Austin Rivers commits to Duke

Just got a lil richer. 

he should have come to ucla, but i knew that was never real close to happening.

He sure didnt do it for the Duke women

If Mason stays for a third year this team could be better than the last years

Austil wanted to attend Florida,but felt he has a much better chance of winning a title by going to Duke…Out of all the former players son that are playing in college or in high school Austin has the most upside….I think if he had chosen Florida he would’ve put up big stats,but going to Duke will teach him the intangibles of the game.

a good look. congrats to duke & the rivers family.

He knew he was going there since he decommited. what a bumer he couldve wait a couple of days when he visit (UNC) it sucks!!!!!

Surprise, surprise.

I do not know about the team being better than this years, they still will have to replace Singler on the wing, but this is another huge score for Duke. Irving was the highest rated recruit to sign with them since Singler more than likely. Actually was, Coach K has just done an amazing job of stacking his team with talent. I guess that is what people usually do not get about Duke, they might not have the best NBA players, but Coach K always gets some of the best prospects in the country that buy into his system. 4 titles is ridiculously impressive for a college coach, definitely puts him at the top of coaches currently coaching in the NCAA. He has had his share of top recruits, his last number 1 (according to Scout.com rankings) was Josh McRoberts, and I do not really remember a year without Duke securing at least McDonald’s All-American, but while Duke always is in the thick of things, I think people have always pointed to how few of their players become NBA successes. The best Blue Devil to grace the league since the first championships was Grant Hill, who was a superstar until injuries made him a solid role player. Elton Brand was a beast for quite a while until injuries relegated him to the category of overpaid underachiever. Jason Williams looked like a can’t miss superstar, until he followed a less than stellar rookie year with his career ending motorcycle crash. Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner both fought injuries over their careers and never came close to potential. The Duke one and done guys, Corey Maggette and Luol Deng, both have been solid though unspectacular. Tons of Duke guys have been considered busts, Shelden Williams, William Avery, Trajan Langdon all amongst lotto Dukies who failed to come close to the hype (even with Langdon’s success in Moscow, he was out of the league in 2 years as an 11th pick, hardly worth it). More recently there was a major success in Carlos Boozer, who basically proved he should have taken where Shelden Williams was. Shane Battier, the catalyst of Duke’s 3rd title, has been a great role player, though it has still yet to be seen if he was worth Rudy Gay for the Rockets. JJ Reddick, the man everyone loved has shown he could be a very useful role player with his relentless hard work on his game. But of all these players, Duke has never really had that potential superstar talent who lived up to what was touted of him. Singler being this is doubtful, he is similar to Mike Dunleavy, though by now teams have learned there lesson (Dunleavy I think actually won POY for the tourney he won, though I could be wrong). Still not a bad thing, but Kyle is not the guy who will more than likely be an elite level player in the NBA. Now, with the recruiting’s of Irving and Rivers, they really have a chance to have two guys who live up to billing. Both of them have been so impressive on the HS level, it is honestly difficult to say who the better pro prospect is. Most will say Irving, since he has a more defined position at point, and Rivers may be small for a more natural 2, but Duke could have a couple top 3 picks in these players. Been a while since that has happened. Not surprising that Rivers ended up choosing Duke, but still very big news for the Blue Devils, who will more than likely have 4 of 5 top scorers leave for the NBA (Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler graduating, Irving and Mason Plumlee early entry. Sure, Plumlee could stay, but just remember he was projected first round last year, and when he plays, I am sure his stock will shoot up higher. I also assume Seth Curry or Andre Dawkins could end up scoring more than Plumlee, but both are unlikely to leave).

Oh HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!!!

Dunleavy was never player of the year. Shane Battier and Jason Williams split the NPOY awards in 2001, the year they won, with Battier getting the majority of the major ones. Dunleavy wasn’t even an All American that year, nor was he first team all acc. In 2002, when they were upset in the sweet 16, Williams was the concenus NPOY, although I believe Dunleavy was a 2nd team All American. Also you forgot Carlos Boozer as a successful Duke NBA player.

 Should of went to Kentucky Coach Cal could of turned him into the first PG taken in the draft.  At Duke he will play SG and come into the league with size question marks.

Should of went to Kentucky Coach Cal could of turned him into the first PG taken in the draft. At Duke he will play SG and come into the league with size question marks.

No he won’t. He will be a PG at Duke.

You realize that there is no chance he would play PG at UK, seeing as they have Marquis Teague, the top rated point guard in the country. Why would Calipari have both Rivers and Teague play out of position by putting Rivers at the 1 and Teague at the 2. That would be stupid and the team wouldn’t be as good.

Kyrie Irving is almost definatly one and done, and that will leave a void at pg, although Duke will still have Tyler Thornton. Most likely Rivers and Seth Curry will share the point guard duties in 2011, where as he would play almost no point at Kentucky.

 Ur right I forgot about Teague being committed to KU.  And I’m not sold on Irvin being one and done.  I hope he does come back because him and Rivers together in the backcourt would be special.  And Coach K has shown the ability to get players to play one more year.

Florida may have been a contender as it was his home state but with Coach Cal having his 2011-12 PG in place then Duke is a logical choice as they are always likely contenders and Coach K is a legend and will surely help to make Rivers a better player.

I hope you are right and Irving will stay for 2 years, but at this point it doesn’t look like that will happen. The staff is fully aware of his intentions and is planning accordingly. That being said, Irving and Rivers are friends, and maybe that will make Irving more inclined to stay one more year. But as I said earlier, Duke is assuming that Irving will only be around for 1 year.

 It’s gona be interesting to see if the pending lockout has any effect on the players in deciding whether they come out or stay in.  It could go both ways player wanting to stay in untill the lockout is settled because they dont wanna be out of a job and out of school at the same time.  Or coming out hoping to get that rookie contract before the lockout happens if it does.

But the top players in my eyes might not go the one and done route.  I really think Jones is going to stay in at Baylor.  Barnes and Irving too are going to school with a lot of tradition who also have a rep for being able to keep blue chip prospects playing there.  

Duke still with all of their 5 star recruits has only ever had one player come out after their freshman year and that’s Corey Maggette.  Erybody from Brand, to Battier, Jay Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Shelden Williams, Gerald Henderson even to a player like McRoberts.  

UNC got the same tradition going for them, Marvin Williams is the last 5 star UNC recruit I remember going after his freshman year.  Please correct me if I’m wrong.  

And I fully expect Josh  Shelby to have the most impressing freshman campaign out of any of the guards.

 I meant to say for the tournament and accidentally put POY instead of MOP. But, I think you would have gotten the gist of it, I know he was never national POY, but I do remember he had a big game in the championship, though Battier won the MOP. Still, it had little to do with my major article, and the only thing I mentioned about Dunleavy was the tournament. 

@MikeyV- I wasn’t trying to call you out dude, I just happen to be a Duke Basketball fanatic and I thought I smelled a hater. I was wrong and I’m sorry. But Dunleavy actually got hurt and played poorly early in the tournament, but he was huge in the Championship against Arizona. He hit 4 threes in a row I believe.

@Mr. 1934

You forgot Deng, but I agree with the premise. But you have to understand that this case is different in that the staff expects Irving to be gone next year. But I hope that you are right and he stays for 2.

McDunkin- Nice pic Duke Nike jersey with Adidas shoes lolz

Mr. 19134-He will play the 1 because Kyrie & Nolan will be gone by the time he gets there, he does not have the size to be a NBA 2.

Come on let’s be realistic. Just because barnes and kyrie are going to tradition schools that doesn’t mean they are more likely to be there more then a year. The only reason most of there players stay for more then a year is they aren’t considered top picks after there freshman year. Barnes and kyrie are predicted to go to 5. Has there been a recent freshman at either school projected to go that high?  Ed Davis was close but he was considered late lotto

As far as rives at uk. Bledose played the sg there even though he was a pg. With that said rivers would have played sg there with teauge because he’s a better shooter but it doesn’t matter because teams will probably try to make him a pg reguardless what he played in college. Then again he might play the sg just like others near his height ( Ben gordan,Joe dumars,Jeff horneck,jj reddick etc)