The Duke Basketball team was hoping to get a commitment from Leslie McDonald a shooting guard in the 2009 class but he chose North Carolina over the Blue Devils.  The Blue Devils quickly turned their attention to Andre Dawkins who is the third rated shooting guard in the 2010 class.

Dawkins took a trip down to Durham, and quickly said yes to the scholarship offer that was in front of him.  Dawkins 6-5 190 lb shooting guard from Chesapeake (VA) Atlantic Shores.  He is currently rated the third best shooting guard in the 2010 class and has been given five starts by rivals.com.

Welcome to the Blue Devil family Mr. Dawkins!

Chris Spatola has been promoted to Directory of Basketball Operations at Duke University.  That spot opened up after Mike Schrage decided to follow Johnny Dawkins to Stanford.  Spatola is also Coack K’s son-in-law that had been a graduate assistant/head team manager for the Blue Devils last season.

To fill Spatola’s spot, Coack K has hired another former Duke player.  Chris Carrawell will join the Duke coaching staff as a graduate assistant and head team manager.  Coack K says that he wants to teach Carrawell how to be a coach.

Looks like Duke is staying within the family for all of their recent hires.  Good idea if you ask me!

Nate James is the newest former Duke basketball player to be named an assistant coach at Duke University.  James will take the spot that opened up after Johnny Dawkins decided to take the head coaching job at Stanford.

James had worked with the last year with the Duke staff and is well liked in the Duke community.  He will jon Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski on the bench as assistant coaches.

It will be interesting to see how James does recruiting and being a 100% assistant coach for the first time.

Miles Plumlee has decided to play at Duke.  Plumlee originally signed a national letter of intent with Stanford but asked for and was granted his release after Trent Johnson left Stanford for LSU.

Plumlee is a 6′10 230 lb power forward that will need to add on some pounds to make a big difference in the ACC conference.  Plumlee averaged 15.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.5 blocks while leading Christ School to its second straight NCISAA State Championship as a senior.

Miles has a younger brother named Mason, a 6-11 junior forward at Christ School, that committed to Duke in February for the Class of 2009.

Former Duke basketball player Nate James says that he is very interested in the Duke Assistant Coaching job that is open after Johnny Dawkins took the head coaching job at Stanford.

James has always been involved with basketball and has helped out with camps and really enjoys the work.  Last season he served as a assitant strength and conditions coach for the Blue Devils.  He says all he can do is wait and see what happesn with the opening, but he would love to have the opportunity to be the next assistant coach.

One thing is for sure, the assitant coach that gets hired will be from the Duke family and really know how Duke basketball works and functions.  Sounds like James could be a great choice for the job.

What do you think Duke fans?  Can Nate James be the next great assitant coach at Duke?

Duke assistant coach and former player Johnny Dawkins is on his way to become the head coach at Stanford sources are saying.  Dawkins will succeed Trent Johnson, who abruptly left for LSU after leading the Cardinal to the Sweet 16.

I don’t know what to think about this to be honest. It comes as a shock to myself to see Dawkins leaving Duke as I always thought he would be at Duke forever.  Where does Duke go for their next assistant coach?

What do you think about Dawkins heading to Stanford and what are your thoughts on the next Duke assitant coach hiring?

Freshman Taylor King has decided to leave Duke and possibly transfer to Gonzaga or Villanova.  King will have to sit out a year after transferring and then be eligible the year after that.

King was a good player for Duke, He was a sharp shooter from beyond the arc, but I think he wanted to get more playing time and that didn’t happen with all the depth the Blue Devils had this past season.

We wish Taylor the best in the future.

***Taylor King has decided to attend Villanova.  He will have to sit out next season, and then will be available to play for the Wildcats the next year.***

Gerald Henderson and Lance Thomas both went under the knife in the past week to have operations on their hands / wrist.  Both players will be sidelines for a while, but will be back 100% when basketball season picks up again.

Henderson had reconstructive surgery to repair a ligament tear in his right wrist.  Thomas’ surgery was to reconstruct a tendon tear on the fifth finger (pinkie) of his right hand.

The season ended for the Duke Blues in the second round of the NCAA tournament as the lost to West Virginia 73-67.  Duke played a good first half as they took a five point lead into the locker room, but in the second half they could not make a bucket, and forgot what their lockdown defense was.

The three point shots were not falling for the Blue Devils. After hitting two of them early in the game, then went on a 0-15 streak from beyond the arc.  I thought around the 6-7 minute range, they were pressing too much and jacking up three point shots when they could have continued driving to the basket and picking up fouls.   Maybe it would have been a little bit closer of a game atleast.

It sucks to see Senior DeMarcus Nelson go out like this.  He played a terrible tournament and will take a lot of crap for his gameplay and the way Duke played.  We all know Nelson is a lot better player then he showed late in the season.

All in all, I wish we could have seen the Blue Devils advance but I figured it was a long shot the way they had been playing lately.  Nelson is the lone Senior that the team will lose, so the Blue Devils will have a lot of experience coming back.  That can only take you so far though, they need to get a big man to play downlow if they want to get any better.

We will continue blogging during the off-season and hope you continue to come and leave comments.  Stay strong Duke fans.

Ok, yes I will admit that Duke got very lucky tonight against Belmont.  To be honest, Belmont should have won this game and I actually felt sorry for them when they threw the last ball away to DeMarcus Nelson.  It was like I didn’t believe what happened…  Yet, I’m sitting here happy that Duke won, but still pissed off at how poorly they played.

First off, DeMarcus Nelson, you need to step up like the Senior you are.  You have been around the Duke program long enough to know when you should take the game over.   Yet, that didn’t happen and good thing Gerald Henderson was around to pick up for you.

Speaker of Henderson, what a game for him.  He came up with the big shot and the big stop on defense late in the ballgame that the Blue Devils really needed.  Without Henderson, the Blue Devils lose this game without a question.

Another player that really needs to step if the Blue Devils want to have any shot during the next round is Freshman Kyle Singler.  Singler has looked lost out there the last three to four games and isn’t knocking down the open shot.  I would like to see him drive to the basket more and get to the free throw line to get some points from the charity line.

I’m happy for the win tonight, but still upset at the same time.  I really don’t like Duke’s chances against the winner of the Arizona / West Virgina match.  I think Duke loses out in the second round, with another bad performance in the NCAA Tournament.  What do you think Blue Devil fans?  Do you agree with me?