I doubt anyone would disagree that the best way to do it is get your absolute pick of the best high school players and supplement that by getting your absolute pick of the best mature, tough upperclassmen. The more interesting question is what does every other program besides Duke do?
I know stating some of the obvious with Duke given their natural advantages. Had hoped the portal might neutralize some of their advantages and would level the playing field (because I hate Duke), as they seemed committed to just doing the same old build through Burger Boys routine. Rather than wait out a lot of his home grown guys like Roach & Mitchell, took the proactive and cleaned house to accelerate to the year over model by adding in portal upgrades and better roster fits. What's it's generally saying is that continuity (which is an advantage for many programs that can't recruit at that level), means jack, talent wins. With some of the super old guy COVID advantages dying off (which Pearl is reaping off of), that Duke model looks more and more sustainable. Not many can do what they are doing - although what's interesting is that Samson is bringing in a killer class this year, really a first for him after being more of a developmental guy. I consider him one of the smarter coaches out there.
Pearl is trying to hold onto the old guy recipe bringing in JUCO's at this point, which aren't docked eligibility any longer. Now that is an interesting angle.
I think all we can do is a bit of what Hurley is doing with this Frosh class - get the absolute best class you can, hold onto your 2-3 best returners and go grab really great portal gets. My concern this year is some of those really great portal players are going to be hot commodities, so I'm wondering how we fair.
