well his teammates will perform. Still, a player like Jabari can take over games and there wouldn't have been any reason why he couldn't have done such at BYU. Probably would be more dominant in the WCC, which would have helped him with goal #2.



4) Goal of #1 pick - this is the biggest head scratcher of them all. Assuming he accomplishes goals 1 - 3, there is no way he can control where he goes in the draft. The team with the first pick may need a PG (Jabari isn't a NBA-level PG) and therefore will pick a PG. A team may need a center (Jabari isn't a NBA-level center) and therefore pick a center. It depends completely on the team and it's needs. Very odd goal. Top 5, I could completely get or understand.



I see no reason why BYU couldn't have delivered on these aspirations. Parker's talents may have been showcased more at BYU and in the WCC. Had he come to BYU we'd be looking at a pretty special season (potentially undefeated) and Parker would have been the reason behind it. Whole country would have been talking about him similar to Jimmer.



Instead, he's at Duke where they're 21 - 5 and may finish 3rd in the ACC (Yes, I know it's the ACC). He's one of many at Duke and in the ACC, albeit a big one but I wouldn't describe him as POTY material. Duke is good, no question, but Syracuse on the other hand...WOW. I don't see Duke winning a national title. I'd put money on Syracuse.



Jabari is the leading scorer at Duke with 19 pts/game, but Hood at 16 pts/game shoots as well as Jabari from the field and shoots better from behind the arc. Jabari is at 8.7 rebounds a game, again the team leader. However, Jabari isn't in the Top 5 of any category in the nation. Haws, is 4th in the nation in scoring. Imagine, where Jabari would be had he played a BYU. Imagine the season BYU would be having if we had a guy capable of 20+ points and 10 boards a night.



IMO, if those were really Jabari's goals, he picked the wrong school.

If he really wanted one and done, I'm not that upset about losing him, but I don't know if he's really athletic enough to be #1 ahead of Wiggins, Embiid... both have higher ceilings



He won't win a national championship at Duke this year, they don't have bigs and their guards are suspect. They have 2 really good forwards (Parker, Hood)... Coach K is an incredibly overrated coach. I think they're really good, but I don't think they have enough talent to win 5 in a row against good competition (they're 185th in D1 in rebounds per game)



He's not the best player in the country... at least he hasn't performed the best... I would give that to Doug McDermott

craigoscarson wrote:
Coach Ratface is an incredibly overrated coach.

Amen!

Gunk wrote:
IMO, if those were really Jabari's goals, he picked the wrong school.

Looking at it from his perspective at the time the choice had to be made (i.e. not after the fact when we know how the 2013-14 season has panned out to date) what school would have been the right school? I still don't think BYU makes the cut.

I agree that had he chosen BYU we would be having a special year. With a starting rotation of MC, KC, TH, JP, and EM I think we would very likely be undefeated, staring at a top 5 ranking (maybe # 2 or #3 behind Syracuse and maybe Arizona, a possible #1 seed and all the soup that the soup nazi could provide.



On a personal note, if it came down to his personal goals, I wonder where the mission falls in at? If I had any advice to give him it would be that down the road (2 years, 10 years, 25 years) he would never regret having gone on a misison but he will very likely regret not having gone on a mission.

snoscythe wrote:

IMO, if those were really Jabari's goals, he picked the wrong school.

Looking at it from his perspective at the time the choice had to be made (i.e. not after the fact when we know how the 2013-14 season has panned out to date) what school would have been the right school? I still don't think BYU makes the cut.

True, hindsight is always 20/20.



He would have had to have thought at the time that even at Duke among all that talent and in the ACC playing against all that talent, he still would have managed to be a top 5 scorer and top rebounder in the country. That's a tall order.



Kinda like Mika saying his goal was to average a double/double every night...

Maybe JP could have solved our PG problems. :roll:



As for The draft, good, I hope THe more Athletic Guys go first. JP is more prepared. Though he is no LeBron.

Cougs_Rule wrote:
Maybe JP could have solved our PG problems. :roll:



As for The draft, good, I hope THe more Athletic Guys go first. JP is more prepared. Though he is no LeBron.

Though if he can lose 20 pounds he might turn into a big-time athele.

At the next level, Wiggins will be the best player in this draft. After that, it's kind of a crap shoot. A lot of good players, that if they are the number 1 option on their teams, will be about the 4th or 5th seeds in their conference most years (including Wiggins) unless they have a really good number 2 player with them.



Most of these guys are number 2's on a championship level teams.

I don't watch enough of ESPN pre and half-time portions to know who is who, but whoever that was during the half time of the BYU-Gonzaga really laid into Jarbari as not have ANY defensive game. I don't know that I've heard anyone tear into someone as much. He said he can get away with it (like Jimmer--he didn't say that, but it was the same song and dance) if he scores 30+ points, but against NC he only had 17 and his defense was non-existant.