Not really. They can pick and choose. How many borderline kids have they taken in the past 5 years? I can't think of any offhand.
How would anyone know if the kids are borderline? You can meet the minimum requirements for NCAA eligibility and yet not be able to make it academically at Duke if you're taking the same level courses as the average student there. If they stay only a year or two nobody knows how good or bad they were academically.
Georgetown was a good example of a school that took some real gems. . Victor Page was a great player but only lasted two years purportedly because they ran out of ways to keep him eligible. Same with Michael Graham, the guy who forced the NCAA into coming up with the fighting rule. He played one year and drew blood in two games and was Ewing's protector. Graham took care of anybody that got near Ewing so he could operate freely. They won their only championship that year and Graham was gone after that one year, due to academic eligibility issues according to Wikipedia. They used him, got what they wanted and didn't need him anymore. They're Jesuits: the end justifies the means.
Yeah Duke doesn't look at borderline kids for the general school population but to say Duke doesn't look at borderline after seeing who their basketball and football program have recruited - that's just not true. Nearly every one and done at Duke except for Tatum and maybe Kyrie are not, in my opinion, Duke academic prototype students.That's a false equivalency though, as Duke's standards are definitely higher than UCONN's and Memphis's. We're talking about borderline academically eligible kids. Duke rarely even looks at those kids.
Yeah Duke doesn't look at borderline kids for the general school population but to say Duke doesn't look at borderline after seeing who their basketball and football program have recruited - that's just not true. Nearly every one and done at Duke except for Tatum and maybe Kyrie are not, in my opinion, Duke academic prototype students.