Plucking and Coach K
How Duke got Gerald Henderson.
Plucking and Coach K
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
It's an often-told story, about how the great Gerald Henderson, late of Episcopal Academy, chose Duke over Villanova. Here is coach Mike Krzyzewski's side of it. He was asked how he "plucked" Henderson out of Philadelphia, and Coach K offered just a hint of superiority in his reply.
"Because we're a national school, our school plucks good people in different parts of the country," he said. "It's what a national school does. Harvard does it in this area, Stanford. You're talking about -- Duke is one of the great schools.
"When I saw Gerald play, even before his junior year, I knew he would be -- he had a chance to be a great player. I'm not sure he knew it as much. I think he will tell you that sometimes the vision we have for it is maybe not the vision at that time he had for himself.
"I think if it wasn't for the broken bone in his wrist in mid-February of last year, you would have seen even more of that at the end of last year. But he was out for four months. He had surgery right after the season last year, didn't play for four months. I thought he started playing really well here right after Christmas. And it took, I think, that long for him to get back and accustomed to it.
"He and I have a great relationship. I know he loved Villanova. His sister is a graduate and it's a great school, too. But sometimes it's a great relationship you might have, while you still also have a great school. I guess that's how the pluck occurred, the anatomy of a pluck"
Read that again, and again, and it isn't hard to understand why Duke haters are not an exclusive group.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a Duke apologist for that matter, to understand why someone, anyone would choose Duke over Nova. As of now, Henderson is guaranteed nothing in life. He could slip on a towel today and end his career. I’m sure he knows that, so when he made the choice to go to college, I’m sure academics played a role in his decision. Nothing against Nova, but it isn’t even the best school on its street. Duke is the best school in its REGION of the country. If you had a choice which diploma to hang on your wall, is it really even a question? That is not superiority; that is the cold hard truth. Something a lot of people in this economy are starting to understand. The quality of basketball is obviously a lot closer battle. I think Big East players are better prepared for the NBA, but Duke is Duke. I'll be nice and call that a tie. Quality of the school academically speaking was probably the tie breaker.
