McDonald's Recap, and thoughts

So the McDs game was played Wednesday with the West beating the East 114-112 when O.J. Mayo bricked a wide open 3 off the back rim. Lost in all the hoopla about Mayo's selfishness is Kyle Singler's quiet play that calmly iced the game for the West. Up 112-109, Singler gets the ball in the corner and sends Mayo flying in the air with a great ball fake, followed by a reverse lay-up making it 114-109. Then, Nick Calathas (Florida recruit) got the rebound off Mayo's bricked 3, and Singler played solid defense preventing him from tying the game. The whole game Singler played defense against smaller, faster players and did so admirably.

Anyway, I wanted to comment on a few things I noticed while watching the game. First, the hoopla over Kevin Love as the anti-OJ Mayo is out of control. OJ Mayo is thought of as selfish, concerned only with style and money, while Kevin Love is portrayed as the selfless team player, a great kid all around who is a student of the game. What's lost here is that Love is as big an ego maniac as any of them.

Kevin Love: ""You know I come out here to New York and I get the McDonald's national player of the year award. I also find out that I have won the Naismith Award, the Wooden Award, and the Parade player of the year awards. Back home in Oregon, though, I only tie for state player of the year with Kyle Singler. Go figure. My team lost to his in the state playoffs, but it wasn't like he outplayed me. I just think it's ironic."

Now, are these the words of a kid who cares first for his team? This year, Singler's South Medford beat Lake Oswego twice, including in the State finals. Maybe Love's stats were better, but marginally, and what matters is the win. But Love is clearly concerned with himself first. Hey, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's premature to anoint this guy the second coming of Bill Walton.

As for OJ, I think he's gotten premature bad press. Maybe he will be Stephon Starbury/Vince Carter type, or maybe he's gotten bad press while in high school because it suits the media to vilify him? So he shot 17 shots in a high school all-star team. I'm sorry but I'm not going to condemn him for that. It's a damn all-star game! Players barely passed in the half-court and most of the time they'd just pull up for the first shot they could get. Again, it's an all-star game. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The word has been all week that OJ Mayo and Jerryd Bayless were scorching everyone in practice. So he had a bad game... it happens and I'm not going to jump to any conclusions.

Now, to get to the Duke players. First, Nolan Smith. He's exactly what we have lacked this year on the perimeter. He's a long, fairly athletic guard who can defend very well and has a pretty good offensive game too. I don't think he will be a star, but he will provide us with that perimeter defensive presence we have sorely missed this past year. He could become a REALLY good player, though. One interesting thing about him is his clown feet. The kid is about 6'3" and has size 18 feet. That's pretty ridiculous, and given his age, he might still grow. As it is, though, he plays bigger than he is because of his great length.

Second is Kyle Singler. He's our highest rated recruit, and for good reason. He's slighter than you'd hope for a guy who will definitely do some work on the block for Duke, but he's a more refined post player than Dunleavy was and he's a better perimeter player for his age than Dunleavy was. He's got a great mid-range game and plays intelligently. He can do everything well. He's not super athletic, but he's actually a lot quicker than I expected him to be. I anticipate that he will put on some good weight while at Duke and become a true inside/out threat. He'll definitely be a future pro, solid role player type.

Finally, there's Taylor King. He's basically what I expected, although he's bigger than I thought. He's a great outside shooter, has a pretty good mid-range shot as well. He hustles and works hard down low. But he's not quick. I think he will play sort of the role Lee Melchionni did. He'll play defense in the post, and flash out to the corner or the wing for 3s created by guys like Henderson/Nelson/Smith who can get to the basket reasonably well. A solid recruit, with a good head on his shoulders, but not a college star.

All in all, next season will be ok I think. We won't win the national championship, but we have a good shot at the ACC title (depending on early departures elsewhere) and possibly a run to the sweet 16 or elite 8 if we get a good draw. We'll be very slight up front unless Patterson signs with us... but I'm not expecting that. Anyway, I'll write up a true preview for next season once all the draft non-sense is taken care of and we have a firmer idea of who is going where and who is leaving.